What to expect with foot/ankle rehab after removal of a walking boot
After spending between 1-3 months with your foot in a CAM walker (boot), you might be eager to get back to the things you love doing, whether that’s running, dancing, or playing with your kids.
But the work isn’t over yet. Now begins 2-3 months of rehabilitation to restore the motion and strength in your foot/ankle.
Physical therapy will be the first step in your rehab journey. Initially, you may begin non-weight bearing, range of motion exercises such as ankle circles, resistance band exercises in sitting, and calf stretching, but the difficulty of your rehab program will significantly increase once your doctor clears you to transition out of the boot.
Your doctor may allow partial weight-bearing or full weight-bearing outside of the boot in a lace-up ankle brace or orthotic shoe. If your x-ray looks good, your doctor and physical therapist may recommend a full weight-bearing status in a normal shoe. Since each person will be different, it's very important to follow the advice of your doctor when it comes to weight-bearing status.
Once you have full weight-bearing status, you can improve your balance with exercises like standing with your feet together and eyes closed or standing with one foot in front of the other foot to train the receptors in your ankle joint. These are two examples of the many different balance exercises that will help you restore ankle function.
In addition, you'll start to feel much stronger in your calf muscle since you'll be walking more and doing heel raises. If you don't know what exercises to do, then you should consult with a physical therapist for personalized recommendations.
Even though you'll improve your ankle range of motion and strength, you may experience more pain once you start to transition out of the boot due to the increased demand on the foot/ankle.
Don't be anxious about this pain. It's normal to feel more pain when transitioning out of the boot.
It will get better with time, exercise, good nutrition, proper supplementation, and moderation of your activity levels.
Unfortunately, many people who have injured their foot/ankle continue to experience pain, swelling, and stiffness well after the removal of a walking boot that delays their healing.
If this is you, know that you are not alone. It can be incredibly frustrating and defeating to have your mobility impaired for such a long time and almost no one wants to hear that their injury hasn’t fully healed after months of “doing all of the right things.”
The most common reasons for delayed healing are chronic pain and inflammation. Chronic pain usually develops when the nervous system1, which includes the brain, nerve endings and spinal cord, becomes hypersensitive. Inflammation occurs when the previously injured area continues to be aggravated. The foot can be challenging to rest because we place our body weight on it with every step. This can sometimes lead to overstimulation of the injured area resulting in pain and inflammation of the ankle joint, also known as arthritis2.
Acute inflammation begins right after the initial injury or after surgery. It may persist for 1-2 weeks but eventually, acute inflammation subsides. If inflammation persists for more than 3 months then it would be classified as chronic inflammation.
One very natural and effective way to combat this inflammation is to begin a strengthening program. At first, the word "strengthening" may intimidate you because you don't want to make your ankle/foot worse, but these exercises will help you reduce inflammation, increase ankle range of motion, and restore your normal walking abilities. You'll be able to improve faster and with fewer setbacks under the supervision of a physical therapist.
Another smart investment in your long-term ankle health is to start supplementing with a high potency turmeric extract like Active Atoms. Curcumin, the active ingredient in turmeric, has shown to help reduce pain associated with joint arthritis and inflammation. When taken in therapeutic doses of 1500 milligrams a day, turmeric helps provide anti-inflammatory, antioxidantm and pain-relieving benefits throughout the body, including joint arthritis in the ankle/foot3.
But supplementation alone may not be effective — diet and lifestyle factors matter, too. You may want to consider eating an anti-inflammatory diet supervised by a registered dietician or certified nutritionist prior to adding a turmeric supplement so you can optimize inflammation levels and transition safely back to doing the activities you enjoy.
With that said, Active Atoms Turmeric Extract has been a trusted brand for many chronic pain sufferers like Grace, a physician of 30 years who suffered an ankle injury that led to persistent pain and required her to wear a boot for three years. Once Grace decided to try Active Atoms turmeric alongside her physical therapy, her ankle pain and swelling reduced drastically in just a month. This gave her the confidence to complete simple tasks she couldn’t otherwise do and even go on a two-mile walk pain-free!
Our Active Atoms turmeric extract contains 750 mg of potent turmeric extract per capsule and was created by experts in injury recovery and pain prevention. Our goal is to help you overcome your chronic pain, inflammation, and suffering.
While you might be mentally ready to dive back into your old routines, it’s important to remember that healing takes time. But if you are able to implement a proper physical therapy program combined with a highly effective and potent turmeric extract, you’ll be well on your way to living pain-free again.
Learn more about our Active Atoms turmeric today and join our free broken ankle/foot Facebook support group to connect with others who understand what you’re going through.
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