If your insurance covers outpatient therapy, it may be worth it to schedule an appointment with a physical therapist. Ideally, it’s best to work with your own therapist to address concerns with foot drop, and continue exercising at home between therapy sessions. Pick and choose the exercises that are most comfortable for you to start with, and work your way up from there. While they don’t specialize in stroke rehab like Liliana, their video contains similar exercises, like eccentric movements and hip adduction. Try doing this a total of 10 times before moving onto the next foot drop exercise.īob & Brad are popular physical therapists on YouTube. This move is more advanced, because it does require some control of your foot. But this time, instead of dropping your foot back down quickly, try to lower your foot as slowly as you can. Start by lifting your affected foot up into a flexed position (toes towards your shin), just like in the Toe Raise exercise. With the previous Toe Raise exercise, the eccentric part of the movement is lowering your foot back down.ĭuring this exercise, we will emphasize only the eccentric part of the movement. Toe Raise “Negatives”Ī “negative” exercise involves emphasizing the eccentric part of a movement. Lift your foot up and down during this exercise a total of 10 times or more. This can be done passively with your foot completely relaxed, or active-assisted as you consciously attempt to dorsiflex with the help of your other foot. Use slow, intentional movements to help stimulate the brain. Then, use your non-affected foot to lift your foot up. Start by placing your affected foot on top of your non-affected foot. Toe raises are the most difficult movement to perform with foot drop. If you have difficulty with this movement - that’s okay! Fortunately, this is another passive exercise that you can use to help spark neuroplasticity and rewire the brain. Here are some of her best physical therapy exercises for foot drop, organized from easiest to hardest: 1. Liliana has experience helping patients with foot drop regain mobility using these exact exercises. She’s the same therapist that guides our leg exercises on YouTube. The following foot drop exercises feature physical therapist Liliana, DPT. Foot Drop Exercises for At-Home Physical Therapy Now that you know why exercises for foot drop are important, let’s start exercising. Most physical therapists send patients home with a sheet of exercises to practice on their own at home to provide the brain with the repetition it needs to recover. This rewiring process is known as neuroplasticity, and it’s key to foot drop recovery.Ĭonsistent practice of therapeutic exercises and movement retraining provides the brain with the stimulation it needs to relearn the skill of dorsiflexion. However, foot drop can also occur due to damage to the muscles or nerves in the lower leg that directly perform dorsiflexion, or the nerve roots originating from the lumbar spine (specifically L4 and L5).įoot drop exercises help strengthen the muscles in the area and rewire the brain to improve your brain’s ability to send the correct signals to move your foot. When a brain injury or stroke affects the areas of the brain that sends these signals, it can lead to foot drop. To move your muscles, the brain must send signals that tell your muscles when to contract and relax. This movement is known as dorsiflexion, and it’s important for walking properly and maintaining balance. How Does Physical Therapy Help Foot Drop?įoot drop (also called drop foot) is a condition that impairs your ability to lift the top part of your foot (and our toe area) up toward your shin. Additional rehabilitation methods for foot drop.At the end, you’ll also discover other treatments for foot drop that can help boost your results even more. Through this article, you’ll learn exercises that you can safely start doing at home. Exercise also helps stimulate and rewire the brain, which makes it an effective way to overcome foot drop after a stroke or brain injury. Fortunately, there are ways to regain strength and mobility in the foot - and one of the best methods includes foot drop exercises.Įxercises for foot drop are designed to help strengthen the lower limb muscles to improve the ability to lift the foot up again. It often results in difficulty walking, as the individual is at higher risk of falls if the foot drags or the toes get caught on the ground. Foot drop is a general term for a condition resulting in difficulty lifting the front part of the foot and toes.
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