So, I tore my achilles, badly. My leg is in a cast for the next couple of months, and my doctor told me that by the end of it all my calf will have shrunk to nothing. I asked if I should periodically flex my calf, so as to counteract the loss of muscle and strength somewhat, but she told me that would strain the achilles too much. Is that really true? Is there nothing I can do?
Oh yeah, one more thing. My doctor said I shouldn’t do any more advanced training that bicep curls until my calf comes off!! She’s afraid I might fall and get more injured, but I think that’s nonsense. Anyone here have experience training while in a leg cast?
Of course flexing your calf while trying to heal an ruptured achilles will cause further problems.
Deal with the injury, and build it back up once healed.
If it were me, I’d continue upper body training. Granted you might not want to be doing even some upper body exercises, just be smart about it.
thanks man. You’re right, I should let it heal, and build my leg back later. It just bothers me to think about my leg atrophying inside this cast. Oh well.
I’ll definitely still train my upper body though. I think my doctor just warned against it to be on the safe side.
Can’t be worse than an ACL tear can it?
train the other side. train your upperbody.
[quote]jp_dubya wrote:
train the other side. train your upperbody.
[/quote]
Yup.
By training your calf on your healthy leg, I believe some muscle atrophy can be delayed in the other, as the body has a way of trying to “balance itself out.”
Now you will probably still end up with one larger calf when all is said and done, but you will be better off than without any calf training.
As for upper body, I think your doc is being a little overly cautious (no bicep curls?!?); I don’t see why you shouldn’t continue to train upper body as long as you aren’t doing stupid shit, such as one-leg-balancing-on-a-swissball shoulder presses 
[quote]IgneLudo wrote:
Can’t be worse than an ACL tear can it?[/quote]
Yes it can be…had a buddy who had this injury and didn’t let it heal right…walks with a permanent limp now
You haven’t seen any people with torn acls that walk with a permanent limp? Where you been?
Never said I haven’t
Check your PM’s.