How Can a Dumbbell Affect Your Foot?

One of the most common gym injuries is dropping a dumbbell. If the dumbbell gets dropped on your foot by accident, then you could possibly break one of the bones in your foot. Depending on how much weight gets dropped on your foot affects how bad the break could be.

The most minor break is one that is called a hairline fracture. Typically these fractures don’t need anything done to them. The only thing that you can really do for them is walk in a post-op surgical shoe so that your foot is offloaded. This will help decrease the motion at that particular area and allow it to heal.

You can also get a more significant fracture that as long as it is not displaced, you still won’t need to have anything done except for the offloading except for one type of fracture in your fifth metatarsal. This particular area of your fifth metatarsal has poor blood supply and so it has a high percentage of not healing unless it is fixated.

Finally, you can get a fracture that is either separated or is broken into several little pieces. In this instance a surgery may be necessary to fixate the bone and prevent it from not healing. If this is the case, your podiatrist will be able to figure it out from your x-rays. Regardless of what type of injury you have, you will not know until your podiatrist assesses it and gets radiographs to evaluate your foot.

So, if you or someone you know has injured your foot, you should seek help from your podiatrist. If you live in the Tewksbury or North Reading, Massachusetts area, Dr. Wachtel would be more than happy to see you and help treat your feet. We are also happy to announce our Methuen and North Andover offices located at 451 Andover St. Suite 300, North Andover MA 01845 and 87 Jackson St, Methuen, MA 01835.