Had a bike accident 8 days ago and suffered severely bruised ribs, and bruised shoulder among other more minor injuries. I have never missed more than a couple days due to injuries so am not sure what to expect timewise to returning to working out. Definitely cant run or swim yet but not sure about biking as I have been trying to heal. Just curious how long it typically took you to heal enough to start light workouts again without reinjuring yourself. Thanks!
In the fall when I did it I could still bike, couldn’t sleep on my side, running maybe 2 weeks, swimming took the longest, couldn’t do flip turns without pain for nearly 5 weeks. I thought it was minor at first, like I would be good to go even though they hurt to the touch, as a healthy guy in his 20s, still took over a month, huge PITA.
Thanks. I have taken off the whole week and have exact same sleeping issues as far as sleeping on my side. I was thinking of starting back biking on Tuesday, but will be biking indoors for now. My main concern swimming is my left shoulder. Did you start swimming before the 5 week period, but did it with some pain? Do you know if bruised ribs can become worse if I start back too soon, or is there no risk of further injury and it is just a matter of how much pain I can tolerate?
I had a severe bruise (maybe crack) in my rib in late February. I took two weeks off before biking again, running and swimming still hurt. I had a race in late March, so I had to get back in the pool, but if I hadn’t, I would have waited longer. Flip turns were very painful and I hurt a lot more after swimming. I guess I am about 6 weeks out from the injury now, swimming and running is fine again although there is still small amounts of pain when I breathe very deeply. Just take it easy, stay active and don’t push too hard. Increase your volume slowly and you should be fine.
It took me 4 weeks after bruising and actually cracking ribs during a hard crash on my bike. It felt like a year. Don’t push it, you’ll be ready soon. The worst part was lingering sternum pain for 9 months because I came back too soon.
Just fully recovered from bike crash 8 weeks ago. Broke 3 rids and bruised hip.
I was back on trainer in 10 days
Light jogging after 15 days
Swimming 5 weeks
Good luck…its a PIA !
Thanks everyone for the input. It seems there are many similarities in our injuries and timeframe for returning. My whole left side is bruised and battered, especially the shoulder and hip, five large abrasions, etc., unfortunately you know the story. I believe I will try biking inside Tuesday and if there is any pain I will stop. It sounds like running and especially swimming are the limiters. Was planning on going for my first Ironman in Oct. so if there is any good side to this its that it happenned so far away from the race. Once again, thanks.
I broke two ribs a few years back and the earliest thing I could do as far as workouts was easy spins on the trainer. Things that are normally taken for granted such as sleeping comfortably, coughing, sneezing etc were painful. To your point, you’ll have plenty of time to recover for your race in the fall. Good luck!
Varies from person to person. I bruised 7 or 8 in a bike crash. It was about 3 weeks before I could do anything. I still had pain for about 6 weeks post crash. was able to resume B and R with consistency about 4 weeks post crash.
All in all I’ve broken multiple bones at the same time that didn’t hurt as bad or impact me as much as bruising ribs.
Yeah, of course I tried to swim, I tried the next day. I wasn’t even able to swim at first, it was one of those things where, at first, it really didn’t do me any favors, it actually hampered my recovery. A couple weeks later I would feel fine swimming but after 20 minutes with strong flip turns I would start to feel pain as a result of the turns and would have pain for a couple days after, it was really a wait approach, a lot of other injuries I’ve had seem to heal much faster and tolerate normal levels of exercise, the rib issue, at least in terms of swimming took a frustratingly long amount of time, just have to wait it out or I think you really prolong the healing time. Physiologically speaking the main problem isn’t the bruising of the muscle, its the bruising of the bone itself, its when the costal muscles put pressure on the ribs like when breathing or flexing (flip turns) where most of the pain comes from and bones take a lot longer to heal than muscle.
Thanks for the info about the bones and muscles. I actually had it backwards concerning which caused the pain. That makes sense. It seems swimming is the biggest limiter and the one requiring more time to heal and more patience.