Bad Ankles? Try This…

If you’ve ever sprained an ankle, you know how hard the recovery process can be. Your ankle probably swelled up to the point where you could only wear a certain pair of shoes, and simply walking on it was impossible. It may have taken four weeks or longer until you were able to put full weight on that side of your body, or it may even have been an injury you never fully recovered from. Many ankle sprains can lead to a permanent loss of balance.

It is this loss of balance that is the precisely the focus of studies regarding recurrent ankle sprains. It’s been known for a long time by clinicians that an ankle sprain, particularly a serious ankle sprain, can lead to a recurrence of ankle sprains. Many people who have the problem once will have it again, and an ankle sprain on one side of the body can set you up for an ankle sprain on the other side.

For a long time, it was thought that this was due to a loss of integrity of the ligaments of the ankle. Most commonly a sprained ankle affects the ligaments on the outside of the ankle. In theory, a loss of the integrity of these ligaments would lead to a loss of stability, which could lead to a second, third, or fourth sprained ankle. This theory fits, but it ignores one of the most important aspects of the ligaments.

All of the ligaments in our body are supplied with neuroreceptors. These neuroreceptors send information to the central nervous system about our body’s position in space. This sensory input, known as proprioception, is vital to maintaining balance.

When the ligaments of the ankle are damaged, so are the proprioceptors of the ligaments. The signals being sent to the brain are no longer as they should be, and we therefore lose a lot of the balance that we once had.

There is an answer, however. With balance training, it is possible to retrain the neuroreceptors in your ankle, and increase your balance and stability in your ankles.

Essentially, balance training can be boiled down to this simple exercise: Stand on one foot. Hold it for a minute, and try not to wobble around too much. Now do it again on your other foot.

That’s all there is to it. If you can increase your balance, you can increase the stability of your ankles. If you find it too easy to stand on one foot for a minute, you can close your eyes. You can cross your arms over your chest so you’re not using them to balance yourself. You can stand on a pillow, making the ground underneath you less stable. All of these tricks will help you to increase your balance, and will have a large impact on preventing ankle sprains.

If you’ve suffered from a sprain lately, or have a history of ankle sprains, do this exercise close to a wall or something that you can grab to retain your balance. Of course, do not try this until you are comfortable with putting all of your weight on one foot. With a very recent ankle sprain, this may take close to two months before you’re ready to work on your balance training.

Central Florida Foot and Ankle Center, LLC.
101 6TH St. NW.
Winter Haven, Fl. 33881
863-299-4551
http://www.FLFootandAnkle.com