Earl Fee advice on injury rehab: Avoid disco dancing with foxy lady

Earl (nearest) posted shot of his 300 hurdles race at 1995 Buffalo worlds.

Superlegend Earl Fee posted a note to Facebook recently that tells you all you need to know about injury rehab — and Earl’s sense of humor. “Recently I … had a calf injury ongoing for 10 weeks in spite of 20 extensive 45 minute physiotherapy sessions involving cross friction massage, ultra sound and laser treatment,” he began. “Here I discuss the mistakes and reasons for my tortoise-like slow progress.” Later he says: “After about 7 weeks, I made a mistake of disco dancing and quickly learned in a few minutes this caused a setback — a beer and an attractive lady can muddle the mind.” Well, I’d drop the beer but not the lady.

Here’s the advice:

1─ Most of my physio sessions were on Tuesday and Thursday with cross training even on physio days involving swimming, running in the deep end of the pool, elliptical machine, and indoor cycling. And since the physiotherapists said that exercise 2 or more hours after treatment was permissible I followed this practice as for previous years And as in the past I believed some exercise was beneficial to get circulation to the injury as long as there was no more than discomfort (a recommendation from the Dr. late George Sheehan) ─ i.e., no pain allowed.

As there was no discomfort I believed the fast intervals running in the pool and the fast cycling on the physio days were doing no harm. For example, running in the deep end of the pool wearing flotation belt 5 x 12m in 3 minutes or less, repeat 1 to 3 times and cycling at 100 rpm on other days. But in retrospect my injury was not getting a rest after treatment and in between physio days.. Also physio treatment days further apart such as on Monday and Friday would have been a better choice.

2─ I applied ice one or twice day only. Heat for 10 minutes and then cold for 10 minutes, repeated several times a day would have been superior.

3─ After about 7 weeks I made a mistake of disco dancing and quickly learned in a few minutes this caused a setback─ a beer and an attractive lady can muddle the mind. Another problem was trying some new calf stretches and standing on a vibrating machine that the internet recommended for injuries. My injured leg told me this was not the case. When injured is not a time to experiment.

4─ I also realized too late that nearly all my stockings constrict at the ankles ─ this constricted circulation and reduced healing. This may not be a problem for most, but in this case I have a circulation problem in my left leg where my calf injury occurred.

However, recently after stopping physio although not healed, applying heat and ice several times a day, gentle stretching and exercising, and continuing with the daily roller massage ─ with these changes I was able to run slow after a week , something I was unable to do previously. 


Hopefully you can learn from my mistakes as I have done.

I learned basically that rest is best. Also you are never too old to learn. And usually one or two weeks off after a new injury will prevent a more serious injury from developing.

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February 6, 2017

2 Responses

  1. SusieQ - February 8, 2017

    Thanks, Earl! Great advice.

  2. Don Cheek - February 8, 2017

    Hi Earl.Glad to hear about your rehab adventure. Good to hear you’re running again in addition to a foxy lady fan.Happy birthday on 3/22–mine is 3/24.No dancing though for celebration—ask foxy what she would like to do instead. Trust 2017 brings us together again.

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