Now that the announcement is out and it’s official, it’s time to share with you my femoral stress fracture recovery plan.
This injury is going to determine how bad I want my goal. The recovery time period is 6-7 weeks and during those weeks it my job to make sure I am doing everything possible to come back and still reach my goal!
Boston Marathon I am still coming for you! This little femoral stress fracture isn’t going to stop me. You can quote me on that!
My recovery is going to come in several stages:
Stage 1
During these first 2 weeks while I still have pain in my leg I am doing NOTHING. This is going to be the hardest stage for me. No cross training, no weight training, just simply letting my body try to heal.
I do take small walks with my dog every day (2-3 a day) and try to incorporate some type of ab workout each day.
My ab strength is not where it needs to be, and I know that this will drastically help to improve my running.
This stage will end somewhere around the week of October 7th. If for any reason I still have pain in my femur at this point, I will continue to rest until it has subsided.
Stage 2
Weeks 3-6 of my femoral stress fracture recovery plan will be when I can first begin cross training. I am going to be focusing on:
1. Biking – I will mostly use the spin bike, and the focus of this will be to keep my heart rate and cardiovascular levels up.
2. Walking – The main goal of walking is to keep your legs used to impact. Cross training on a bike is great, but when you start running again the force and impact from running can be really hard on your legs after a month and a half. This will keeps my legs somewhat used to the impact, thought nothing can duplicate it entirely.
3. Water Running – My husband is a huge believer in water running and used it during his injury a few years ago. It seems quite boring to me, but I say if I can run on a treadmill for 2+ hours I can do some water running, right?
4. Ab Work – I will continue to focus on strengthening my core. This is a focus throughout the recovery process.
5. Light weight training – Once I feel my leg in strong enough I also want to do some light weight training to keep my leg muscles strong. Weight training goes A LONG way and I have fallen off the wagon in making sure I was including it in my weekly routine.
Stage 3
This will begin during week 6 when I should be at the end of the recovery process.
I will slowly incorporate slow, soft ground running in small increments at a time. This will allow me to test my leg and keep the impact low for the first couple weeks.
I also plan to increase my mileage slowly. I want to note that the high mileage isn’t what I believe caused the stress fracture. If I had been doing all of my high mileage weeks at a slow easy pace I would have been fine. High mileage plus high intensity speed work is the combination that I think did me in.
I need to find a balance and this time when I get back into speed workouts I need to back down my mileage some during those weeks.
My goal when I first come back is to obtain my base and strength. I will run easy miles for a while until I feel I am ready to move on to speed work again.
On top of following my femoral stress fracture recovery plan I also will include:
1. Taking calcium 3 times a day. I will break down all of the supplements I am taking during this time in a post coming up shortly, but one of my main focuses is to make sure I am getting adequate calcium.
I even brought my bag of mid-day vitamins (I take Calcium Citrate mid-day) with me to my favorite coffee shop to work this morning. There is no messing around with making sure I am getting adequate vitamin intake anymore.
2. Focused on my diet. As my husband said to me, “each thing I eat should have some benefit to my body and bones.” I will allow myself one “cheat day” where I give in more, but the other days will have a total focus on clean and nutritious eating.
There you have it. It is nothing crazy, but I do believe by listening to my body and focusing on doing these things consistently throughout my recovery I will come back a stronger and better runner!
Have you ever had to come back from an injury? How long did it take you?
What do you have planned for your Saturday?
Good plan … just take it slow. Like I say, we have to think of life like a marathon.
Couple of questions:
– Definitely allow yourself some ‘wiggle room’ in terms of cheating. I have never known someone who did an ‘absolute quit’ of foods that didn’t have issues. Change is hard, so make it work for you.
– Calcium is great – but make sure you have proper vitamin D to aid in absorption (non-absorbed Calcium is actually BAD!). Same thing with all other vitamins – one orange (NOT juice) is plenty of C, don’t need a supplement – and ‘vitamin dumping’ is actually of no benefit to your body …
Good luck, we’re pulling for you!
Yes! I do leave myself some wiggle room! Especially with all the traveling I will be doing in October!
