Broke my arm

MacMatrix

Member
Ok. Went snowboarding and broke my arm. Distal radial fracture, no displacement. Will be in a cast for 6 weeks. Was already on my "off cycle time". By the time I get the cast off it will have been over 18 weeks off and thats after my pct by the way. If anyone has experience in this area im just wondering how long until I should cycle again? I plan on starting to lift lightly right away ( as much as the pain will allow). Will cycling help the recovery if I started say 6 weeks post cast?? This sucks. I was getting huge gains and kept them great post cycle. No telling where I will be when I come back. Thanks for any advice.
 
10 weeks for full healing time and muscle memory will help. I wouldn't expect any longer then 14 weeks till full recovery and lifting again
This is what I'd suggest to OP. Breaking a bone is a nasty enough injury and you need enough time for the arm bones to knit and strengthen before getting back to lifting normally. Once ready to go figure another 6-8 weeks to regain your muscle strength in the affected arm so most likely you will have to do rehab exercises.
 
Sorry to hear about that man. I too had your exact injury. A distal radial fracture to my left wrist. They had to set my wrist because it was pretty messed up. Got hit by a car doing my cardio. Took 8 weeks for the cast to come off and by week 10, I was training lightly. My advice would be to stay active during your healing. As mentioned, train your legs, do cardio on the bike, and stay active in the gym! I wish I would have stayed on some sort of regiment looking back. It'll make it that much easier to come back. @RodgerThat nailed it. Muscle memory will help you bounce back. Wrist strengthening and very light at first and you'll be back in no time. What doesn't kill you only makes you stronger. Speedy recovery to you.
 
Ok guys, Ive had the cast off almost 2 months and have been lifting for 1 month. It has been 4 months since the break. How long until I could pull the trigger on a cycle? Would a cycle help me get back to where I was even quicker?
 
Ok guys, Ive had the cast off almost 2 months and have been lifting for 1 month. It has been 4 months since the break. How long until I could pull the trigger on a cycle? Would a cycle help me get back to where I was even quicker?

Personally I would only cycle when you have exhausted all options and you are still plateaued
 
Ok guys, Ive had the cast off almost 2 months and have been lifting for 1 month. It has been 4 months since the break. How long until I could pull the trigger on a cycle? Would a cycle help me get back to where I was even quicker?
Are you able to lift without any pain? If you ramped up your lifting slowly that will also be a help in getting back to where you were before. A fracture does set you back but it shouldn't have to end it all.
 
Ok guys, Ive had the cast off almost 2 months and have been lifting for 1 month. It has been 4 months since the break. How long until I could pull the trigger on a cycle? Would a cycle help me get back to where I was even quicker?

You're 16 weeks post fracture. If X-ray indicates union has occurred and your surgeon gives you the all clear then you could start any time really, however, the remodeling phase takes a lot longer. That is the last stage and the bone hasn't achieved full strength or better until it has remodeled.

Union is achieved when there is visible callus on the x-ray but the bone hasn't achieved full strength at this point. It will still require a lot of force to re-fracture and you can still lift, but the bone has to remodel into it's original shape in order to attain full strength or better following a FX. This process can take several months and longer.

That being said, I am 8 weeks post fx for a humeral mid-shaft fracture and I've been back in things without issue for a couple weeks now. The difference is I have a fixation holding the bone in place, a really long one too.

Just take it easy and don't do anything stupid, it takes a surprising amount of force to re fracture a bone even when it's callus and hasn't remodeled yet. 16 weeks seems like ample time to return to sport following a fx.

How did your last x-ray look?
 
Just curious if anyone has had a similar experience, how much time are we talking??
I broke my arm about 8yr's back Snowboarding on a hip to a Box set up wanted to go pro and live the dream.Snapped the Radius and needed immediate surgery required a plate and 5 screw's.It was about 3-4months before I got the cast off and a good 6month's to a year of having a tiny lil shrunken arm with limited range of motion.

I sincerely feel your pain go to physical therapy if possible.I was 23-24yr and didn't go.I think it took me longer to get my range of motion back because I did my own physical therapy.Good luck to ya!
 
