Lojer Speed Pulleys: Lower limb exercises

Lower limb injuries can vary from mild to severe injuries that require surcigal operation. The injured part can be joint, bone, muscle, tendon or the patient may experience non-spesific pain over a large area of tissue. The first tip when planning post-injury rehab is - eventhough we are training the lower limb and different parts of it - that we can ease or challenge the exercise easily by "breaking" the control from the torso or through movement of the upper limbs.

Knee extension, sitting position

This exercise can be used f.ex. after a knee operation to strengthen the quadriceps muscles when squats cannot be performed or are not allowed. By starting with a really low resistance, we get to create more activity in the muscle cells. The patient can also sit facing the pulley. This way the pulley is helping with the knee extension to create more range of motion.

Lunge backwards with rotation

This is a great exercise for ACL rehab to increase the strength and movement control. As you can see in the picture, the weight of the patient need to stay on the left leg. Before doing this kind of exercise, make sure that the alignment of the leg and rest of the body is correct. Adding tempo and speed can make the exercise more difficult, and by slowing it down the exercise gets easier. Before performing this exercise, the patient should be able to make a clean basic squat.

Lunge backwards with rotation when facing the pulley

Keep an eye on the same things as in the previous exercise. Make sure the rotation goes on and around the hip. This is a great exercise with f.ex. hockey players and people that use sticks and rackets in their sports.

ZigZag jumps with a static hold from the torso

This could be an exercise f.ex 3-4 months after a knee operation when the patient has permission to jump. It's a great exercise for plyometric features. Before performing the exercise the patient should be able to do it without the static hold. Make sure that the posture stays in control throughout the whole exercise. Adding the number of repetitions per set makes the exercise more challenging. Also with more resistance from the weight stack the exercise can become really challenging.

Exercises to lateral direction

Sky is the limit when planning exercises for lateral movements. You can do various sprints, jumps and lunges sideways to train explosive features and strenght. These are great exercises e.g. for hockey players when doing additional training or rehab. You need to able to create force sideways as well, not only forwards and backwards.

Ankle inversion exercise "Compass"

This exercise is for the supporting leg (e.g. football when kicking the ball). It will challenge the whole leg, not just the ankle. Make sure that the patient is allowed to put the whole body weight on the supporting leg. Make sure that the control of the movement and the posture is good and bring the leg that is attached to pulley in all compass directions. When the patient brings the leg behind the supporting leg, different muscles will activate.

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Case Movement Fysios blog posts:

1. Lojer Speed Pulleys - How Movement Fysios is using them?
2. Lojer Speed Pulleys: Lower limb exercises
3. Lojer Speed Pulleys: Upper limb exercises
4. Lojer Speed Pulleys: Special exercise tips