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Hi,

I am a third year podiatry student about to graduate and as an ex-dancer I am intending to specialise in ballet injuries. I am quite active in the ballet dancing community and I was recently told about a new device, marketed from Spain, invented by an ex-dancer to increase the amount of plantarflexion in a dancer's foot. The website says they have been selling the product for ten years and this gentleman has had "great results" with his students. It is the first time I have come across it in the UK.

His logic is somewhat flawed. Keeping a foot in a plantarflexed position for whatever (he has not said how long this device is kept on) length of time will probably stretch ligaments but it will not strengthen the foot. Only working the muscles as dancers do in daily classes will do that.

I am hoping to start an MSc in Dance Science in August and was thinking I would quite like to have a closer look at this rather worrying contraption and test it out (not sure how yet ...). I was wondering whether anyone on Podiatry Arena has come across this device and if they had, what were their patient's experiences of it.

The website it http://www.footstretch.com/

Rgds

Helen

 

Hi Helen,

One way to think about this is to examine what causes the end of range of motion of a joint. In plantar flexion of the ankle it is possible that the anterior soft tissue structures could be responsible for the end of range of motion. However, one proposed mechanism of fracture for the posterior process of the talus is that with plantar flexion, the posterior process hits the tibia. Does anyone have any lateral x-rays of a foot in maximum plantar flexion? It is something to try on your own foot. Can you feel compression at the back of your ankle?

Cheers,

Eric Fuller