Quote Originally Posted by Artista View Post
I didn't realize how quickly muscles atrophy from non-use, or how many muscles would be affected. I wish that I had consulted with a physical therapist every 1-2 weeks while I was non weight bearing. A good therapist would have anticipated which problems I might experience and could have given me home exercises to maintain as much muscle, proprioception, flexibility, and motor control as possible while still protecting my injured limb. I probably could have avoided several problems that took me months to overcome had I not waited until I got out of the boot to work with a therapist.
This is very true. the more exercises you can do to maintain your muscle mass in other parts of your leg the better. Here are some video links for some non-weightbearing exercises that can help:

Side plank, you should be able to do the version with bent knees.
Bridging with the ball under your claves. Just make sure the ball is close enough to you that you're not putting weight through your foot.
Hamstring curls with the ball, you would do the bum hover version just rolling the ball in and out, keeping the ball at above the ankle in the innermost position.
Gluteus medius strengthening.
Kneeling exercises on a Bosu ball are excellent if you have access to one. This video shows someone kneeling and using a Wii. I chose it just to show the body position and how hard it is to stabilize. You can do lots of stuff from this position, pretty much any exercise you would normally do standing. Trunk rotations with your arms crossed are a great way to get excellent core work not just for your torso but also your hips.
Then there are all the fun things you can do from a plank with your shins on the Bosu, like this (just from your knees of course).

Finally, I know it sounds nutz but if you do heel raises on your non-injured side it will actually help slow the atrophy of the injured side. Part of what causes atrophy is that our body shuts down nerve impulses to the muscles around the injured area. Our nervous system behaves weirdly sometimes. But we can take advantage of that weirdness by working the other side. When you work one leg you get an overflow of neurological activity to the nerves that relate to the other side. That overflow is estimated to be as much as 20%. There is good research out there to show that you can have a clinically significant delay in atrophy by working the opposite limb.

Boy, I'm a bit verbose this morning.