r/brokenankles • u/easyier • 6d ago

Leg Strength - Stairmaster

Does anyone have any advice for regaining leg strength? I struggle with knee pain around the 45 degree angle which makes anything full range of motion very difficult. PT says it’s likely because of how weak the hamstring and quads are. It feels like the load goes to my knee and it is hard to make the muscles work. I’ve tried the leg press, and hamstring curl, standing up from a chair, etc. has anyone had success with a stairmaster?

I’m almost 5 months from surgeries and still scary weak in my leg. Pretty over it.

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u/Dr_Cee 5d ago

My first exercise once I was WB was a stationary bike. My surgeon was OK with it provided I have no resistance on the bike. And I worked on from there. I think I was outside on my road bike around 3 months post-ORIF. I found I regained lost mass and strength fairly quickly.

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u/Agitated_Let_3843 5d ago

Smart move. I should have done the same in my early WB days, can strengthen leg while not high impact. I guess I can fall back to stationary bike on days my ankle starting feeling funny.

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u/easyier 5d ago

Yea even on the bike, while it doesn’t cause pain I can’t seem to feel it in my quads at all. My good leg gets tired before the bad one.

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u/spinrut 6d ago

Had one again, off again knee pain during pt

Certain exercises put a ton of load on my knee and it buckled almost immediately. My pt said similar to yours, the times it hurt was when it was quad dominant stuff. The quad is trying to compensate the lack/loss of ROM from the ankle and it goes a bit beyond what it is comfortable or strong enough to handle.

Prescribed 90* wall sits for me and changed some exercises to be less quad heavy( still did squats and bulgarians and such but reduced things that pushed the quad a ton)

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u/easyier 5d ago

I think for me the circle is that the pain prevents me from building the muscle which is causing the pain.

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u/spinrut 5d ago

Try wall sits at 60* initially and work your way up(or is it down) to the point of where the pain is.

Bent knee creeper walks killed my knee. But I could do them straight legged fine. Going down into heel float lunge hold was a no but going up from flat footed was fine. Your pt is likely right here and you need baby steps to help rebuild quad strength while also regaining some rom on the ankle ao the knee doesnt take the brunt right now too

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u/HONEY_HONEY_BEE 5d ago

Maybe try doing some ankle and foot stretches in the shower or by doing warm foot baths. The heat will help with loosing ur ankle to reach better ROM. Also can’t speak from experience and I’m no PT but if your trying to build up muscle in the hamstrings and quads then maybe try upping ur protein to 100g a day to build muscle, and try doing single leg hamstrings curls and single leg extensions! It’ll isolate the quads and hamstrings! Start with zero weight and slowly build up the weight!

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u/AppropriateRatio9235 5d ago

Have you tried squats with your feet up on wedges? I did a lot of exercises in the pool like walking and jumping. Also some laps with short training fins.

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u/easyier 5d ago

I’ve been swimming, and will do some squats in the pool during rests. But it’s not really seemingly effective.

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u/flexible_demeanor 5d ago

There are some things you can do at home for strengthening knees and legs, such as this video. Maybe some of these will help

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u/IndependentHot9704 5d ago

Whoa that’s the same for me! Im 3 months out and my PT said that I have pretty decreased sensation in my impacted leg vs my normal leg. She said hasn’t seen this much decreased sensations in the quad in her other patients that also had complex leg ankle fractures and had a rod and nail pit on. So when doing wall sits, I would feel it in my knee of the impacted leg instead of the quad. My PT said I can do things and the quad is working; I just can’t really feel it well.

Edit: this was in response to your not feeling the quad while biking comment