Exercises that strengthen your leg muscles and help you maintain the range of motion in your knee and ankle might improve gait problems associated with foot drop. Stretching exercises are particularly important to prevent the stiffness in the heel.
Heel Raises
This active foot drop exercise is the opposite of toe raises. Although this may not feel like it’s helping with foot drop, it will help train the surrounding muscles. To perform heel raises, start with your feet flat on the ground. Then, point your toes and lift your heels off the ground.
Foot drop can get better on its own and with treatment, but sometimes it can be permanent. Less common causes of foot drop include: inherited conditions like Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease. muscle weakness caused by muscular dystrophy, spinal muscular atrophy or motor neurone disease.
Drop foot recovery can be expected in up to 3-4 months depending on the procedure or surgery required. Full recovery from a dropped foot is expected with most patients.
Can foot drop be corrected with exercise? – Related Questions
The most common cause of foot drop is peroneal nerve injury. The peroneal nerve is a branch of the sciatic nerve. It supplies movement and sensation to the lower leg, foot, and toes. Conditions that affect the nerves and muscles in the body can lead to foot drop.
Foot drop can cause problems walking. Because you can’t raise the front of your foot, you need to raise your leg higher than normal to take a step to avoid dragging your toes or tripping.
Most people will fully recover from foot drop. Some patients who have foot drop that is caused by a more serious condition may never recover fully from the condition.
If the underlying cause can’t be treated, foot drop may be permanent. Some nerve damage can heal but full recovery can take up to two years. In addition to treatment of the underlying problem, specific treatment may include: Braces or splints.
Sometimes foot drop is temporary, but it can be permanent. If you have foot drop, you might need to wear a brace on your ankle and foot to hold your foot in a normal position.
Foot Drop Recovery Signs
Some signs of foot drop recovery may include: Increased dorsiflexion. Improved gait (walking pattern) and balance. Enhanced coordination in the calf, foot, and ankle.
Your foot drop condition may improve on its own within 6 weeks. It may take longer for a serious injury to heal.
The most common treatment is to support the foot with light-weight leg braces and shoe inserts, called ankle-foot orthotics. Exercise therapy to strengthen the muscles and maintain joint motion also helps to improve gait.
With a rigid brace, you’ll find it easy to stand, but your movements will still be limited to walking. However, if you go with an articulated splint, you will recover nearly normal use of your legs. Our hinged AFO brace for foot drop will let you walk, run, drive any vehicle, and even practice any sport.
11 Best AFO Braces For Foot Drop
- Best For Daily Use: Step-Smart Drop AFO Brace.
- Best For Sciatica: Orthomen Ankle AFO Brace.
- Best Fit: Mars Wellness AFO Brace.
- Best Comfort: AliMed Swedish AFO Brace.
- Best Sturdy Material: Ossur AFO Leaf Spring Foot Brace.
- Best For All Kind Of Shoes: Ossur Foot-Up Drop Foot Brace.
A very common symptom of drop foot is the inability to lift the foot’s front part when walking. The foot gets dragged along the ground and can affect one or even both feet. This is commonly accompanied with numbness and foot pain.
Braces for foot drop have a frame that keeps the foot on a 90-degree (or thereabouts) angle relative to the leg. This frame extends beneath the ball of the foot, and doesn’t let the foot drop low enough to hit the ground, while also preventing the foot from slapping into the ground as you walk.
Generally, it takes about a week until you can wear your brace full-time or up to the length of a normal school day. Wear your brace up for two hours on followed by one hour off for a total wearing time of 6 hours per day. Increase wear to a total of 8 hours per day.
Results: The group of patients with drop-foot exhibited an increased force integral for all muscle groups, except for the ankle evertors. The highest increases were observed for hip adductors (112%), hip extensors (88%), knee and hip flexors (83% and 50%, respectively) and for the plantarflexor (47%).
