In this instructional video, a clinician works with Paula, who has recently recovered from a left foot fracture and is experiencing lingering pain and a limp. The clinician first observes Paula’s gait, noting a slight limp, then introduces a stability band that is placed under the forefoot and runs over the shoulder to add lateral support without stressing the fracture site. While Paula walks, the clinician adds a dual‑task neuromotor challenge: an eye‑tracking exercise combined with a figure‑8 wrist movement, using finger cues to guide visual focus. This simultaneous motor‑visual task is intended to overstimulate the brainstem and cortical areas on the affected side, promoting neural activation and pain modulation. After the combined exercise, Paula walks again, reporting a marked reduction in limp and pain. The clinician notes that this protocol is a first step before progressing to more advanced exercises as pain continues to decrease.
Chapters
All right, so we're working with Paula. Paula has recently fractured a bone in her left foot and has finally gotten out of the boot. It still hurts when she walks, so we know that the tissue is starting to recover and now we need to start helping the pain go away. So Paula, when you walk, just walk a couple steps there and back. You'll see there's a little bit of a limp. You're very ginger on it. Come on back. Okay, good. So what we're going to do is we're going to add more stability to the side of the pain. Now since the fracture is in the foot, we're going to be very careful where we put the band. Go ahead and step with the front of your foot on there, and this is going to come up over your shoulder. Okay, and then what we're going to do is you're going to have to stand up real tall with good posture, and I'm going to have Paula do an eye exercise and a movement with her other hand. So I want you to do like a fist bump. Figure 8 with just through the wrist there. And then I'm going to put 2 fingers up. So we're going to do finger here, and my other finger is right here, and you're going to follow this with just your eyes, and then look back to this finger. And then repeat that. Look back here. So every time we get to the end, look back to this finger. Good. Back over here. Try and keep the head still. There you go. Try that again. Here. Here. So it's a lot of things at once. Keep trying to do your figure 8 with your hand. And here. I'll keep giving you the little signal of which finger to follow. Follow here. Follow here. And then back to here. So it's a lot of things at once and we're really overstimulating part of your brain. Good. So we're adding stability and brainstem activation on this side and more cortical activation on this side while we do that. So go ahead and just walk a little bit now and see if that feels any better. Good. Come on back. How's it feel to you? Much better. Much better? The limp is almost completely gone. So that's just one of the things we do to start. And now that she can move around a little better, we can get into other exercises and the pain starts to go down on the foot.
