Suggestions for a broken Heel

[LimesC1]

Totally gimped myself out playing hockey and broke my heel (yikes!). Stayed off it for 5+ weeks and now am putting weight on the foot. Have gotten to walking around and getting on pretty well, but I still have some lingering pains on the ankle area which I suspect are strained tendons. When I flex forward I get some tenderness and pain. Any suggestions for stretches and exercises to get this thing back into form? The season is rapidly closing and I have a trip planned to Utah in a month.

Any help would be appreciated.

[jibij]

Nothing I did strengthened my ankle more than swimming. I also had some success riding a bike or, if you can bear the weight, the elliptical works well.
Swimming was/is still the best, though.

edit: thought of another exercise that helped:
Stand on a stair with the balls of your feet. Let your heels drop below the stair and then raise up just over the stair. 3 sets of 15 a few times a day.

[Vinman]

make sure you stretch your calf and achillies. It is important that you get your range of motion back.

To stretch the calf, stand infront of a wall and place the ankle to be stretched a foot or so behind the other. Lean into the wall and keep the knee strait.

To stretch the achillies: do the same stretch with the knee bent.

jibij has the idea with the calf raises. but you might want to start from the floor instead of on the stairs.

[former?climber]

check out this site:

http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/footinjuries/

there are lots of us with broken heels here. we give good sympathy and advice. there's lots of other resources for broken heels (fractured calcaneus) too.

[bad_roo]

Hi Tanner.