Can I lift weights for my upper body with a medial navicular fracture in my right foot?

Question

Dr. Blair Green, PT, DPT, OCS, PHC · Answer

Hi, this is Blair Green and the question I'm answering is can I lift weights for my upper body with a medial navicular fracture in my right foot? So the navicular bone is a bone in the foot and fractures in the feet should not impact your ability to lift weights for your upper body. What I like to recommend to patients is that when you are doing exercises with your upper body and as an aside, I strongly recommend that you continue to strengthen your upper body even with a lower extremity injury that you sit down. So sitting on a bench or even better sit on a stability ball which is going to help work your core while you're working your upper body or if you prefer to use machines you can certainly do upper body machines while you are injured in your foot as long as you are in a sitting down position. So absolutely go for it.

Dr. Kari Martin, PT, DPT, OCS · Answer

Can I lift weights for my upper body with a medial navicular fracture in my right foot? So this is basically just getting into you know how much of a workout can you do if your foot is fractured. There's really good research to indicate that not only can you do upper body workouts and even resistance-based workouts for your upper body when you have a foot fracture that you should. So when you're working out you know resistance-based or even with like a upper body ergometer or some other kind of cardio equipment you're going to obviously increase your blood flow so your fracture could potentially heal faster with increased blood flow to that area despite you not actually using your foot. But you're also going to work on the other systems that are going to get the positive benefit from that workout. So any kind of benefit that you would get from you know the blood pressure aspect, your cardio aspect, obviously you don't want to fall behind in the strength gains that you would have had in your upper body because your foot is broken. You do of course have to take into account the fact that you based on your you know physician's recommendations and the healing of the tissue in your foot you don't want to be necessarily weight-bearing on it if you have a walking boot or they don't cast very often for those. But some kind of thing on your foot you want to protect obviously the fracture site so that you're not doing more harm than good. There's no reason why lifting with your upper body and even doing you know hip exercises and things, definitely core exercises, why those would be contraindicated. Obviously talk to your physician first. Obviously get some ideas from a trainer who's well-versed in those kinds of things so you're not just hitting the gym cold. But not only can you lift upper body with a foot fracture but you should.

Cheryl Alden, PT · Answer

Can I lift weights for my upper body with a medial navicular fracture in my right foot? Absolutely. So if you have an injury to your foot, right, you might not be able to weight bear on it or it's minimal weight bearing. So you could definitely do upper body strengthening. Just make sure that when you're doing your upper body strengthening that you're not putting any undue pressure on the foot. So making sure that you're in a solid sitting position or kneeling, whichever is going to be the most comfortable for you and that you can perform all of your upper body exercises as well as core exercises if you're not weight bearing, so if you're not putting pressure on that foot. So definitely go for it. Continue to do your upper body strengthening while you're recovering from injury.

Dr. Sandra Harrell, PT, DPT, MS · Answer

If you have a foot injury, there is no reason why you should not be lifting weights for your upper body. Honestly, you can also do some form of strength program and training for your lower body as well, so long as you are able to tolerate within your pain threshold and activity tolerance.

Dr. Brian Cunningham · Answer

Can I lift weights from my upper body with a medial navicular fracture in my foot? I would imagine so, but I would clear with your physical therapist. My suggestion would be thinking of positions that allow you to be able to lift weights without stressing your weight through your foot. So on your back, on your side, on your stomach, leaning over bench, on your stomach, pulling, sitting with your foot off the ground, kneeling, tall leaning with two legs, but it may be difficult getting up and down on the ground, so just be careful, or half kneeling would be a progression where your left leg is up and your right leg is back, and so your weight bearing through your knee and not through your foot. I would also consider probably working on machines so that you don't have to use free weights and walk back and forth with the weights. So there would be some quick suggestions for you. Hopefully that helps. I'm Bobby, thanks for asking the question.

Jim Heafner · Answer

With a fracture in the lower body, like the medial navicular, you can definitely lift weights with the upper body as long as, one, the pain levels aren't too much or that stress through your body while lifting the upper body isn't causing pain down in the foot just because of the tension through the body. And then second, you want to make sure that if you're doing standing, like weight-bearing exercises, that you're cleared for that, that you're far enough along in the fracture that you're able to walk on your foot or that you can do it in a boot or something like that. But what I would be mindful is that does any of the movements increase symptoms and then do you feel okay afterwards? Generally my answer is yes, you can lift weights for sure with a lower body fracture, but just make sure that that's not putting any compromise on the fractured area. So I think you're good to go.

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Can I lift weights for my upper body with a medial navicular fracture in my right foot?

Dr. Blair Green, PT, DPT, OCS, PHC

Dr. Blair Green, PT, DPT, OCS, PHC

Dr. Kari Martin, PT, DPT, OCS

Cheryl Alden, PT

Dr. Sandra Harrell, PT, DPT, MS

Dr. Brian Cunningham

Jim Heafner