These sissy stretches won't cut it
This is not medical advice.
In the early 90’s I was assigned to a nursing home for clinical rotations. We had a resident there, I’m guessing in her late 80’s to early 90’s. She was wheelchair bound, and had an equinus deformity of her foot.
This deformity is named after it’s appearance, that of a horse’s foot, basically up on toes. Her ankle was so tight, that she was unable to put her foot flat on the floor. I don’t remember how long it had been since she has last stood on flat feet.
My assignment as a student, was to manually stretch her ankle. I spent 30 minutes everyday doing this, and quickly realized this ankle would never move again. But I wasn’t allowed to question the rationale, and I’m sure they were billing Medicare for my time.
This is not uncommon. If we do not bear weight on an extremity, some of the soft tissue becomes so tight, that we are unable to stretch it back out.
This also happens after surgery or injury. Joints can become stiff and restricted after 1-2 weeks. Imagine how stiff this poor women’s ankles were after not standing for a few years.
Most require weight bearing
Our Achilles’ tendon is very thick, and strong. It has to hold our body weight and much larger forces when running. Our entire body weight is required to stretch out most soft tissue in the foot and ankle.
Our industry has a habit of giving out these wussy little rubber bands. But these rubber bands can only resist 5-20 pounds of force. Most of us weigh over 150 pounds. So we need to stand or put body weight pressure against that tissue to make a difference.
Sometimes people are unable or not allowed to bear full weight, due to healing injury or surgical restrictions. In that case we may have to limit weight bearing stretches.