Early Stage Rehabilitation Exercises

These are the exercises I've been given to do so far.

All of them are carried out sitting upright in bed with my back supported and my "good" leg flexed up for support.

I have no idea what the official "names" for these exercises are, so I've just made up my own!

1. Ankle Circles

• Circling the ankles clockwise and anticlockwise, 5 times each way to warm up

2. Ankle Stretches

• Pull my foot backwards towards me until I feel the stretch in my calf muscle, hold for 5 seconds, release, then point toes forward away from me as far as possible, hold for 5, release. Repeat 5 times.

 

• An extenstion to this when the ankle needed extra work was to use a ribbon (or other non-elasticated object such as towel) to hook under the foot and use to pull my foot backwards towards me, hold for 5, release.

3. Knee presses

• Push the back of the knee down into the bed/sofa/floor. Hold for 5. Repeat 5 times. I find it useful to place a rolled up towel, pillow or even hand underneath the knee to give something to press down onto, it helps to get the exact movement that you need to work the correct muscle in the correct way.

4. Knee presses with quad squeezes

• Flex foot backwards, push back of knee down and squeeze quad muscle at top of thigh. Hold for 5. Repeat 5 times. (I'm not sure if this exercises my quads or my bum more, but either way it has to be beneficial!).

5. Supported Heel Slides

• I only move onto these after I've done the exercises above so that my leg is sufficiently warmed up. Place a plastic bag or something slippy underneath my heel. Someone holds my foot in one hand and slides the other underneath my knee for support. Slowly pull my heel back towards me, hold for 5 (if possible), then slide heel back down. Flex ankle to help release the stretched muscle. Repeat 5 times. REST!!!
• See diagram below - plus hands for support

6. Unsupported Heel Slides

• Like it says on the box ... as above, but without the support. I find that I can't achieve as much bend like this, but still do them as I feel its building my confidence and quad strength even if its not improving the ROM.

* At the moment I am just doing 1/2 sets of each exercise during each "workout", depending on how sore and/or tired I am. I am trying to do at least some of the exercises every couple of hours for now.

(Diagrams in this post are credited to the websites they are linked to)