Foot Schmoot. Work it out!

I had minor foot surgery Monday. Bad timing all around, since I'm just getting back from a 3-week hiatus and September is an important month in my line of work. However, in my book there never is a good time for foot surgery. Just get it done.

So, I had it done and I'm in a lot of pain. Each step I take literally sends shocks up my leg (my nerves were involved).

Most people would say that this is a good time to take it easy, give myself a break and fully recover before going back to the gym. However, since it's me we're talking about, you can bet your socks that I found a way to hit the gym. There are still countless ways I can challenge myself without involving my foot:

A couple cardio options

• The arm bike
• The recumbent bike
  

Strength options can include

• Seated cable rows
• Supine chest press
• Seated shoulder press
• Lat pulldown

(Basically any upper body strength exercise that can be performed seated or lying down)

Examples of core exercises might be

• Crunches with knees & feet elevated
• Reverse crunches
• Criss-cross crunches

Legs? Legs!! Check it out!

• Hip Abduction/Adduction
• Knee extension
• Hamstring curls

See?!

My foot!

Whenever my clients get injured, whether it's because they slept wrong, twisted their ankle wearing hooker heels or hurt their knee playing a rough game of tennis, I typically give the same advice:

REST, ICE, COMPRESS & ELEVATE

Yet, when I get injured, I have the hardest time following my advice. Last Sunday, I ran a half-marathon and have been limping around ever since. It feels like a stress fracture on the side of my foot. Instead of following the R.I.C.E. method above, I limp along, I overtrain and ignore my injury hoping it'll go away.

I'm off to ice my foot.