Foot Drop Recovery

@Annie1 Here’s a few drop foot exercises I do which I’ve really found helped with mine. I’m posting it here as another marker of my progression with foot drop. And I’ve just realised I started the post a year ago, Jan 2024 :laughing:


Another variant to the above is to squat a little on that leg as you push your knee towards the wall - keeping the muscles flexed as you do it. This give a nice little stretch on the lower calf and into the Achilles (back ankle/heel).

An alternative to using the wall would be to go down on one knee with your good leg, just only about half way while keeping the stroke heel firmly on the ground as you push the knee forward.

The important thing in all these variations is to keep that heel firmly on the ground at all times. The minute you feel the heel wanting to lift, pull back a little.

And in all of them, you hold the position for as long as you can then release for few moments then go again. And do at least 5 repetitions each time, twice a day or more according to current ability.

When I first started to doing these some time ago; after a few weeks I felt an almighty click in my foot. Which in turn seemed to release/free up something in my foot that meant my big toe stopped wanting to stick up and the smaller toes don’t want to curl under.
I was doing these exercises along with wearing toe socks and the sloped insoles in my all my shoes (only for the stroke foot) and these are mentioned in the above post.

Hope this might help you too Annie :smile: Bear in mind, I am now 4yrs post stroke and progression has taken that long in steady increments. The latest being some months ago when I tested my running ability, which works, I can run. :sweat_smile:
But, I still have a tendency to foot drop when fatigued, on a daily basis, but a rest soon puts that right.

Lorraine

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