Do I need to do isometric muscle contraction exercises when the fracture is not healed? How do I do this exercise, which is commonly known as “using dead weight” or “clenching my fist to make a secret effort”? (Editor’s note: Muscle isometric contraction is commonly known as muscle “tensing”, which means that the length of the muscle does not change when it is contracted in a similar way, and there is no movement of the joint, but there is an increase or decrease in the internal strength of the muscle.) Dr. Chen Hua: The isometric contraction of the muscle is very important, and one of its main functions is to promote the venous return of the muscle tissue around the fracture. Because the muscle will be painful after the fracture, although there will be some movement of the limb at this stage, the actual movement of the muscle will be relatively reduced, and the venous return will be slowed down at this time. The slowing down of blood flow in the local muscle veins makes it easy for platelets to gather and form a thrombus. As we all know, once the thrombus is formed, it is very scary, where the thrombus falls from the blood vessel wall (falls down, drifts with the blood vessel wall, and may be tethered there when it reaches the narrow place), where it is embolized, most commonly causing heart attack, brain infarction and pulmonary embolism. In addition, fracture patients are bedridden after surgery, which equates to the loss of gravitational stimulation of the limb bones, which makes them very susceptible to calcium loss. And isometric contraction exercises can be done even after the fracture has not been given a fixation. Why? Because when doing isometric contraction exercise, the joints are not moving, and the muscles are contracted statically, we have a saying that “shitting and clenching the fist is secretly hard”, this is the feeling. This time can be good to promote venous reflux, prevent the formation of venous thrombosis, while giving the bones and joints a certain force stimulation, can prevent calcium loss. Therefore, it is very important to do muscle isometric contraction exercise. In addition to muscle isometric contraction exercises, many people would think that if it doesn’t hurt, it’s ineffective, does it have to hurt when exercising? Dr. Chen Hua: That is not true. All post-operative fractures are painful when moving the joints, but we require that this pain must be within the tolerable range, and the 21st century is still about humanistic care. Pain is a very big stimulus to the body, and it is not good to continue to increase the pain through exercise. So, what to do? We have a saying, must be within the range of pain tolerable exercise. For example, weight-bearing exercises for the lower extremities should be performed at WBAT (Weight Bearing Tolerance – the weight the patient can tolerate through the lower extremities). It is also helpful to use some NSAIDs if it is particularly painful. Are there any side effects associated with the use of such anti-inflammatory drugs? Dr. Chen Hua: Any drug itself will have its side effects, and there should be no problem with proper use.