4 Months: Starting heel raises
I know that one of the last things to come back in the recovery process can be full weight heel raises. However, I have not spent any time doing anything to speed the process until this week. I have read that in the pool or other partial weight-bearing approaches work well. I just haven’t been interested enough to start.
I was talking with a friend last week and the idea of using a weight-assisted dip machine might do the trick. This is the lower yourself from two bars kind of dip, not the chip and dip kind. I gave it a shot and it works pretty well. I can spend a few minutes everyother day on the machine (in the gym at my workplace) and I am doing a lot more than I was before.
Today was my fourth “workout” (5 minutes or less) and I did 2 sets of 20 with 60 pounds of assist each time. I think the progress will come quick enough.
I have been icing less and less just due to being tired of messing with it…even though the Cryo Cuff does make it easy! I still feel the tightness and mild pain when I walk, but this continues to fade as the weeks go by. I have not been back to PT. The value for the time and money just wasn’t there. I am satisfied with my progress, so I imagine I will just keep up the current routine until I can’t do something I want to be able to do.
I did bike another 150 miles this week…this seems to be my norm distance lately. I did made a transition to more MTB miles, with 45 this week after last week’s inaugural of 8 miles. Also, the off-road mileage included 2,200 feet of climbing. That is more climbing than I have done in any other whole week of road riding since I have been back on two wheels.
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I missed your post last week - you’re MTBing in SPD’s?
I currently have flats on both my MTBs and feel fine for the actual riding part, I’m just worried about having to plant my foot if I I need to bail, hence keeping the boot for singletrack rides.
Dylan
Your recovery is inspiring. Congrats!
It was a revelation for me though that you say “one of the last things to come back in the recovery process can be full weight heel raises”… (you mean on 2 legs or 1?)
My PT made me do those 2 DAYS after I got out of the boot!
Hmm… that might have been the problem?
How long does it take to get to a one legged heel raise. Seems like I tell the heel to lift and nothing really happens. It’s very frustrating I know it takes time thats why I’m asking when I was in PT they didn’t focus much on strength just flexiblity.
Rover -
I’ve been there, when it seems like the muscles have simply forgotten what to do and the foot just lays there. Arrrgh.
I’m at roughly 9 weeks, been out of the boot since 6 weeks post op. My PT started me on seated heel raises (basically just sitting on a bench and doing the raise with no weight) roughly a week out of the boot and has now progressed me to doing raises using a leg press or similar machine with more weight each time.
It did take a while before I could actually re-train the foot to do what I wanted it to. Sounds crazy, but I would sit and do a raise with the good foot and then try to replicate the action immediately with the bad one. I think the visual cue to my brain helped.
Thank you for the reply.
I am mountain biking with egg beater (Crank Brothers) pedals. They are easy in/out.
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I can do full weight heel raises easily with my good leg. With my recovering leg I am working towards full weight…still a ways off.
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