Oh don’t worry! Calcium is only a TINY part of the vitamins I take. I will be having a post in a few days going through everything I am taking currently. Thankfully my husband is a vitamin NUT and after his stress fracture he went out and bought anything he could that had been shown to have any impact on bone health! haha
Thank you for the support 🙂
Good luck with recovery. I had a femoral neck stress fracture in April, I just did my first 12miler since injury last week and it was wondergul. Feel free to email me if I can help at all as I did a lot of cross yraining. Just fwiw, my ortho said to expect to be out for 4-6 months. If your fracture is in your femoral neck, please be extra careful. There is no forgiveness, and some people need surgery to heal from this. I don’t mean to be a debbie downer, but it is scary. Anyways, thinking of you!
Congrats on your first 12 miles back from injury! That has got to be an amazing feeling!
Based on the fulcrum test it looks like my stress fracture is right in the middle off my femur (not in the femoral neck). Hopefully if our insurance goes through soon (in the application process now and they are taking FOREVER) I may be able to schedule an appointment, but I’m not sure really how much good it will do except confirm what I already know. I hope the 6-7 weeks is an accurate healing time, if now I will extend it. I am going to be sure to listen to my body and make SURE that I am fully healed before really running again. Oh I miss it so much!
Thanks for the advice! Would love to hear about some of the cross training you did!!
It’s great that you have a plan in place, especially without access to a doctor! You have a lot of self-control without having a medical professional tell you to stop running! A couple thoughts I have (and please note I haven’t had a stress fracture and have zero qualifications to be giving advice) but maybe you could try getting some of your calcium from milk because that also has vitamin d and protein. Also, do you think that in phase one you could also work on glute strength, such as bridges or clamshells? Whenever I have any sort of hip issues I am always told to strengthen not only abs but glutes too. Just a suggestion! Hang in there and you’ll be back before you know it!
After my last speed workout I did on the treadmill, I could tell something was wrong. It hurt for me to walk there was no way I could have run. I guess I COULD have run through the pain but at that point it was pretty bad I don’t know if I would have gotten far. This is a good thing as I can be pretty stubborn and if it had only mildly hurt I would have probably kept running! HA
I definitely try to get calcium from foods first and foremost. Everything I put into my body I make sure there is a nutritious benefit (well at least MOST things haha) to my body and bones. I do drink milk and think that is a great place to get some of my calcium! I am supplementing so much right now just to help if I was deficient at all. I want to make sure I am doing anything and everything to help get my body back better than it was before!
Gluts are definitely something I want to work on as well, but unfortunately all the exercises I have seen seem to be involving my legs and I can’t do much on my legs during these first couple weeks. I have never heard of bridges or clamshells! I would love to learn more about it though if they are something I can do without putting too much pressure on my right leg.
Thanks for the advice! 🙂 Love it! And thanks for stopping by my blog!
Great plan! I think breaking it into stages will definitely help in getting you through this period mentally. I have been lucky to not have any serious issues but I have battled with plantar fasciitis in the past, as well as some niggling knee and foot problems when I started out distance running a few years ago. I now run fairly high mileage (80-90 miles per week) and one of the things that I think has helped me immensely is strength training. I started it when I was injured and unable to run as much and I really just did it to fill the void, but I have never looked back! I lift pretty serious weights 3 times a week, and I especially focus on my lower body to make sure my hamstrings, quads and glutes are strong. To an extent I am lucky in that I am not injury prone, but I do believe this strength stuff has helped me avoid injury and become a stronger and faster runner. Obviously you need some total rest time first and weights are something you need to ease yourself into, but I cannot recommend it enough for injury prevention, based on my personal experience!
Yes I think I really need to bring in more strength training! I kept telling myself I would do it but I just let it go and didn’t like I should have. This will definitely be a focus in this recovery time and once I start running! Thanks for the recommendation! 🙂
Sounds like a very well thought out plan and you already have a winner’s attitude which will carry you a long way. I am sure the first two weeks will be tough but luckily you know you are doing what your wonderful body needs to come back stronger than ever!
