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A Swift Recovery: How Robby stayed fit whilst nursing a broken foot
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THE INJURY
What: Lisfranc Fracture Dislocation in the right foot.
When: 2nd Dec 2005
Where: Outer reef opposite Baldwin Beach, Maui.
Doing what: Tow surfing.
Timeout: 5 months.
How?: |
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I was going backside on a wave and cut back off the close-out section. When I landed, I must have had all my weight over my toes with the footstrap pushing down on the center of my foot, effectively crushing it and flattening out the arch of my foot. It swelled up instantly and looked like a balloon with little toes sticking out, so I knew it was broken! This injury is common among windsurfers, horse riders, acrobats and parachutists! It is also one of the longest injuries to heal properly. |
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Timescale
First 3 weeks: I had to keep my foot above my heart which meant staying in bed for the whole time. |
Next 4 weeks: I was in a cast for another month and started back in the gym (see below) |
After 2 months: The cast was removed! |
After 3 months: I went out surfing as I thought this would be the easiest thing to try due to the lack of a foot strap! I limped down the beach and caught a couple of waves but it was too soon and I couldn't do anything without lots of pain. |
After 4 months: I waited another month before trying anything again and this time, surfing was much better. I started windsurfing a couple of days later and found that I could sail in and out but not much else. |
After 5 months: As of today, it has been 5 months since my injury and I am almost back to normal, although I am afraid to jump and I cannot gybe on starboard tack as it puts too much pressure on the injured front foot.
Nevertheless, I am happy that I can do this much as the doctor's prognosis was a year to 18 months to be back to full strength. |
Keeping Fit
Before the injury I used to go to the gym 4 times a week and basically sail or surf or tow surf every other minute that there were good conditions!
Training with the cast: Once I was allowed out of bed it was very difficult to train. However, I went to the gym and did one-footed cycling 4 times a week to try to get my blood circulating around my body again.
I also did whatever I could for upper body strength but any kind of movement hurt my foot, so I was very limited to begin with. By the last week before I had the cast removed however, I was doing just about every exercise that I did before I broke it!
Training without the cast: Once I had my cast off, I was able to cycle with both feet and I found that this really helped my foot to feel better. I still went to the gym 4 times a week, for an hour and a half, to do circuit training, pilates and some cardio vascular work, but I also bought a road bike and started cycling at least twice a week for 2.5 to 4.5 hours. Scott (Sanchez) has a VO2 Max measuring machine at the gym which is used to test the amount of oxygen your body can use while exercising and four months after my injury, I was fitter than I had ever been with a VO2 Max of 60.4 at a heart rate of 197. |
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Diet
I always try to eat pretty healthy food, and this is especially important when you are injured. I try to avoid wheat, dairy, gluten and sugar as much as possible. Also, alcohol does not seem to help injuries either so I have been doing my best to cut that out completely, although as everyone knows, that is easier said than done! I have not been taking any supplements, although glucosamine and msm have been recommended to me so I am going to start taking them now.
Physio
| I am very lucky to have a physiotherapist as a mother, so she has really helped me to get better. As soon as I had my cast off, I was having ultra sound from mum every day and laser treatment from Scott at the gym most days of the week! I also started swimming as soon as I could but this was very painful and had to be limited to about 10 minutes at a time to start with. I was not allowed to put any weight on my foot for three months, so as you can imagine, I lost a lot of strength. I started trying to get the strength back by going up and down on tip-toes in the pool but to begin with I could not even lift myself up when the water was all the way up to my chin! Eventually though, with all the treatment I was having, the strength started coming back pretty quickly and my doctor was very surprised when he bumped into me on the golf course one day and I was walking around with only the slightest limp! |
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Getting back on the water
I had been surfing a couple of times and it was OK, but I did not think it would be good to put my foot in a strap. One day I was teaching Danielle (my girlfriend) to windsurf down at Kanaha and she drifted downwind a bit so I decided to sail the stuff back upwind. It was pretty light but I planed back up wind on the 4.7 and Super Cross 106 board and it didn't really hurt too much. The next day I took my own stuff and cruised in and out for about half an hour and even did a couple of forwards. That night my foot really ached so I decided to give it a rest for a couple more weeks, and the next time I went sailing, I just went straight out into the waves and started jumping around, doing backloops and everything. It was great fun and the injury didn't cause me too much pain so I was very happy!
Note: Robby's thin right leg! |
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The Head Game: how did you deal with not being able to sail?
I tried not to go to the beach at all! I went down and watched on that big Jaws day, that was fun and I was very jealous, but other than that I tried to avoid the beach. I just concentrated on getting better and getting fit! I also played a lot of golf to keep the competitive spirit alive!
Pic courtesy of Jerome Houyvet. |
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Back to Hookipa
I only went down to Hookipa once when I was almost ready to sail again and it really inspired me. I saw Alex Mussolini doing about 100 goiters so I have decided that I am going to try to learn how to do them consistently as soon as I start training properly! By the time I went back out at Hookipa, my foot was pretty strong and I could actually sail about the same as before I broke my foot. I am still a little tentative when going for aerials and things but I have done a couple of goiters and 360s back in the wave so everything is working again! All I need now is for the pain in my foot to go away and I will able to train as hard as I would like to again!
MAY 2006 – Where are we now?
| I am fully mobile as far as walking around on the land is concerned. I can also sail about as well as I used to in most respects. The only thing that really hurts is gybing on starboard tack, so I am sure that waveriding in the Canaries is going to be difficult. I don't like landing big jumps as I am sure that would hurt, so I normally over rotate on to my back for the time being. |
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Will you be physically ready for the first PWA wave event at Gunicho in June?
I think I will be ready. I have one more month today and if I think back to where I was one month ago, I am in a lot less pain now than I was then. So if the recovery continues at the same rate as it has been, then I should be at least 80% healed by Guincho and I think that with the adrenaline of competition, that should be enough to see me through!
For all things Robby go to: www.robbyswift.com
Robby is sponsored by: www.neilpryde.com, www.jp-australia.com, www.oxboweb.com
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