I recently discovered I have a stress fracture on my left tibia and have resolved to the fact that I won’t be running this fall. I have been biking and swimming with no pain and my pain from running has completely diminished, to the point that I can’t even tell I have a stress fracture. It has been about 10 days since I have stopped running and a recent bone scan showed the fracture this past tuesday (3 days ago), when x-rays did not.
So my question is, will muscular contractions limit the healing process? I am being told by my school physician and athletic trainer that I can’t do any activity because the contractions will pull on the myofacial tissue and limit bone re-growth. I argued that the stress fracture is from compression forces of my body weight against the pavement and that muscular contractions would not provide the same force. I realize POSSIBLY flip turns or biking in the standing position MAY apply a pounding type compression, but I argue that these can be eliminated during a proper flip turn and without standing (even though the compression force is not nearly as hard as with running.
I would like to hear from other peoples’ experiences because I know I may be wrong about this, but because I can’t run I figured I can take this opportunity to start my collegiate swim season early, as opposed to starting late after cross country, like I had planned.
Quite a few years ago I had stress-fracture in my femur.
As I recall the critical part is to let it heal because it can be come a chronic injury if it doesn’t set properly.
My doctor said that swimming and biking would be fine … but I found that I could sense that there was something not right even when I rode easy, and I felt every flip turn when I got in the pool.
After a couple of days of this I went to crutches for about a week and that seemed to really jump start the healing.
So … I would be very cautious about swimming and biking until you feel absolutely no pain or “odd” feeling while doing so. Bones heal fairly quickly (6 weeks?) initially but if you keep disurbing it and it becomes chronic you could be hampered for years.
Not a doctor nor an expert, but I had a left tibial stress fracture two years ago. The first doc I saw put me on crutches for six week and forbid running/biking, though okayed swimming as long as I was careful about pushing off the wall. I later saw a second (better) sports med. doc who seemed to feel that the biking would have been okay, and said he wouldn’t have had me on crutches so long. I found that swimming was fine for it once the initial pain of the stress fracture went away, but I tried hard not to use that leg to push off with/used a pull buoy if I felt “that odd feeling.” Like you, the stress fracture stopped hurting completely after about a week of no running (which is really maddening). I’d say listen to your body and take it easier initially and you’ll get a sense of what works for you. I did lots of swimming, some water running and a lot of crutching around and have had no issues since (knock wood.)
I had this a few years ago. Swimming and biking were fine. No running for 12 weeks. If you don’t let it heal you may have more problems later. Use this time to work on swimming.
I broke my leg, greenstick, skiing, had no insurance, the doc put a plaster cast on too tight, The leg swelled up and turned purple. I cut off the cast, used crutches and swam twice a day.
That said, I basically did pull sets minus a pull buoy, no kicking. The swelling went down, the leg healed fast and no, or very little atrophy.
This may not apply to anyone else but it worked for me.
Why would you listen to untrained people on a forum, and not to 2 different trained medical people? If you don’t like their answer, make an appointment with another MEDICAL professional for a third opinion. Do what they say and you won’t have to be posting back on here in 4 weeks wondering what to do with 6 months of downtime. Good luck.
I suffered a tibia stress fracture last spring while training for Gma’s marathon and a 1/2 IM. Week one I swam and ran in the water, no push-offs on the pool. Week 2 I added biking on the trainer, very easy, week 4 I worked on the elliptical and week 5 I couldn’t stand it–I added very light trail running/walking. I wore an aircast full time for 6 weeks. It was all a pain in the ass and I hated every minute of being injured. I had some compression problems in that leg later, but nothing to force to stop running. I now run a lot more trails and try to stay off the road surface. I think that was a contributer to my stress fracture. I agree that you should listen to a good sports dr but make sure they have running experience. My doc knew that not working out wasn’t an option, so he was realistic with his recommendations to me, also saying that the BEST thing to do was complete rest.
I suffered a tibia stress fracture last spring … I had some compression problems in that leg later, but nothing to force to stop running.
