On one regular Sunday FUNday, I ruptured my Achilles tendon on a tumbling pass at the gym. Three weeks later, I returned to the gym to take back my life, one hobbling step at a time.
When you endure an injury that requires surgical intervention, it seems to overtake your life. Everything you do is forced through the lens of your recovery. Life as you know it grinds to a halt and your focus is about adapting your lifestyle to accommodate healing.
If you want the catch up stories to this post, this is my account of the last three weeks:
- My injury story starts here, when an unfortunate landing caused a lot of grief in my life, three weeks ago.
- I scrambled to see the orthopedist and get scheduled for surgery before the winter holidays hit. That saga is here.
- The first few days after surgery took a lot of adjusting and developing strategies to get through each day. Read about that here.
- In the first two weeks, I had a lot of time on my hands. I waxed philosophic about why I continue to manage the risk of adult gymnastics.
- An ode to my husband, my hero, whose life was made more difficult as he helped ease mine.
- Moving from the cast to the walking boot.
Now that you’re all caught up, I continue with…
My long-awaited return
I wasn’t actually planning on coming back this soon. On Saturday, Tammy texted and offered to drive me to and from the gym if I was interested in returning. Not to do any flipping, but to see everyone and do a little conditioning. I absolutely wanted to, but I definitely had some stuff to think about. There was a considerable pros and cons list to muddle through:
| PROS | CONS |
| I’d get to see my flippy friends after three weeks away. | Feeling jealous of everyone who would be flipping all around me. |
| I had the gym resources to pick and choose what exercises I could do. | Fear of doing something stupid. |
| I’d be able to work on mobility and strength for the rest of my body as my ankle heals. | |
| I could be there to coach others, which always feels good. | |
| I could show everyone that I was okay and slowly healing. |
After thinking about it, it made sense to get out of the house and go do something fun. I made it through a whole day of work already. I was now comfortably walking in the boot without crutches. My balance was good and I was taking things very slowly. I spent the last three weeks planning out every movement ahead of time. I had no interest in doing anything stupid to set me further back.
It didn’t take me long to accept Tammy’s offer to play chauffeur.
Back to Sunday FUNday
We arrived a half hour early and opened up the gym. That felt familiar and made me smile. I hobbled inside, took off my coat and sneaker, and hobbled to the gym floor. As people arrived, I was surrounded by their warm welcome and curiosity.
I actually enjoy sharing the story of the last three weeks. Injuries like this don’t happen every day (thankfully). I think adult gymnasts should understand not only the risk, but how the healing process works. And for an Achilles tendon injury, it’s a very long recovery.
For the class on the first Sunday morning in January, the class was big. Phil, one of our weekday coaches, came in to help run class. Thankfully so, because we had two new people come for the first time. He led everyone through a thorough and much-needed warm-up. I participated from the floor, doing everything I was able to without using my foot.
Managing the cons
As for my cons list, it was definitely tough to see everyone flipping around me. I’d do some conditioning exercises, then watch them work their skills. I didn’t love being sidelined, so I made the best of the situation. There was a lot of I was able to do. My main goal is to maintain strength and mobility in the rest of my body. That’s where I kept bringing my focus.
Capitalizing on the pros
My pros list was much longer than the cons. They break down into three main themes that are important to me: conditioning, community and coaching.
Conditioning
For the first hour, I worked on the floor. Here’s a list of work I was able to accomplish:
- Lower body stretching: straddles, hamstring and hips
- Lower body strengthening: Hamstrings and glutes, hip flexors and quads
- Knee pushups
- Good foot single calf raises
- Shoulder and scapular mobility with light resistance
- Headstands
- Needle kicks/split inversions standing on the good foot.
- Gentle back extension and curlups
Moving into my first headstand of 2025. 😃
Community
Adult gymnastics has a special type of community that I don’t find anywhere else. Part of what I love about the gym is the connection with other adults who have that spirit of play. (Read more about that here.) We are focused, work hard, and feel a sense of joy through the experience.
Best of all, we celebrate each other’s successes and support through the fails. We all keep coming back because of this camaraderie.
Coaching
While I love the workouts, I also love coaching. It’s an extension of the community, and I’m proud to part of the leadership at Flipper’s Gymnastics.
On Sunday, one of the new adults was feeling dizzy from the floor drills. Everything takes some getting used to, and I decided to keep her moving with some shoulder mobility exercises. The great thing is, there’s always something to work on. If one thing isn’t feeling great, you can shift to something else. We used some light weights and worked on fundamentals together.
Eventually, I climbed up (carefully) to the trampoline deck where Tammy was coaching. When she moved to bars, I stayed on to keep an eye on the first time flippers. One of my talents is helping people make small corrections that results in big improvements. Usually, it’s related to their visual focus or body placement. My favorite thing is seeing the newbies make good progress on their first class, just from practicing solid technique.
Those discoveries keep them coming back for more.
Of course, I couldn’t stay away from the trampoline completely. For funsies, I did a little back bouncing on the trampoline (no feet required). At the end of class, I hung for a bit on the low bar. The traction felt great on my back and hips.
Everything I did was mindful and careful. You can see a little recap video below.
Overall, I’m so happy I decided to go. It’s true that I won’t be jumping anytime soon. But, whenever my ankle and foot are ready to take the leap, the rest of my body will be prepared. I will make sure of that.
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