Crocked Ankle

tinofapples

Has anyone any exercises to build up the strength of a fairly weak ankle ? I play footie once a week on Astro Turf and a sharp turn or over stretch on my left foot causes extreme uncomfort on my ankle . I think it is just very weak and needs to be strengtened , any tips ?

Lafortezza

Get an elasticated bandage for starters, especially if you are going to continue playing footie or whatever.
How badly damaged is it? Have you had lots of sprained or broken ankles in the past?

I've had about 4 sprained ankles over the last 7 or 8 years of playing basketball, and my left ankle is still a bit weak. When I was getting my crutches one of the times the doctor explained about various techniques of rotating and stretching and turning your ankle to slowly strengthen the muscles.
Google produced
Balance Boards pimpage
Ankle exercises for when you're sitting in front of the tv.

hth

GreeBo

Balance boards or good, but expensive.
Get a plank of wood about 4 feet long and a solid plastic cylinder, even a broom handle and bobs your uncle!

Try standing over the edge of a step/stairs (heels in the air) and raise yourself up onto your toes and then lower your ankles.
Do it about 20-30 times on each ankle.
(you will probably start to hear/feel your ankle cracking, this is scar tissue rubbing against the bone, unless it hurts, the you are mushing bone, STOP!)

Also try standing on one foot with your arms out to each side, looking straight ahead, aim for 30 seconds.
When you get good at that, try it with your eyes closed.

Sounds piss easy, let me know how you get on

sound_wave

the main thing to do is try and regain a sense of balance with the sprain/ligament damage your brain is a bit confused over where your ankle actually is so you gotta almost "learn" how to balance on the injured ankle. A wobble board is very benefical, as is the balancing with eyes closed.

Dont skimp on the exercises. I did an my ankle is still a bit weak, much like my knee . As redoxan said dont mind the cracking but do stop if it gets discomforting.
Good luck with the injury.

tinofapples

It's grand most of the time but every week I play on Astro Turf a turn on my left foot or stretching with it and it hurts for a while. I usually just run it off but it's always there in the back of my mind.

GreeBo

I was pretty much the same.
You should be icing it after every game and do some of those exercises that I said before you play.
a support (figure of 8) wouldnt go astray either...
you DO NOT want to re-injure it.

I did mine about 8 months ago, and it still twinges a bit now and then...

Morpheus

i did my left ankle in in october, only after recovering from a right ankle injury, but my pretty flat fallen arches are the cause of my woes, ive since gotten orthotic shoe inserts for the arches, ive been to physio about 10 times, but the ligaments are still stiff and painful, im using the pool to help rehabilitate it, but i fear its taking too long, and think that maybe ill never play footie again im fairly depressed about it.

the most pain is in "compression" ( this is when your walking down a stairs and the left foot is up on the step behind you, now try putting the left heel down on the step so the foot is flat)

This causes pain in the front part of the ankle (right where the metatarsils or top of your foot meet the fibula and tibea bones, right inside there is really sharp and sore when i do this) but stretchy band and balance exercises along with pool work has gotten back a lot of motion in it, my balance is still way off, i can only mange 20 - 30 seconds with my eyes shut. and about a minute with them open before my lower leg becomes too tired to do it. I do these all barefoot, im not sure if im supposed to be wearing runners or not...

if your ankle is that sore, i would definitely reccomend getting an xray and going to the physio, you could end up with arthritis or worse, its probably just a sprain, but theres so much that can go wrong with the ankle that at least see the physio, skip the doctor, theyre a waste of money, if your going to a doc, then go to the hospital and get the x-ray, local GP told me to stay off it a week, eventually i found out id torn the anterior ligaments and had bad over pronation (flat feet) from seeing a physio instead! :rolleyes:


any more advice or similiar stories to hearten me up (besides see the physio) is welcome, by the way, im back to physio on tuesday again they fleece me every time!!! 10 visits * 40 euro it can get very expensive in a matter of weeks.