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Sep
7
Single Leg Toe Raise Timing?
September 7, 2009 | |
Hey, All! It’s been a minute, to say the least, since I’ve had something interesting to write about. PT is going well, I’m walking in two shoes without a limp, and believe that I am about 80% into my return to normalcy on the affected leg. My calf muscle is coming along nicely and I can walk longer each week.
My question is this: Although I’m doing single-leg balancing and dual leg raises pretty well, when can I expect to do a single leg raise? Given that I’m at 14 weeks, am I behind the curve? I tried last week in PT and it was just…not possible. Like, my leg didn’t move. It was the weirdest sensation that the brain knew what it was trying to make the body do, but the body just didn’t respond.
For those of you that are successfully doing single leg raises, when did you get there?
Hope you’re all doing well.
Tamar
Comments
9 Comments so far
Based on my own rehab, I would say 13 weeks is around the point were you should be able to do a few single leg heel lifts. Start by cheating (put your hands on a table and let them bear some of your weight) to reestablish what I call muscle memory. As your muscles “remember” what they’re supposed to do, gradually move the weight from your hands to your foot. I’m about a week behind you and it worked for me.
I am almost 13 weeks myself and I can do weighted calf raises with only the injured foot. HOWEVER, when I say “weighted” it is kind of a joke. On the leg press machine, I can only put the stack at around 40 lbs but I can crank out about 25 - 30 raises (while I could probably put over 120 lbs on the uninjured leg alone and do the same). I am getting there but slowly. One exercise that may help you but is kind of an odd sight is whenever you are just walking around your house, do it on your toes. You can really feel the strength coming back when you do this. When I first started PT a few weeks ago, I couldn’t do this without buckling on the injured foot. Now, it is less of a buckle and is just a slight give.
Hi, I was wondering where you were. I have been asking myself the same question about the single toe raise. My PT agreed with me when I said that I thought that my goal should be a single footer. It is strange how you tell it to move and it ignores you. I have found that the good foot compensates for the bad when you hold your feet close together but when you separate them to shoulder width, you can make that bad one work harder. I get my self up on two with legs apart and shift my upper body toward the bad foot to increase the weight and lower myself down on that foot. I try walking on my toes and it looks pretty funny. I have no problem walking on my heels. One other idea(but do this cautiously), walk up stairs with mostly the front of your foot. Be careful that you don’t use just your toes as you could put a lot of pressure on the tendon or you could slip. I want to hear about your progress on this.
Chuck
Tamar,
I was actually discussing this with my PT today. He said that when I’m ready to start doing heel raises he usually starts where you use both legs to get you up on your toes, then you shift the weight onto your injured side and lower the heel back down to the ground.
Worth a try!
Chuck
“One other idea, (but do this cautiously), walk up stairs with mostly the front of your foot.”
I wouldn’t do that at all. There are plenty of ways to strengthen your calf that are safer than leaving your heel unsupported like that. With nothing to catch the heel, one misjudged step could easily mean a rerupture. I pushed my rehab as much as anyone, so I’m all for being aggressive, but leaving the heel unsupported like that is unnecessarily dangerous.
Doug
Okay, so this all gives me some insight - thanks, All. I will increase the time that I spend doing single raises on the Cybex machine and work on lowering on the affected leg when I’m doing my dual raises. I started the whole walk around the house on my toes thing and if someone looked in on me, they’d think I was severely demented. I caught myself passing by the window and got a glimpse of what I’d look like as a ninety year old woman with a hunchback and bad limp.
I’ll discuss with PT tomorrow and get some more info, too.
Crikey, I had better get cracking! I’m at 10 weeks today and still feel miles off doing a single leg toe raise! (this is a competition to have the fastest recovery isn’t it?)
Dylan (dsut4392)
A lot of good responses here. I like the challenge thing Dylan. Doug is right about walking up the stairs. I should have been more specific. Don’t hang your heel over the edge of the tread but try not to walk “flat footed” ie try to walk on the balls of your feet more. You know… try to look like a normal kid.
Chuck
I am starting week 13 and I cannot do single toe raises. I can do both, but most of the weight is on the good leg. when i try it’s like my brain is talking to no one. It simply does not move. I will try the shoulder width and shifting the weigh on the way down. I can do to raises on the weight machine. At 20lbs I can do 2 sets of 50. But I cannot do 40lbs at all. I had removal of the achilles and re attachment after bone spur removal on the heel.