Thread: Suggestions for a broken Heel

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.

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.

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.

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.

Hi Tanner.