Question
Hello Lawrence,

6 months ago I broke my Fibula in my right leg following a very heavy tackle during a football match, I was in a cast for 6 and a half weeks and was told by my consultant that once the cast was removed to wait for around a month before beginning exercises such as running and then gradually build up to playing Football (soccer) again. I waited this amount of time i began light jogging for around 2 weeks and swimming etc. then i played 15 minutes of football and a very innocuous tackle with very minimal contact hurt immensely, i returned to the consultant and had it xrayed and tehre was a small crack. I have since been back and the crack has healed. To do all possible to avoid this recurrence of injury again is there anything you can recommend I do to gradually build the strength in the leg.

Thank you for you time

Carl

Answer

Hanna Somatic Educatio Hello, Carl.

My advice is to take walks before jogging or running and to do the somatic exercise called, The Athletes' Prayer for Loose Calves, at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GV4ZTpjXiQQ

Strength is not the issue; bone integrity and muscular coordination are the issues. Apparently, six weeks was not enough time for the bone to heal, and certain muscles along your fibula are probably in reflexive contraction from the injury, and prone to spasm.  That, alone, even without a crack in the bone, is enough to cause pain.

May I direct you to my write-up, Completing Recovery from an Injury:

http://somatics.com/recovery_from_injury.htm

In the book, The Magic of Somatics, there exist instructions for "a fast way to strengthen legs".

http://somatics.com/page7.htm#SOMAGIC

regard,
Lawrence Gold