A fracture to the shaft of the femur is often quite painful and severely limits your functional independence. Using exercise to strengthen your muscles after a femur fracture will help you return to your functional activities, such as dressing, ambulation, stair negotiation and yard work. Your therapist may select a variety of exercises to help you build muscle on your unbroken leg and strengthen the ankle, foot, knee and hip of your fractured leg.
Contralateral Strengthening
In the first phase of your recovery while your fractured foot is non-weight-bearing, your strengthening should focus on the unaffected leg. While sitting in a chair, strap a weighted cuff around your ankle and perform marches and below the knee kicks. Have an assistant hold an exercise band wrapped around the back of your ankle and bend your knee to pull your ankle back. Complete each of these exercises for 30 repetitions, up to three times daily.
Partial Weight-Bearing
Once you have advanced to partial weight bearing you can begin to gently strengthen the muscles of your broken leg. Utilizing the same exercises your conducted on your unfractured leg during the non-weight-bearing phase, you can exercise the broken leg with weighted cuffs up to 2 pounds and a low resistance band. Additionally, place a ball between your knees and squeeze the ball 30 times to strengthen your inner thigh muscles. Work your outer thighs and hips by wrapping a low resistance band around your lower thigh with your knees pressed together and then separate your knees slowly thirty times. Complete all exercises in this phase while sitting.
Full Weight-Bearing
You can begin significant strengthening to your fractured leg once your doctor has cleared you for full weight-bearing. Often prescribed as "weight-bearing as tolerated," you will now be able to complete your previous exercises using any amount of weight or resistance, as long as it does not cause a significant increase in pain. Small increases in weight and the intensity of the resistance bands are most appropriate because large jumps can cause reinjury or pain that can hinder your overall recovery.
Functional Exercise
Once you have returned home, you can begin functional strengthening, activities such as ambulation and stair negotiation, which will build muscle strength and increase endurance. Additionally, you can do standing exercises such as a sideways leg lift for your outer thigh, standing marches for your quadriceps, mini squats for your buttocks and hamstrings and toes lifts for ankle strengthening. Be sensitive to your body's feedback and refrain from pushing through pain. Overreaching your current capabilities will only result in setbacks and increased pain.
