Ankle Strengthening
Physical Therapy for your ankle is one of the most effective treatments for an ankle sprain. After allowing a few weeks for your ankle to substantially heal, physical therapy is the key to getting back to full health.
The ankle is extremely weak after a sprain and this is understandably so. The tendons and ligaments surrounding the ankle are damaged and because the ankle has to hold the entire weight and balance of your body, these weak ligaments and tendons can no longer hold you up.
Chronic recurring ankle sprains are extremely common. Here is how it occurs. After a few weeks of your ankle healing, you take a misstep and re-roll or twist your ankle. Then you have to spend an additional several weeks again healing the ankle and the re-roll may even happen again. Here is how to prevent such an occurrence:
Strengthening your ankle is one of the most important thing you can do to fully heal your ankle. By strengthening the ankle and it’s surrounding muscles, you protect yourself against future ankle sprains. This is vital to the recovery of an ankle injury. Here are a few exercises that we implement in our office that help strengthen the ankle. It is important to first have our physical therapists show you how to do these exercises so that you do not hurt yourself further.
- BOSU Ball - The bosu ball is an inflatable ball that has a solid base. The person with a sprain balances on the ball with one of their ankles and holds their balance for 1 minute. The ankle shakes trying to hold itself up and at the same time becomes stronger and better able to balance the body. This is one of the best strategies to strengthen the ankle.
- Calf Raises - Strengthening the muscles immediately surrounding the ankle is a great way to take pressure off of the ankle allowing it to heal faster and grow stronger. When you do calf raises, you are strengthening the support structure of the ankle. Calf raises can be done in a variety of ways and our physical therapists will guide you with this.
Cross Bay Physical Therapy has helped patients overcome the difficulties of an ankle injury for over 30 years. We are located in Queens, NY.
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By Benjamin Bieber