Another Marker In A Long Haul
 

As many of you know I had some serious spine trauma some time back and have been trying to rehabilitate from the follow on major surgery almost 18 months ago. I've gotten to the point I can ride a bike fairly well, if not very fast. Getting on and off is pretty dramatic, especially when the legs are tired. But, as long as I use flat pedals and accept that I'm substantially slower I am alright, except. My feet and ankles are still very weak.

I'm going to revisit a physical trainer. But, often they just don't know what is maximally effective for an elder. So, here I am asking the question: What are good exercises to build strength in feet and ankles?

My feet get regular workouts being extracted from my mouth. Other than that, maybe walking in the hills would help as it's low impact but does give a bit of a workout.

Find a beach and walk in the sand. Fixes your mind too.

+1 to walking in sand. My physical therapist (not over a foot or ankle problem) mentioned that sand-walking, if available, was great for everything below the knee.

For sand walking I guess I need to get back to Oahu, eh? Any people interested in "Crowd Sourcing"? (The current term I think for pan handling.)

I did make it to the Trainer at our gym today. She is sending me some traditional exercises which I will do.

But, I have discovered that as a person's body ages different exercises are more effective than others that were effective at younger ages. Hence, my question here.

More?

I had 2 surgeries on my right foot and ended up with 4 screws in it holding everything together. Long recover mean loss of a lot of muscle in the foot and ankle. Walking in the sand did really help, as well as some simple and more complex balancing exercises. Simple exercises were simply trying to stand on one leg as long as possible, and then as the muscle built up, doing some dips. More complex balancing was done on a bosu ball, and that in particular really helped strengthen the ankles.

I am nursing an ankle injury and realized after playing golf, that walking on uneven ground was really an ankle tester. If there is a course nearby, walk it! Bring a club to assist and no one will give you a second look.

I purposely find uneven ground on which to walk, avoiding sidewalks like the plague. I also try and find rocks to climb over for both balance and foot strength - in my case, in particular, the Achilles Tendon. It has REALLY helped the balance and also the foot strength.

OK, with your suggestions I now have a good protocol in mind. Will start it today. I'm pretty sure there will be some deficit from nerve damage. But, I'm going to press as far as I can.

Thanks