Putting Your Purse to Work on Your Legs

by Pat
(Houston, TX)

OK, guys may have to borrow a purse or two for these, but most women have the "sophisticated exercise equipment" they need in multiple varieties, as well as the required assortment of weights.

I learned these exercises while doing rehab from knee surgery for a bleed into the synovial fluid and a partial medial collateral ligament tear.

I went to regular PT in a rehab center at first, but with children, a full time job and attending seminary in my "spare" time, it wasn't feasible for long and the budget wasn't up to buying much equipment.

My terrific physical therapist came up with elastic bands and simple home methods to do the work I needed at home, and it was the purse exercises that cracked my children up, but they worked.

To strengthen a knee joint, all you need is a purse that will fit over your ankles and some canned goods from the pantry. Many cans weigh right around a pound or a pound and a half, so it's easy to calculate weights and add what you need.

Put the cans in the purse, slip a foot through the straps and sit in a chair or on the edge of the bed and straighten the leg with the weight on your ankle, repeating as directed by your therapist or trainer.

I started with just two pounds and sets of ten several times a day, and went to five pounds next and then added more reps and weights later.

I also did straight leg lifts lying on the bed, and eventually used a big old ugly purse to do both legs together when the hurt leg was nearly normal.

Using light weights, I also did oblique angle lifts and rotation movements for both legs to encourage flexibility and mobility, since I have arthritis to contend with as well.

Many purses are very easy to twine around an ankle via the straps and it's a snap to add or remove a can or two.

My kids thought it looked ridiculous, but it really was a great solution, and cheaper than even ankle weights.

They teased me the night that a supper ingredient had to be rescued from my "gym" and they took to decorating a couple of old purses that had become exercise devices with pictures of body builders they cut out and attached.

Year later, I used this trick again to rehab a should injury. Using a purse is easy on the purse, and it gets the job done.