Ankle rehabilitation exercises.
The ankle surprisingly puts up with a lot of stress not to just sports people but anyone who stands up all day at work or at home.
The reason why a lot of individuals put up with sore ankles, lower back and knee problems is due to the fact that we wear the wrong shoes for our foot type as well as wearing sandals and flip flops that have no ankle stability at all.
Studies show that, when running, every time our foot strikes the pavement our ankle, knee and foot arch can be put under almost 4 times our bodyweight.
Therefore proper foot support is a must when buying shoes. Make sure when you are shopping for shoes you talk to someone who knows how to measure what shoe is for you.
In this report I am just going to explain some exercise that I recommend that will help strengthen not just the muscles and ligaments in the ankle joint, but also improving the proprioception (co-ordination) of the joint to help prevent injury.
Many people don't know that rolling your ankles all the time is not always an ankle problem, the stability of the ankle is a combination of glutes, balance in the quads, hamstrings and calves.
Make sure before you start these exercise see a fitness professional.
Easy exercises:
- Stand on 1 leg and try to balance, really focus on using your ankle to support and stabilise you.
- Stand on 1 leg, this time close your eyes, this surprisingly makes it harder because you don't have that 'sense of balance.'
- Stand on a pillow (or empty cask of wine) and follow the same as above.
- Balance on a wobble board
- Once you get better at the above exercises try doing a quarter squat.
- Drop off a box of about 10cm, start 2 feet and land 1 foot.
- Using a mini trampoline stand on 1 leg and balance, close your eyes to make it harder. If that's easy start doing quarter squats.
- Decline squats
- Quarter Squats with both feet on a dura disc.
- Try running in an S style, no sudden turns.
- Calf raises, Slow and controlled, try to do these on a step and get full range of movement.
Medium exercises:
- Start on 2 feet, jump about a quarter circle and land on 1 foot. As this gets easier start on 1 foot and land on 1 foot. (make sure you go both ways because 1 way is easier than the other.)
- Using a mini tramp or dura disc balance on 1 leg and have someone pass a football to you. Pass it back but make sure you stay balanced.
- Jump off a box (no too high though maybe 15cm) and land on 1 foot on the ground. Once this is easy move onto jumping off a box and landing onto the mini tramp on 1 eg.
- Hop on 1 leg for a small distance.
- Start doing half squats on a wobble board.
- Calf raises
- Box single leg squats. Make sure your knee is behind your toes at all times.
- Start side stepping drills
- Start skipping (or jump rope)
Harder exercises:
- Jump off a box, onto a tramp 1 leg and land on the ground 2 feet at first, then 1 leg.
- Half squats on a wobble board.
- Balance 1 leg on the wobble board.
- Balance on a wobble board and have someone pass a football to you.
- Start doing 'T running.' This is where you change directions at a 90 degree angle. Follow a tennis or squash court lines is the best form of T running.
- Draw a cross on the floor. Hop on 1 leg across a line. Spend 30 seconds hopping over each line of the cross.
- Jump up onto a box start about 30cm up to around 45cm. make sure you land as quietly as you can.
NOTE: While performing all the hard exercise you can still perform the easier versions as well.
Make sure in the future, if you sprain your ankle the first thing you must do is put your foot in an ice bath until numb. This is proven to dramatically increase recovery of a sprained ankle.
I hope all these exercises help you in preventing or rehabbing ankle injuries in the future and if you have any more questions make sure you talk to a Doctor or physiotherapist.
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