Thank you Jaclyn! Thanks for stopping by! Yes, I hope so! I am going to do whatever my body needs to come back stronger than I was before 🙂
I think it is SO awesome that you are not giving up, just taking a detour! I am looking forward to seeing the results on the other side of Boston!
I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE your recovery plan! I think it’s the perfect balance of rest and slowly easing into running again, which I personally think is critical – I have seen too many friends go from complete rest back into running tons of mileage without any gradual build up in between, and sadly they tend to get injured again. So, good for you! I also think it’s great that you’ve identified what you think “did you in” (not JUST high mileage, but high mileage + high intensity). I have full confidence you’ll reach your goal :).
Make sure you’re getting plenty of D3 along with the calcium, and know that your body only absorbs ~500mg calcium at a time. Also, iron (in food or supplements) taken w/ or near calcium may reduce absorption.
Re water running – you can get a great workout and maintain fitness, go for it! Here are some resources and one tip – make sure to work hard most days (tough intervals) as well as doing one or more “long run” sessions per week.
http://www.runnersworld.com/race-training/nine-week-plan-staying-shape-while-injured?page=single
http://strengthrunning.com/2011/06/pool-running-why-you’re-doing-it-wrong-and-how-to-pool-run-to-get-faster/
http://wellimtryingtorun.blogspot.com/search/label/poolrunning
http://www.eatrunread.com/2011/07/best-pool-runningaqua-jogging-workouts.html
http://www.fluidrunning.com (read the founder’s story for inspiration/motivation)
Re exercises – definitely clamshells and possibly bridges depending on how it would affect your leg. You could also look at some of Wharton’s exercises for strengthening hips/glutes which may be less weight bearing.
Wishing you the best and hoping you get to Boston safe, strong and ready!
Thank you so much for all that information! Looking forward to reading it!
Yes, I take calcium, Vitamin D, and Iron! They are all in my daily routine. I’ll actually be having a post going up about this tomorrow that will go through all my supplements! Thanks for the advice 🙂
I am going to look up the glut exercises and will definitely add them into my routine this week! Thank you!!
HI Sara,
I came upon your blog today and cannot tell you comforting it is to read about someone going through the same thing I am experiencing, currently. I recently found out I have a stress fracture in my femoral shaft. (I am on week 2 of crutches.) Like you, I had been training for a marathon and was quite disappointed when i realized the hard work I had put in would not culminate in me finishing my marathon this December.
I 100% agree that the doing nothing part of the healing process is probably the worst, especially when you are used to being an active person, running, cycling, etc. My first question when I was told the bad news was “when can I start training again?”
The clamshells, bridges (once weight bearing again), core and glut exercises, some folks have mentioned on here are the same things my Physical Therapist has me doing. I am hoping they help me come back a stronger runner than before, and helps prevent this from happening again.
I know these posts are about 2 months old, so I hope you’re well on your way to recovery and back out running again. I look forward to hearing about your progress and how your recovery plan has been successful. I love the positive approach you took to coming back from this injury and will borrow your phased approach, if you don’t mind. 🙂 I was following a phased marathon training plan, so for now, I will have to swap that out with a phased plan for recovery. 🙂
Best of luck and happy running! 🙂
Hi Amanda!
Thanks so much for stopping by my blog! 🙂
I am so so sorry to hear about your injury! Coming from someone who is HOPEFULLY at the end of this process, I am here to tell you that it will get better! I am so sorry too to hear that you missed your marathon! That has got to be hard, but just focus on getting better and I promise there will be other marathons in the future!
I am glad that you are working with a physical therapist! I would love to have had someone to work with me! That is great that you are being proactive!
Just listen to your body! You know it better than anyone else! You will come out stronger!
Good luck!!!
i am limping after 3months of femur fracture …can u help me out…?i want to walk normal …any exercises ..pls help…m 20 yrs old …
What have you been doing for your femoral stress fracture thus far? Are you still exercising on it? did you take any rest?
If you want to contact me directly I’d be happy to talk with you about it! saralovingontherun@gmail.com
My 3 top suggestions would be:
Doctor
Doctor
Doctor
If it is 3 months and you are still hurting, it is either fairly serious or you haven’t been resting … and might possibly have aggravated it. This is where a doctor who can do XRays and so on is very important. The internet is wonderful for many things, but it CAN NOT diagnose what is going on inside of your body.
