Strengthen Ankle

whitelightrider

Hi folks,

I went over on my ankle a few weeks back and seemed to strain the muscle just above the ankle bone. It's slightly sore when Im playing soccer, but not painful if that makes sense!! It's fine when Im walking though.

Im wondering if there's anything I can do to strengthen the ankle or the muscle/ligaments above it?

gucci

i found this quite good when recovering from a severe sprain 12months ago. its sort of injury that will bug the hell out of you for a long time.
also any chance you get (sitting on bus,watchin tv. etc) keep moving it, rotating and stretching it,it will all add up to strengthen the muscles around the joint.

Racing Flat

There are a lot of proprioceptive nerve endings around the ankle ligament complex, as such when you sprain your ankle you may have reduced proprioception (kind of like balance) afterwards. People often focus on exercises to restore the movement and build strength, which is good, but proprioceptive/balance exercises are often neglected. Hence, while movement and strength may be restored if proprioception is not, then they may be more lilkely to go over on the ankle again and therefore it often becomes a recurrent injury. So the exercises in the link above are fine, but pay particular attention to the balance type ones near the bottom - standing on 1 leg, doing this with eyes closed, single leg squats, hopping etc.

Roper

I "lengthened"ligaments on my ankle by going over it a few years ago (physio's term was more scientific then that!) and as a result my balance was affected for ages. It was quite hard to get right to be honest. It had an effect on my knee ligaments down the line as well. My advice would be if it is severe enough, go to a physio and see what s/he thinks. They may have some strengthening and as racing flat says, balance exercises for you.

sharkDawg

As previously said balance exercises are very important, it might be worth your while investing in a balance disc or if your a member of a gym they should have one

whitelightrider

sharkDawg wrote: »

As previously said balance exercises are very important, it might be worth your while investing in a balance disc or if your a member of a gym they should have one

Just ordered one of these so it should be here in a few days. Im going to call the physio as well because I noticed at soccer on Tuesday that my knee was a little sore. Not sure if it's related to the ankle problem or just getting that bit older, but better to be on the safe side!!!