Why add insult to injury?

Why should people who have lost the use of their lower leg, foot or ankle to an injury also have to lose the use of their hands and arms?

Answer:  They shouldn’t.

The most obvious benefit to the iWALKFREE hands-free crutch is that, well, it’s hands free.  Having your hands free means that you can go about your normal day to day routine – something you simply cannot do with conventional crutches.  Think about it – walking the dog,  cooking, making copies, opening a door – these simple tasks take on a whole new level of difficulty when you use conventional crutches.  With iWALKFREE, you can do all of these things just as you did before your injury.

Better in so many ways

Aside from the obvious advantages, iWALKFREE improves upon conventional crutches in many significant ways:

• Enhanced mobility
• Greater comfort
• Ability to manage daily activities
• Ability to remain independent
• Improved motor function
• Improved personal safety
• Improved ability to exercise
• Improved emotional well-being
• Potential for reduction in muscle atrophy, strength and bone density loss
• Potential for shortened rehabilitation time
  
  

Enhanced mobility

Until now, non-weight bearing injuries of the lower leg demanded the use of crutches, which meant that your hands and arms were recruited to support your weight.

As bipeds, we humans were not designed to walk this way, as anyone who has struggled to get around on crutches can tell you.  But crutches were your only option.  Until now.

With iWALKFREE not only are your hands free, but you bear your weight on your legs, as intended, and not on your arms and hands.  This means that you walk in a more natural way, recruiting the larger, stronger muscles of your legs.  You can walk faster and further with less fatigue.

Greater comfort

Anyone that has used crutches complains about how uncomfortable they are.  They create pressure on your hands and underarms.  They chafe you and can rub you raw.  Your hands and arms get tired.  The once simple act of getting around becomes a strenuous chore.  iWALKFREE ends all of this.

With conventional crutches, the weight normally supported by your injured leg is transferred to your hands and arms.  With iWALKFREE, it’s transferred to your shin.  Note – most people think that weight is supported by the knee with iWALKFREE, but this is not the case.  Your knee doesn’t bear any weight when using iWALKFREE.  The majority of your weight is supported by your shin.  Due to some unexplainable anomaly of anatomy, the front of our calf can bear our weight for extended periods of time.  With IWALKFREE, you basically kneel on the platform, allowing you to comfortably stand or walk for extended periods.

 
Ability to manage daily activities

Walking the dog, doing dishes, cooking, carrying a cup of coffee, making copies, pushing a shopping cart.  There are a myriad of things we do every day that require use of our hands and arms.  With iWALKFREE, a lower leg injury doesn’t mean you can no longer go through your daily activities.

Ability to remain independent

Losing the use of your hands to crutches means that without assistance, you can’t do all the things you used to do to get through your day.  Imagine trying to push a shopping cart or carry a bag of groceries while on crutches.  With iWALKFREE, you can still do all these things without reliance on others.  Your independence is restored.

Improved motor function

Conventional crutches and knee scooters leave your entire injured leg and hip mostly dormant.  Unlike these, the iWALKFREE fully engages the muscles of your upper leg, thigh and hip  when walking and standing  which improves your motor function throughout and immediately after the rehabilitation period.

Improved personal safety

We all fall down at some point.  Falling on crutches is a particularly messy affair.  Not only can you get tangled up in the crutches, but your hands and arms are not readily available to break your fall.  Small elevation changes like stepping off a curb present a challenge on crutches.  iWALKFREE is a tremendous improvement in the areas of personal safety.  Even walking up and down stairs is safely accomplished using iWALKFREE.

Improved ability to exercise 

Exercise is an important part of our lives.  Crutches severly limit the things that you can do to stay active.  Quite clearly, walking and standing are easier on iWALKFREE.  But we’ve also seen our customers golfing, bowling, hiking, going to the gym, playing basketball and while we might not recommend it, we’ve even heard of people playing tennis. Click here to watch it in action!

Improved emotional well-being

Being injured is bad enough and can be downright depressing.  Having your mobility and the ability to function in day to day life makes things even worse.  Wondering how you’re going to cope without being able to get through your day or perform at work can create  tremendous mental stress.  Why suffer through this when the iWALKFREE can give you back your functionality during your rehabilitation?  iWALKFREE gives you much, much more than just the ability to walk.  It gives you back your freedom.

Potential for reduction in muscle atrophy, strength and bone density loss

Use it or lose it.  It’s true.  And if you’re on crutches, you’re not using your injured leg – it’s pretty much hanging there.  Non-use can lead to muscle atrophy , loss of strength and coordination,  decreased flexibility and bone density loss.  With iWALKFREE, all the upper muscles in the leg, hip and buttock are fully engaged in the acts of walking and standing.  This protects against the detriments associated with lack of use.

Potential for shortened rehabilitation time

Moving your leg increases blood circulation, which assists the body in healing.  With iWALKFREE, you fully engage the muscles of the upper leg, hip and buttock which increases circulation.  The additional comfort and efficiency of iWALKFREE will also induce you to be more mobile than you would be with other mobility assistance devices.