How to Get a Lift Using Theracords

Introduction

I was diagnosed with Transverse Myelitis in the summer of 2001. I have been pursuing various physical therapy regimens in an attempt to retrain my nervous system.

The idea of using Theracord in the manner described below came from experience that my therapist, Chris, gained when he worked at the Kessler Institute.

I was interested in trying to walk on the treadmill without braces. I was hoping to strengthen various muscles in the ankle, and since the left MAFO has a plantarflexor stop, I wanted to practice pushing off and flexing the ankle. However, tone and weakness would limit my gait.

When I asked Chris about this, and I suggested tying a Theraband from my calf to my foot, giving me the needed lift, he recalled the technique presented here. The method of tying the Theracords presented here gives me a feeling much closer to a natural gait pattern than almost anything I have felt.

We started using the medium weight cord - green. I recently tried a blue cord, but the pressure of the cord about the hips bordered on painful.

Cords

The cord is a standard Theracord green cord.

I have a 30" inseam, 38" waist; the bands are 60". I tie them so there is a few inches left at the ends. Enough to make it easy to tie, but not an excessive amount left over.

The cords have lasted surprisingly long - at least 3 months. I use them 3 times a week for 20 minutes each session on a treadmill. I walk around with them occasionally in the clinic. As used here, they are not suitable for walking on pavement or other abrasive surfaces. Linoleum is tricky because the cord can really stick.

The cords do not ever move around on the bottom of my sneaker. I don't have unusual sneakers. Actually, the tread is fairly worn.

At some point, we would like to develop a more adjustable system with an attachment to the shoe allowing for more general wear. However, long term wear is not going to be very comfortable. Twenty minutes on a treadmill plus approximately 20 minutes of other exercises is fine. But, I can not see wearing them all day.

I feel the training I get from the cords is somewhat like having a therapist move your leg when doing suspended treadmill training (I have had this done before). I believe that if the suspension is available, but there are not enough therapists available to move the legs and hips, the Theracords might provide enough leg assist allowing the therapist to concentrate on either the hips or perhaps just one leg in particular.

How to Tie the Theracords

Caution

When starting, make the loop around the foot near the middle the arch. If you make it too near the ball of the foot, the cord can slip off and hit you in the face. After everything is tied, move the cord towards the ball of the foot.

The easiest way to see how is to watch the movie. The movie is fairly large at 25MB. If you have a dialup connection, or if your computer has problems playing back the movie, try saving it to disk and playing it outside of your browser. On most computers, you can Shift-Click the movie link and when prompted, save the file to disk. The movie file is a standard mpeg-1 video.

The following photos will also describe how to tie the bands. Click on an image to see a larger version.

Walking with the Cords On

The cords help lift the leg to a certain extent, but they also provide a stimulus that helps the body know when the leg should be moved.

Nothing is perfect. If the tension is not fairly even on each side, the leg can be pulled sideways. If you are prone to barely clearing or actually stubbing your foot, the cord will make it that much easier. However, if your therapist feels the cords might help, it is certainly easy enough to make the attempt The following videos show me walking with the cords on:

Additionally, the evaluation videos show me walking on a treadmill using the bands.

Mike Porter, 2005/1/23.