I am going through some of the same issues now…could you tell me more about what was going on with your leg, what you did about it and how it healed? Thanx
several years ago, i had a stress fracture in tibia; when i finally succumbed to not running, i broke a consecutive day running streak of 1,000+ days. Kept on riding the bike as soon as pain lessened, but ended up losing nine months of running time. I was a vegan at the time and that may have contributed, but hindsight tells me the bike didn’t help either. 4 what it’s worth…
joonya, I’m so sorry to hear about your fracture. ((((((hugs))))))
I have had three stress fractures and I’ve never heard anything to the effect of ‘muscular contractions liming the healing process.’ Bones heal when osteoblasts (bone building cells) fill in the spaces in the bone, whether it’s a fracture or everyday bone remodeling. That has nothing to do with muscular contractions; it’s regulated by PTH and calcitonin and estrogen and IGF1 and stuff.
That said, putting more stress on an already-fractured spot CAN prevent its healing… like if you kept running on it, your fracture would become larger. Thus, you need to limit stress on that. Cycling might cause it too much stress and flip turns might too. You are a fast swimmer and I’m pretty sure you know how to nail those turns… be careful. The orthopedist that’s treated all of my fractures has always told me go by pain levels, ie, if it hurts, stop doing it.
FWIW I’ve never had a tibial fracture, though I’m currently babying what I think is a stress reaction in my right tibia. Swimming and cycling have been fine for me. My other fractures - both fibulas (fibuale?) but at separate times. In those instances, swim and bike were fine after a couple weeks. The third was a metatarsal, no cycling, and swimming I had to make sure I didn’t push off with that foot. Also noticed that diving off the blocks hurt.
I agree with you that swimming and cycling probably are fine… but I’m just another OCD little triathlete! How do your doctors feel about water running? (which sucks, by the way, but it’s better than nothing.)
i also have a left tibia stress fracture. mine actually showed up on the xray clear as day (about 1.5 inches long). i was told it probably happened in june when i had a bike crash…i ran on it all summer, racing too. it hurt pretty bad at times, but honestly it never seemed to hurt that bad running (contrary to what i hear from most people with stress fractures.) it took 8 weeks before i finally saw a doctor.
now i have a very good ortho at the texas medical center. he said listen to my body. i.e. if it hurts don’t do it. for 3 weeks i have been “staying” off my legs. only riding, swimming, and aquajogging (boring as hell but seems to work ok, as before i knew my leg issue was a stress fracture i took 2 weeks off running, only aquajogged and did a track workout last week and ran exactly what i did prior to taking time off.) use common sense with it, but i think doing something like swimming or aquajogging will help with the mental aspect of not running. (i’m trying to stay sane since i can’t run!!!) good luck and hopefully you’ll be all healed up soon.
I am not a medical person so take everything I say with a grain of salt. I had a SF in my femur two years ago. It went undiagnosed for 3 months (FYI: only x-rays were taken at first…my understanding is that only healed SFs show up on x-rays and that MRI or bone scan needed to confirm presence of SF) Although undiagnosed, it hurt so much I stopped running and just biked and swam on it. I did that for 3 months and while I felt no real pain it was still there. After getting a diagnosis, my doctor said nothing for 12 weeks. I didn’t bike, swim, or run and used crutches sporadically. I got a second opinion from sport specific doctor and he said biking was okay until I described how hard I cycled – then said probably not the best idea to cycle. Guessing you have the same problem as me when it comes to riding aggressively so something to think about. 12 weeks of doing nothing and MRI confirmed SF completely healed. No problems since (knock on wood)
Obviously femur and tibia are different bones so maybe complete inactivity isn’t necessary for tibia, but it sure worked for me. I spent time on an on-line group with femur SFs and those that took the complete inactivity route were back to running and cycling way faster than those that were told ok to bike and swim. I ain’t no expert, but I sure saw a correlation.
Good luck with the SF – I hope that it heals quickly. Getting injured sucks!