The Need For Physical Therapy After An Ankle Sprain
When ankle sprains happen, they limit a person’s mobility and can be extremely painful. Rehabilitating your ankle back to full health is much easier with physical therapy because in physical therapy not only does the ankle heal but it also gets stronger.
Ankle’s are extremely weak after a sprain and stay weak even when the ankle heals. This means that any little misstep can cause the ankle to re-roll and another ankle sprain will occur. With physical therapy, strengthening the ankle prevents the condition of chronic ankle sprains meaning that after your sprain heals, you won’t have to worry about a weak ankle or another sprain.
The recovery process of an ankle sprains usually takes around six weeks. After your sprain, make sure to get off your ankle, rest, elevate your foot, and ice your ankle. You’ll want to ice your ankle three times a day for at least ten minutes for the first weak. Icing the ankle helps decrease inflammation and speed up the healing process of the damaged tendons and ligaments.
A black and blue is normal. You may want to get an x-ray to make sure you don’t have a fracture. Also, using crutches for the first two days until you can comfortable walk will prevent further damage to the ankle that would hinder the healing process.
Protecting and Re-Strengthening Your Ankle
Protecting your ankle is very important after a sprain. Wearing a restrictive ankle brace is crucial to healing because it makes it virtually impossible to damage the ankle further. One goal during recovery is to do whatever possible to avoid further injury.
Once your ankle has a few days to heal, you can begin physical therapy that will speed up the recovery process and re-strengthen the ankle. The ankle balances the body and a weak ankle will cause other muscles to overcompensate and further injury.
Physical Therapy includes exercises to re-strengthen the ankle so it can handle walking, running, and lateral movement. At the same time, our physical therapists at Cross Bay Physical Therapy will keep other surrounding muscles loose and strong as to be able to support the ankle while healing.
Make sure not to try any ankle exercises before a physical therapists has shown you how or else you can risk injury. Cross Bay Physical Therapy has helped patients for over thirty years repair ankle injuries.
Call (718) 835-0084 and schedule your appointment.