I have to agree with Michael on this. It took me 3 months till I could attempt any thing and I rested for the first 2 months completely SO if it is still hurting 3 months something is not right! I would suggest going to see a doctor! If you are doing anything on your leg (exercise wise) STOP! It probably also wouldn’t hurt at this point for you to go on crutches but again a Dr would need to do prescribe that!
Today I learned that I have a stress fracture in my femur. I am pretty upset since I was training for the Boston Marathon. I was told to be non weight bearing for 2 weeks and no running for 3 months. That is going to be very tough for me. I hope after the 2 weeks that I will be able to do some form of exercise. Good luck to you…..I hope you will be able to do the Marathon.
Oh Lisa I am so sorry to hear about your stress fracture! I remember how it felt to get the news. It is so so hard. Try to stay positive and do what they say. I took ALMOST 4 weeks off completely from working out and it was hard but it helped! I am just now coming back and even though it has been a long journey you WILL come back! Stay strong and if you need anything feel free to email me at saralovingontherun at gmail dot com!
Hi Sara! I found your blog on Google and have recently been diagnosed with a femoral stress fracture. This is my second femur fracture; the first one was from a horseback riding accident, this one was from running. I am now non-weight bearing for a month and seeing a PT once a week. I am swimming a couple times a week and doing the arm bike at the gym. I’m also taking supplements of calcium, vitamin d3 and eating healthier. Giving up soda and sweets in order to become healthier. I was supposed to run the Nike Women’s Half next month but unfortunately I’ve been sidelined. I am keeping a positive attitude and looking forward to getting back to running as soon as I can!
I am so sorry to hear about your stress fracture Andrea! It is such a hard thing to deal with. I am just now really starting to work my way back up to training again but it sure was a long road. Sounds like you are doing a lot of the same things I did.
Just try to take this time as a chance to heal and get stronger. You will come back and you can rock the Nike Women’s Half next year! It sounds like you are doing a great job at keeping a great attitude!
Best of luck and sending many healing vibes your way!! 🙂 Keep me posted!
I just found out a have a femoral stress fracture. I feel so frustrated! I was going to run Chicago marathon this year…
It is comforting to read your blog and see so many people going through the same situation.
I did a 1/2 marathon 10 days ago, so my training was going well (or that’s what I thought actually).
Now I blame myself for not doing enough core training, for maybe not having the right shoes, for pushing myself too soon to do a 1/2 marathon at the beginning of May after having a pelvis stress fracture last October.
My sports doctor wants me to see a PT to get the Gait test done once I recover. He thinks I’m putting more pressure on my left leg (both stress fractures in the same side) and we have to find out the reason.
Can you send me the information of all the vitamins you were/ are taking?
Thanks Sara!
Hey Connie! First off, I am so so sorry! I know how frustrating it can be when you get that diagnosis and you sit there and think of all the things you SHOULD have done or wish you could do to change it, but in the end it is what it is. It was a good week before I could really accept what had happened.
Mine was caused from several reasons: increasing my mileage too fast, too much speed and increased mileage, improper nutrition and poor form. I over stride a lot and that caused more pressure to be put down on my femur. I have worked tirelessly to try and correct my form and it is still a work in progress!
This is the post I did on my vitamin regiment:
http://www.lovingontherun.com/2013/09/stress-fracture-recovery-supplements-vitamins-regiment/
It’s a little overkill but is what I took during recovery. The most important thing you can do is focus on your diet of course.
I hope you heel quickly and if you need ANYTHING please let me know you can email me at saralovingontherun{at}gmail{dot}com.
My 12 yr old son was diagnosed with a brewing stress fracture of his femur and has been off his feet for 3 weeks and on a better diet with focus on calcium and got D3…pain is gone as is the hitch in his step. While he is not a runner (although I think his track and field caused this), I am wondering if I can ease him back into his sport of baseball…the good thing is baseball is not a lot of running-bursts of running hard for about 5 seconds-unlike marathon training…I guess my question is since the pain and his hitch is completely gone, do you think he is on the way to recovery and I can start to play him…his follow up dr appt is in 10 days but he’s itching to play.
