Hi. Any tips on foot physical therapy for any of these; increase ROM, strengthen!
Question:
Hi. Any tips on foot physical therapy for any of these; increase ROM, strengthen atrophied muscles, gait train
or decrease edema?
Thank you.
Answers:
The physical therapist has all the nice tools and equipment to help strengthen your muscles. For atrophied muscles, using it normally will help get the muscle tone back. Other exercises to do would be to use a theraband to help with resistance so you can strengthen the muscles in the ankle by doing it up and down, circles, and doing the alphabet with your ankle. To decrease swelling, contrast bathing really helps. How do you do that? Take 2 bins, one with cold water (4-5 ice cubes) and one with warm water (shower warm - not boiling). Do your exercises first in cold water for 1 min, then warm 3 min, and then back to cold for 1 min. All of this will help, but if it doesn't improve - get a referral to your nearest physical therapist. Hope this helps!