The ankle in comparison to the rest of the body is a very weak point.  Ankle injuries are one of the most common mishaps to happen during any sporting event.  Even everyday activities like walking up and down stairs threaten your poor ankles.  We can help prevent these injuries though.  With strengthening ankle exercises you help decrease the risk of a twisted or sprained ankles.

Actively stretching your ankles helps reduce the risk as well.  Just by bending your ankle in different directions and holding will loosen the ligaments and tendons allowing less damage on impact.  Stretch the ankle side to side and front to back.

These strengthening ankle exercises will help build stronger ankles:

Jump Rope 

This basic strengthening ankle exercise with low impact is great for building the ankle and knee joints as well as build cardiovascular endurance.

Body Weight Calf Raise

Hold onto a chair or table.  Flex your calf muscle, raising yourself onto your toes.  Hold this position for 5 seconds.  Slowly lower yourself to start position and repeat this 10 times.

Toe Pulls

While standing, roll back onto your heels.  Keep your toes pulled back as far as you can and hold this position for 5 seconds.  Repeat this 10 times.

The Alphabet

This can be done anywhere, at work, at home while watching t.v., or even at the dinner table.  Use your foot to write the alphabet in the air.  Finish the whole alphabet and repeat with the other foot. 

These exercises are both great for preventing ankle injury as well as recovering from one.  Of course, take it at your own pace if you are suffering from an ankle injury. 

To help increase ankle strength, there are a few peices of equipment that come in handy.  Exercise bands are great to add resistance to your light weight ankle exercises.  The bosu ball comes in handy when wanting to improve balance and ankle stability. 

For more info about helping a sprained ankle, check out Go Healthy Fitness’ article “Let’s Decrease that Rehab Injury Time“.

Travis

If you’ve worked out in your life, then you know about the soreness that soon follows a day or two after.  This is the rehab injury time.  It can be a problem with the muscles or with the joints.   Many people have asked me how to make this soreness go away. The answer to this question is something everyone should know. Why not know how to make those pains go away and be able to recover faster.  No one likes being down to rehab an injury.

There are quite a few remedies out there to help your body. By just stretching each morning after you wake up, you will increase the recovery time, while also decreasing your chance of injury. A great way to decrease muscle soreness is to do 1 to 2 sets of an exercise directed towards the sore muscle. For example, if your biceps are sore, do a light set of bicep curls. This will get the blood flowing. Applying heat to the muscle is always useful for muscle soreness. This can be done easily with a heating pad or hot shower. An over-the-counter nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory medication such as ibuprofen helps.

Now, as we get older we may start to feel a bit more joint soreness. Don’t worry, there are some ways to help those as well. My number one rule with feeling soreness in joints is DON’T OVER DO IT. Your joints are too important in your well being to be risky with. If you are feeling a pain in a joint, then rest and recover. If you are just feeling a slight discomfort, then be cautious. 

A hot cold cycle with a sore joint is best to decrease the rehab injury time. First, I wet a washcloth in water and place it in the microwave for 2-3 minutes. You want it to be hot but not scalding hot. As the wash cloth is heating up, I fill a small ziploc with ice cubes. Place the bag of ice on the sore joint. Keep this there for 5-15 minutes, make sure its really chilling the joint, a numbness is common. Then place the hot washcloth on to the joint and let it stand for 5-15 minutes. Repeat this cycle a few times and you are on your way to a quicker recovery. Doing small exercises directed towards your joints is a great way to strengthen the small muscles and loosen the tendons and ligaments. This is especially important in the wrists and ankles.

 Nutrition will play a large roll in injuries and soreness throughout an exercisers life.  You can cut down on your rehab injury time dramatically with the right nutrition plan.  To learn more about healthy eating check out Go Healthy Fitness’ review of Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle. 

Travis

We would love to hear what you think, go ahead and leave a comment.