You're 16 weeks post fracture. If X-ray indicates union has occurred and your surgeon gives you the all clear then you could start any time really, however, the remodeling phase takes a lot longer. That is the last stage and the bone hasn't achieved full strength or better until it has remodeled.

Union is achieved when there is visible callus on the x-ray but the bone hasn't achieved full strength at this point. It will still require a lot of force to re-fracture and you can still lift, but the bone has to remodel into it's original shape in order to attain full strength or better following a FX. This process can take several months and longer.

That being said, I am 8 weeks post fx for a humeral mid-shaft fracture and I've been back in things without issue for a couple weeks now. The difference is I have a fixation holding the bone in place, a really long one too.

Just take it easy and don't do anything stupid, it takes a surprising amount of force to re fracture a bone even when it's callus and hasn't remodeled yet. 16 weeks seems like ample time to return to sport following a fx.

How did your last x-ray look?

My last x ray was 2 months ago when they removed the cast and he said It was callused up well but he made me wait a month to start lifting freely. I had zero displacement on the fracture so I was lucky in that aspect.
 
I broke my arm about 8yr's back Snowboarding on a hip to a Box set up wanted to go pro and live the dream.Snapped the Radius and needed immediate surgery required a plate and 5 screw's.It was about 3-4months before I got the cast off and a good 6month's to a year of having a tiny lil shrunken arm with limited range of motion.

I sincerely feel your pain go to physical therapy if possible.I was 23-24yr and didn't go.I think it took me longer to get my range of motion back because I did my own physical therapy.Good luck to ya!

Luckily I had zero displacement so I didnt have to have screws or anything. The range of motion has been hard to get back but Im working really hard to get it back. I can do 90% of lifts with no problems. Really the only lifts I cant do or struggle with is barbell bench ( so I use Dumb bells ), chin ups, and barbell curl ( so I use easy bar or dumb bell ). I was wondering if hitting a cycle ( which I was about to do right before I broke my arm) would aid in my recovery. And If I was ready to hit it or should wait longer.
 
Luckily I had zero displacement so I didnt have to have screws or anything. The range of motion has been hard to get back but Im working really hard to get it back. I can do 90% of lifts with no problems. Really the only lifts I cant do or struggle with is barbell bench ( so I use Dumb bells ), chin ups, and barbell curl ( so I use easy bar or dumb bell ). I was wondering if hitting a cycle ( which I was about to do right before I broke my arm) would aid in my recovery. And If I was ready to hit it or should wait longer.

It won't aid in your recovery, the only thing that will help right now is time and mobility work. Don't cycle until you can comfortably do all exercises with now pain again
 
Luckily I had zero displacement so I didnt have to have screws or anything. The range of motion has been hard to get back but Im working really hard to get it back. I can do 90% of lifts with no problems. Really the only lifts I cant do or struggle with is barbell bench ( so I use Dumb bells ), chin ups, and barbell curl ( so I use easy bar or dumb bell ). I was wondering if hitting a cycle ( which I was about to do right before I broke my arm) would aid in my recovery. And If I was ready to hit it or should wait longer.

If ROM is preventing you from doing certain lifts I would wait until you can do them again comfortably before cycling. The reason I suggest restoring full ROM or close is because adding size on rapidly without addressing your ROM right now or allowing it to return to normal might make the process more difficult later on or delay it some.

I don't know how accurate this is, but I think I heard somewhere, for every 1 day you were immobilized, it will take 3 days to restore prior function / rom.

The pain you feel is likely your reduced ROM from being immobilized and broken rather than the fracture site telling you to fuck off. It will open up more and more, and you can even lift concurrently to, just be patient and address it properly.

There is no chemical solution to the recovery problem - you have union at this point anyway. Re-modelling takes time. Fracture site is probably very stable right now, the problem right now is range of motion and mobility. Be patient, it will open up more and more.
 
Like others said. Don't cycle until you fully recover. Only thing that could help is hgh but I wouldn't use it for that. I'd cycle again after I built my natural strength back up. That's what I've always done
 
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