Reply To: Bike crash & injury

#26106
CoachAJ
Participant
Sorry to hear about your crash and resulting injuries including broken ribs!   Broken ribs can be painful and can take extensive time to heal.  This is no fun nor what you wanted for the season ahead.
Unfortunately, this is where a group training program becomes limited and due to liability reasons, I can’t offer broad recommendations for coming back from all of the items you are dealing with.  That said, here is what I can recommend:
1.  Follow the doctor’s instructions, first and foremost.
2. Get in with a good sports minded PT (I recommend Advanced Kinetics in Falls Church/Tyson’s Corner: https://advancedkinetics.com/)
3. Together with the oversight with the doctor and PT, follow their recommendations.
Swimming might be more painful than you think due to the broken ribs.  The PT can help you determine when the right time is to EASE back in.  If you want to do some very easy spins on the stationary bike, hopefully this can help promote the healing process.  However I wouldn’t add in efforts that increase your heart rate.  As for running, again, this is going to likely be painful and the more you do while before you are healed, the more likely you will develop compensation patterns and potential further injury.  Thus I would not recommend doing too much too soon in terms of reentry.
Hope this helps! And good luck with your healing!