I had been debating what to write about for my first blog post but my son\u2019s recent ankle sprain has inspired me to cover this topic first. His sprain was diagnosed by a doctor at a minor injuries unit but unfortunately he was sent away without any information on rehab or exercises so I thought this was the ideal topic to start with.<\/p>\n
In this case it was a poorly timed jump at the trampoline park but an ankle sprain is a very common injury and can happen while playing sports, walking on uneven ground, running or sometimes simply slipping \u2013 particularly common during the icy weather at this time of year.<\/p>\n
The most common form of ankle sprain is an inversion sprain where the weight of the body is put on the outside of the ankle, damaging the ligaments on that side of the joint. This type of sprain can also damage the muscles on the outside of the leg, the peroneal muscles.<\/p>\n
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If you twist your ankle it is important to get it checked out by a medical professional to rule out any fractures. Once a sprain is confirmed it should be treated as follows.<\/p>\n
The first 3 days are known as the Acute Phase and the advice is to follow the PRICE protocol.<\/p>\n
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Betwen the third day and approx. 3 weeks is known as the sub-acute phase. It is important at this time to start mobilising and strengthening the ankle joint and the surrounding muscles and improving proprioception.<\/p>\n
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Continue with the PRICE. Hot and cold therapy can be introduced, apply a heat pack for 1 minute then an ice pack for 1 minute, repeat this cycle 5 times, 2 times per day.<\/p>\n
If the pain levels and swelling allow then ankle mobility exercises can be introduced.<\/p>\n
Active plantar flexion and dorsiflexion<\/em><\/strong>. Sitting on the floor, legs straight out in front, slowly point the toes down and then up (within the limits of any pain). 20 repetitions, 5 x per day.<\/p>\n Basic proprioception<\/em><\/strong> \u2013 This should be done while partial weight-bearing at this stage. Balance on the affected leg with your back against a wall for support. One minute, 5 x per day.<\/p>\n Inversion and eversion.<\/em><\/strong> Slowly turn the feet so the soles point outwards and then inwards, within the limits of pain. 20 reps, 5 x per day.<\/p>\n No running, or other strenuous activities. Exercises in water can help to disperse swelling but no actual swimming as it puts too much strain on the ankle, a pull buoy can be used to support legs and use only the arms to get a workout. General fitness levels could also be maintained using an exercise bike and possibly some weight machines in the gym. As before, try to minimise standing during the working day.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n After a few weeks and as the ankle mobility improves and pain levels reduce you can increase the resistance and add in further strengthening exercises.<\/p>\n Active plantar flexion and dorsiflexion.<\/em><\/strong> As previously described. Then once this becomes easier (and assuming no pain) you can add resistance. Sitting on the floor use a resistance band around the foot and secured to a fixed object while pulling the toes up towards the knee. Then place the band around the ball of the foot and hold it in your hands, point the toes down. 20 reps of each 3 x per day. This will increase strength.<\/p>\n Active inversion\/eversion<\/em><\/strong>. As previously described. Once this becomes easier can add in rotating the foot around clockwise and anticlockwise, 5 times each way. Then progress to resisted eversion and inversion. Resistance can be provided by using a wall or chair leg, try to turn the foot outwards against resistance, hold for 5 seconds, rest for 3 seconds. Repeat 3 times and gradually build up to 10 reps. For inversion turn the foot inwards against resistance, reps as before.<\/p>\n Calf raises.<\/em><\/strong> Standing with feet hip distance apart, smoothly rise up and down on the toes. Start with 10 reps and then build up to 3 sets of 10 reps 3 x per day. Once this is easy try on one leg only, starting with low reps and building up again.<\/p>\n Basic Proprioception<\/em><\/strong> – Initially this should be done with support available (so standing close to a wall), stand on the injured leg for one minute, eyes open. Once this is easy progress to one minute with the eyes closed. Then progress to adding in arms movements, hold arms out at shoulder level, bend each arm at the elbow towards the body and then back out. \u00a0Once the basic proprioception exercise is found to be easy then you can progress to using a Wobble board.<\/p>\n Stretching <\/em><\/strong>\u2013 It is very important to stretch all the leg muscles, calves, quads, hamstrings, glutes especially after any workouts.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n http:\/\/sprintphysio.co.uk\/patient-exercises\/leg-hip-knee-and-ankle\/lower-limb-stretches.html<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n It can take between 4 -12 weeks for an ankle sprain to heal depending on the severity of the sprain. Sports massage can help by providing pain relief and helping with muscle rehabilitation. Patience is essential however. It is important to listen to your body and only return to running or other sports gradually and not rush the recovery process.<\/p>\n There are many resources on the web giving exercises, stretches and rehab tips for an ankle sprains. I have put some links below to sites I have found particularly useful. \u00a0I hope you find this information useful, please feel free to comment or pass this information on.<\/p>\n http:\/\/www.sportsinjuryclinic.net\/sport-injuries\/ankle-achilles-shin-pain\/sprained-ankle<\/a><\/p>\n https:\/\/www.active.com\/fitness\/articles\/12-ways-to-build-ankle-strength-for-top-performance<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I had been debating what to write about for my first blog post but my son\u2019s recent ankle sprain has inspired me to cover this topic first. His sprain was diagnosed by a doctor at a minor injuries unit but unfortunately he was sent away without any information on rehab or exercises so I thought… Continue reading Ankle Sprain Rehab<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4,7,6,5,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-196","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ankle-sprain","category-sports-injury","category-sports-massage","category-sprain-rehabilitation","category-uncategorised","without-featured-image"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8r8tv-3a","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.activebalanceessex.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/196","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.activebalanceessex.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.activebalanceessex.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.activebalanceessex.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.activebalanceessex.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=196"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.activebalanceessex.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/196\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":200,"href":"https:\/\/www.activebalanceessex.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/196\/revisions\/200"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.activebalanceessex.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=196"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.activebalanceessex.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=196"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.activebalanceessex.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=196"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/p>\n
The link below gives some good advice on stretching.<\/p>\n