i have just had my left foot put in fibreglass for 6 weeks as i have a stress fracture in the navicular bone, which from what i have researched about it sounds pretty bad…i was wondering if other people have experienced this and how long it took them to get over it and also what they did to keep up some sort of fitness while they had the fibreglass
The athletes I have had with navicular stress fx typically are not casted but are in a boot and often non wt. bearing using crutches. We have had some success with a bone stimulator (10 hours/day is suggested) you could have a window cut in your cast for placement of the bone stim. In addition to the bone stim, we have used increase milk intake and calcium supplements.
as far as conditioning any type of cross training can be successful. bike w/o, pool, lifting core work. Best of luck!
I have fractured the navicular bone in my left foot twice. My advice to you, once you get the cast off, is to perform various mobility/strengthening drills for both ankles.
In order accomplish this you may use flex bands, wobble boards, and anything else you can think of.
By strengthening the muscles which are responsible for the inversion/eversion/rotation/circumduction, etc., of the foot you will be less likely to sustain future injuries which come as a result of weak stabiliztion about the ankle.
bobcat and james,thanx for the feedback…just another question how long was it until you or your runners were back to competing at a decent level…is 20 weeks from now unrealistic considering i got the fibreglass on yester for 6 weeks
I rehabed myself, aside from the drills I mentioned and icing, by starting with extended walking. Once that became pain free, I began to introduce running interspersed with walking intervals. As time progressed, I began to lengthen the running intervals and shorten the walking intervals until, eventually, I could run pain free.
What is important to note, however, is that, at the time, I was in the military and had to perform a lot of middle distance running. So this is what I trained for, not sprinting.
someone with a knowledge of biomechanics…with my stress fracture in fibreglass now going on 2 weeks, i have been doing some speedball work to keep up my cardio with my left foot basically resting on its heel and all weight on right foot…would this cause any harm to the fracture of the navicular…forgot to ask my doc…thoughts???