Pete thanks for stopping by! I honestly really don’t know because kids heal differently than adults. I would really talk to your Dr. I don’t think I would feel comfortable giving advice on this. I’d hate for him to push too much too soon!
If you feel that he is ready you could try starting out slow, but again I don’t want to steer you wrong! Hope he heals quickly!
I was diagnosed today with a femoral neck stress fracture. I had thought it was bursitis of the psoas but my orthopedist insisted I get x-rays, and sure enough, there is a slight stress fracture. I was training for the San Francisco marathon on July 27, which I’m very sad to say I will not be running. About a month ago, as I started running 16 mi long runs and about 45 mi weeks, my hip flexor became extremely tight. I could barely walk. After stretching it out for a few weeks the pain migrated deeper, and I stupidly thought I could try another 16 mile run. After that, about a month ago, I haven’t been able to do any physical activity, let alone stand or walk normally. My primary care told me to take more ibuprofen (about 1200mg per day!). I finally saw an ortho and I’m glad I did. Crutches, staying off it or at least 4 weeks. Calcium and Vitamin D. I highly recommend seeing an expert, because it’s so hard to self diagnose over the internet (and believe me, I tried that!) I can’t wait to start running again, I have to keep telling myself there are more marathons out there!
Yes I wish I could have seen a Dr at the time but without insurance it made it pretty hard. I am heeled now THANKFULLY – I am really sorry to hear about your injury! I wish you a speedy recovery and if you have any questions or just need someone to talk to feel free to email me at saralovingontherun{at}gmail{dot}com
Hi! I am a very committed high school cross country runner and I was diagnosed with a femoral stress fracture. I have been following your training plan although I cant run for three months. I am also sick right now and I haven’t been able to cross train for a week. Will this completely ruin my plan?
The plan I posted was a guideline for what I did. It doesn’t mean that it will work for every person. Some days I did more than others, it was more based off how I felt than anything else. The crosstraining is simple to keep your fitness up to some degree while keeping you sain. That is what I used it for. If you are sick, take time off. It’s better than hurting yourself or pushing too hard. Rest overall is the best thing you can do for yourself. Take it easy and you will get back there!
Hi wonderful ppl,I had my traverse femur shaft surgery done on 18th Feb.my bone broke completely in a bike accident on 17th Feb.Now I am doing exercises, non weight bearing, with my physiotherapist and my knee movements and ankle movements have improved to great extents and my thigh muscles are gaining strength back. However its again 4 more weeks when the doc says I can put partial weight in my leg, now walking with crutches with simple toe touch. I am 27 years old and an intramedullary rod inserted with screws and want to know will my bone be as strong as it was previously and how long will it take to reach this? Thanks
Can anyone please reply to my question put above Pleaséeee.
Thanks so much for documenting your recovery from a femoral stress fracture. I’ve been scouring your entries for the last few days since my MRI confirmed that I have a SF in my femoral neck. Reading about your experience and what went right – and wrong – is extremely helpful as I think about how I’m going to cope with mine in the coming weeks/months. I’m a bad patient poster child — I injured myself in early January (tripping over my bed of all things) and figured it was a muscle thing. After 5 weeks completely off (followed by 200 miles of running in 3.5 months), it was clear that something was still wrong.
For now, I’m going to rest up, try some new workouts (yay pool!), and hope to come back stronger than before! Thanks again for the great resource!
(P.S. Shelties are awesome!)
Hi! I was recently told I had a femoral neck stress fracture in my right hip.
Two months ago, I had reallyrics bad pain in my hip that caused me to limp just walking, and running normal was impossible. My coach sent me to out AT, who sent me to a doctor when the pain continued and after four weeks of PT and no running, an MRI was ordered and they just found out it was a stress fracture about two weeks ago. I was told to use crutches for four weeks and no more PT for now. I was wondering what is the best ways/exercises to do to stay in shape since I will be running xc in the fall. What are some things I should be doing to help my hip heal correctly?
