How to Train an Amputee to Walk

Amputation of the leg occurs after trauma or a disease that results in wounds that will not heal. Whether the amputation occurs above or below the knee, you can be fitted with a prosthetic leg and learn to walk again. The process will occur over several months and usually requires formal training with a physical therapist. However, there are exercises that you can perform at home to prepare for gait training activities.

Things You'll Need

• Towel
• Pillow
• One-pound cuff weights
• Parallel bars
• Axillary or forearm crutches

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Instructions

• 1

  Strengthen the muscles in your residual limb to prepare for walking. Lie down on a firm, flat surface. Place a pillow under your head, roll up a towel and place it under your residual limb. Press down against the towel and squeeze your buttock muscle, lifting your hip up off the surface. Repeat 10 times. Turn and lie on the side opposite your residual limb. Lift your limb up into the air, using the muscles on the outside of your thigh. Repeat 10 times. Lie on your back and place a medium-sized ball between your thighs. Squeeze your thighs together against the ball and hold for three seconds. Repeat 10 times. Lift your residual limb straight up toward the ceiling and back down. Repeat 10 times. Work up to three sets of each exercise, and then strap a one-pound cuff weight around the leg to increase the resistance.

• 2

  Sit in a chair at one end of the parallel bars. Put on your socket and prosthetic leg. Bend your knees--use your hands to position the prosthesis if needed--and put your feet flat on the floor. Bend forward at the waist, push up with your arms and come into a standing position. Grab a parallel bar in each hand. Practice weight-shifting from side to side to get used to bearing weight through the prosthesis. As you improve, hold only one bar on the opposite side of your residual limb, and then practice without arm support.

• 3

  Progress to walking with a walker or crutches. Advance the walker, and then step forward with the prosthesis, followed by the opposite foot. With crutches, begin by advancing the crutches and prosthesis at the same time, and then move the opposite leg forward. As you improve, simulate a natural walking pattern by advancing one crutch at a time, simultaneously with the opposite leg. When you feel stable, use only one crutch to walk, keeping it on the opposite side of the prosthesis. You can advance to walking without assistance when this becomes easy.