It doesn’t matter how steady you are on your feet or how careful you are; it doesn’t matter whether you are practically on your feet pounding the pavement three hours a day, or that you run 10 minutes every Sunday if you feel especially guilty about neglecting your health. The law of averages says that an ankle sprain will knock you on your behind at least once in your life. It will – unless you do something about it. Ankle sprains aren’t things that pop up out of the blue to ambush you. There are specific situations that they happen in, and there are specific reasons. To know that ankle sprains or not accidents is half the battle won.
What we do about the other half now? Here’s the deal – doctors who specialize in sports medicine have several simple stretches and strengthening exercises in mind, that can make your ankles practically immune to most injuries that sneak up on you in the course of everyday life. Once you take the time to aim exercises at specific parts of your body – your joints, your connective tissue, and the muscles around the ankles, you can help arm your feet with enough strength that they can protect themselves through their reflexes.
The activities that you are most likely to face ankle sprains in are trail running, baskettball and high heel sashaying. When that uneven little bump in the ground that you’re walking on sends your ankle twisting past the point of no return, you find yourself sprawling uncontrollably in the blink of an eye. In the case of a basketball player, that little bump could be another player’s foot. You twist your ankle underneath the weight of your body and stretch and tear a ligament. Now here is what you do to train your feet to handle the situation better. Sit down on the ground with your knees bent in front of you. Wrap a resistance band (or towel) around the ball of one foot, hold the other end taut in your hands, and then pivot your foot back and forth, like you were pressing the pedal in a car. You’ll just need to do this 60 times a day.
The next exercise we have in mind is one for basic strength in your ankles. You’ll need a buddy for this one. As you sit down with your legs stretched out, your buddy’s part is to apply resistance to the top of your foot while you try to push your foot up towards your body. Sixty reps a day should do just fine. This should do it for the muscles that move your feet up and down. What we need is to try strengthening the muscles that are responsible for lateral motion next. Your recruit of a buddy needs basically to offer resistance on the left side of your foot as you try to move your foot to the right, and to the right side of the foot as you try to move it to the left. And finally, comes the balance exercise. And this should be a good way to get your ankles back into action after a sprain too. Basically, it involves standing on one foot and balancing yourself. You stand on one foot while holding up the other knee; and you do this with your hands on your hips. If your ankles can quickly switch muscles and keep you afloat for 20 seconds at a time, that’s pretty good.
So there you go – strengthening your ankles isn’t that hard; and a strong body part, never gets hurt as often.
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