Thanks
I also was diagnosed w a stress fracture of the neck of my femur in May. I have been on crutches for 9 weeks!!! Finally 3 MRI later we r finally starting to see great healing and I’m weening off crutches this week! Has def been a long haul! Feel free to email me at jpjpoller@gmail.com
I finally got off crutches and started physical therapy, which I have for 4 weeks. I go in on Tuesday to see if my stress fracture healed and if I can run xc this fall. I was on crutches for about 6 weeks. I wish you the best with your recovery! Did they allow you to do anything while in recovery stages?
I acquired a minor (if you can call any stress fracture in the femur minor) compression side femoral neck stress fracture in late March. It’s at the bottom of my femoral neck and not up near the femoral head–which is good as far as fnsf are concerned. Limping and pain while running sent me straight to the ortho. I have not run or jumped or taken any long walks since mid April.
It’s been almost three months since my stress fracture. I have cross trained the entire time with biking, water jogging, swimming, and upper body workouts (no leg exercises except ones prescribed in pt))….but again, mine was minor and a low risk of complete fracture. Some days I don’t feel it at all. Other days I do….typically the day after I up the mileage on the bike or decide to take a longer than usual walk. I never, ever feel pain while cross training–only the day after.
One thing you have to accept out the gate is that is if your fracture is in the femoral neck…..you will not be running for MONTHS. I MIGHT be able to run by September. You also cannot do anything that hurts! I still won’t go on the elliptical because I tried if before and it hurt. Hurt = stop. Stress fractures of the femoral neck aren’t anything to be taken lightly. Mine is minor and I still feel it three months later…and I am considered a “lucky” one with this injury as I am healing well and doing so without surgery.
Please feel free to contact me if anyone has any questions. Lizinde@msn.com
I was diagnosed with a non-displaced pelvic/femoral neck stress fracture the last week in August. I have been on crutches with light toe touching on the affected side for going on 6 weeks. I have another week to go before I see my orthopedic doctor again. This seems never ending!! I was told absolutely no cross training, as it is in a high-risk area. I went from running 4 half marathons and 15 races in 3 months to no activity at all. I am having a tough weekend emotionally and found this thread. I still experience pain if I try to walk around my house without the crutches, which I have stopped doing due to the ongoing pain. GRRRR … I am looking for some encouragement that this will eventually be resolved and I can get back to my active lifestyle. This is my favorite running season and I was supposed to run a marathon last weekend, which I had been so looking forward to for the past year! Thank you for taking time to read this.
Oh I am so sorry Stacia! When I was diagnosed with my stress fracture it too was fall and I even went to watch my husband run the Chicago Marathon that year! I know how hard it can be. You will get back, just take it slow and take care of your body, trust me it can make all the difference in getting you back to running again. If you ever need someone to talk to, feel free to email me at saralovinogntherun{at}gmail{dot}com!!
Sara, thank you so much for your response! I went to the doctor yesterday and he said I will have 1 more week on crutches, which will be a total of 7 weeks, then a week of walking, followed by physical therapy (water therapy, first). He said it will be a 3 month process by the time I am back to normal. I sure hope this next week goes by quickly. I can’t wait to get rid of the crutches!! 🙂 … The thought of being “normal” again seems almost surreal … I have learned many things throughout this injury, but the main one is that I will never take the ability to run for granted again!
Hi, I was recently diagnosed with a compression side femoral neck stress fracture . We’re you on crutches? For how long??
Hi there! No, I never was on crutches for my femoral stress fracture. I’ve heard though that femoral neck are more serious and for that reason they may require crutches. I’d go off whatever your doctor is saying! 🙂 Sending healing vibes your way!!
if you are healthy with no underlying conditions then an healthy diet should have all the calcium your body needs. calcium supplements can be dangerous for your kidneys… don’t take ANY supplements unless advised by your doctor
Wow, good stuff. Thanks for sharing them. I really like how you emphasize the importance of getting a good pair of shoes. I love running but I have flat feet and you can’t imagine how painful to run with them. I got some injuries but I didn’t want to give up like that. Fortunately, I finally find good shoes just for flat feet only. Once I wore them I wished I would never have to put them off.