Why you should, or shouldn't use an AFO (Ankle Foot-Orthotic) brace

About thirteen years ago I got an AFO (Ankle-Foot Orthotic) brace to help get me up on my feet again. And since I had been neglecting doing anything up to that point for over eight years after my accident, it was just amazing. The muscles of my ankles and feet had absolutely, positively, gone on vacation and just standing was extremely difficult. I remember being a bit self-conscious about wearing the brace, but it really wasn't anything that people really noticed. By the way, I still have it, and it's the really cool kind made out of the same material that you see athletes use if they've lost a foot - strong and springy. Here's what it looks like from the back:


So if you're like I was, sitting on the couch waiting for some kind of miracle to happen and allowing your muscles, tendons and ligaments to get so weak that they really can't even hold you up, go get one - your doctor has probably been recommending it to you for years. Do it. It not only got me up on my feet it helped me to relearn the motion of walking.

I also wore high top sneakers all of the time, laced very tightly to provide ankle support. And depending on your situation that's all you need. You'll feel a bit like Barbie on a stand, but like I say, it really doesn't show, you just look like someone standing, and walking.

But for me there's a second chapter to this story, and it's where I've been for thirteen years, slowly easing myself away from any type of artificial support. I can only recommend doing this if you're a bit masochistic, which I am. Getting all of these muscles to work again is horrifically painful, and it takes forever. It seems as soon as you get one area strengthened you need to learn about another area. Feet and ankles and complex things!

But I was lucky, no permanent damage was done to the structure of my feet and ankles, all that happened is muscular weakness. And while I don't know anything about skeletons (and really don't want to know), I know muscles, there are about a bazillion muscles in your feet and ankles.

"

It was just this year that I graduated to being able to walk around the house barefoot. Now I'm learning about big toes! I started calling all of this "Feets of Strength", and it's just the same as building up your biceps - train, stretch, recover, train, keep doing it.

So there ya go, hang in there! I'll let you know how goes for me.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Avoiding heartburn, and digestive problems during weight loss

Image
I just woke up a little while ago, have fed the dogs, and as usual early in the morning I don't have much of an appetite, but I did have a breakfast biscuit and am drinking plenty of water, including 16 ounces of decaf coffee. My goal nowadays is weight loss, but my goal always is to not make myself feel miserable. A couple of years ago I started feeling some heartburn (I'm not as young as I used to be!) and a good friend of mine recommended some over-the-counter meds that have been helping me to sleep (which was when my heartburn was at its worst, lying down). During the day I haven't been troubled much, until this past month when I started dieting. To my suprise, simply "putting a little bit on my stomach" does the trick for me. I don't have the appetite first thing in the morning to wolf down stacks of pancakes, but luckily it's not necessary. I have some breakfast biscuits in my kitchen, and I also carry some on my trike. They're called "Belvi...
Read more

Training to build muscle and avoiding injury

Image
Training to build muscle is a very delicate balance. You have to train hard and heavy enough to encourage new growth, but not so hard and heavy that you injure yourself, even a little bit. The strain that happened on my right shoulder last April was very minor, but it was enough to hold back my training for at least two months. Injuries happen, that's just the way it is, so you can't always avoid injury, but you can do things that give you better odds of staying healthy. And it's like everything else, it's not enough to just know those things, you gotta do them. Here's the video version if you prefer: One of the most frustrating things to do when you've been looking forward to a workout is warming up with light weights, but it's just the way that your body works. I'm old enough to know better, but there have been times when I've been impatient, and went too heavy too soon in the workout. Bad mistake! I just set out some weights for tomorrow's wor...
Read more

Losing weight with the whoosh

Image
If you've ever wondered if "the whoosh" is true when it comes to weight loss, I'm here to tell ya, it is. It may, or may not happen to you, but it's about to happen to me, and I'll see if I can explain my experience with it. I'm already a fairly lean man, probably in the low twenties BMI, which is perfectly healthy, but every once in a while I want to see my abs again, and I cut back on the calories. And it's very noticeable, as I start to "show" at bit, I suppose looking like the first trimester? It's only four or five pounds, and then I wake up one morning and it's gone. So if you're like me, I can tell you how long it takes, which is about two months of steady and consistent dieting. I've done this, or have tried to do it, many times in a long life, and I've discovered that the time it takes is exactly right after you've given up - you would have seen the whoosh the next day. Yes, I've given up on the whoosh mor...
Read more