Paralysis or weakness of the muscles used to lift the front of the foot causes the condition known as drop foot, or foot drop. Drop foot is a symptom of an injury or of a medical condition such as a nerve or muscular disorder. One treatment for drop foot is exercise therapy to strengthen leg muscles and improve the function of your knees and ankles.
Gait Improvement
Exercises that improve, or correct, your gait also treat the causes of drop foot. You gait is the manner in which you walk or run. People with drop foot often drag their toes along the ground and use their knees to lift their feet higher when walking to avoid scuffing, a practice known as steppage gait. Exercises that treat drop foot should focus on joint mobility and strengthening the muscles that are important for your gait, which are the knee extensors, hip extensors and the dorsiflexors and plantar flexors that move your ankle. Stretching your calf muscle also can help to improve the function of your ankle muscles.
Knee and Hip
To do knee extensions, sit in a chair with both feet flat on the floor and an ankle weight attached below the calf of one leg. Slowly extend your leg straight out with your toes pointing upward, and return to the starting position.
To do hip flexions, stand and hold on to something like a chair for balance. Place an ankle weight below the calf of one leg, slowly lift your knee to hip level, and return to starting position.
Ankle
Perform plantar flexions while sitting. Extend one foot out in front of the other with your heel on the ground and toes pointing up. Hold a resistance band with the other end under your extended foot, and press down with the foot.
Dorsi flexions require you to sit and extend your leg with your heel on the floor. Secure one end of a resistance band to permanent fixture, place the other end around your foot and pull your toes toward your body while keeping your heel on the floor.
Perform calf stretches by standing with your hands on a wall and leaning forward with one leg to the back and your knee straight. Turn your foot in a little to enhance the stretch in your calf.
Frequency
The National Center on Physical Activity and Disability recommends performing two sets of 10 to 15 repetitions of each gait improvement exercises two or three times weekly. Perform calf stretches for five minutes a day, stretching for 30 seconds on each leg. Continue the calf stretches for four to six weeks to see improvement.
References
- National Institutes of Health: NINDS Foot Drop Information Page
- MayoClinic.com: Foot Drop -- Treatments and Drugs
- National Center on Physical Activity and Disability: Exercises to Improve Gait Abnormalities
- National Center on Physical Activity and Disability: Exercises
- Foot Education: Drop Foot
- Foot Education: Calf Stretch
