Does anybody have any good tips and tricks to strengthen up a recently broken ankle enough to crack climb?


I took off my boot 6 months ago and am still having a lot of trouble jamming in hand and fist size cracks. I was in the boot for 3 months after a distal tibia fracture (non-displaced so no surgery). I just wanted to see if anybody has recovered from similar injuries and would have any advice.

my ankle is fucked in a lot of ways and honestly there are two things outside of TONS of physical therapy that will help. 1- loose talus hiking. 2- crack climbing. a bad ankle injury is tough to come back from. i went up to devils tower a few years back and my partner and i both had recovering left ankle injuries. after 160 ft of the same right facing corner we couldn't walk right for two days. it probably took about two years of serious abuse climbing and hiking and a lot of ice and massage in the evening to really see improvement. these days i can hang out all day on my left foot in the crack or on an edge. of course if you are a non-dirtbag(i.e. have health insurance), then your answer is simple. go to a physical therapist.

since it healed waaaay back in 97 or 98. my tib and fib have become fused together. limiting my movement and causing arthritis in my achilles.

fused tib/fib Submitted By: kellensfatfingers on Jul 19, 2011

more of the same Submitted By: kellensfatfingers on Jul 19, 2011

What's that hole in your retinaculum (the tough tissue that holds your tib and fib together)? Crazy!

Do the PT. Deep water jogging and exercise will get rid of the swelling. Loads of proprioceptive exercise like hackey sack will help you re-program where you are in space. work into it and get your range of motion back as soon as you can and it'll make a huge difference.

I broke my ankle (tib/fib) and had it screwed together (not too bad, only two or three screws). I wasn't able to crack climb for approx. 6 months, then for another 6-12 months it was with pain and then pain then went away slowly as I kept climbing. This type of injury just takes a long time to heal and get back to functionality. Even now, 6 years after the injury, it still hurts sometimes, either walking, running, climbing, skiing... My point being, you should be able to eventually get back to crack climbing, potentially at a reasonably "high" level (5.11 for me), it just will not ever be pain-free. Let me know if you have more questions.

Do you stretching and PT and be patient. Keeping up with the icing has helped me too. I'm coming up on 2 years post talus crushing and i'm finally feeling close to normal though I doubt it will ever be the same again 100%.