Sadly, many patients I see in physical therapy for shoulder, wrist, hip, and ankle fractures are people who have taken bad falls. During the course of physical therapy, we frequently discover an underlying problem such as ankle and lower leg weakness. This weakness contributes to poor balance that in all likelihood contributed to the original fall in the first place.

In my last posting, I discussed how lower leg flexibility is an important component of good balance. Today I want to emphasize how important ankle strength is for maintaining good balance as well.

Can you stand on one foot and “pump” your ankle up and down several times without holding on, as in the illustration to the right? If not, you have weakness in your lower leg and your balance is not as good as it should be.

If you have lower leg weakness, you can practice improving your lower leg strength by doing the exercise with both legs, as shown in the illustration below.

If you need to hold on to something for practice, that is fine. Soon you will be able to do it without holding on, and then you could try doing it with one leg. When you first try these exercises, stand near a support structure or you may fall. And remember, no exercise should cause pain.

Do this calf stretching exercise before and after, and to determine how many times you should do this exercise, use this exertion index for guidance.