Strengthening rolled ankle

Question

I know we have the question about what to do immediately after a rolled ankle, but this is different.

About 5 months ago I rolled my ankle, and I rested it and went to physio. However, it's still weak and I keep re-rolling it. I'm going to go back to physio. Is there anything I can do in the mean time? Is it safe to run, bike and swim?

Also when I rolled it the first time they gave me a cane. Was this good to use because I heard in the past doctors were much more into immobilizing an injury but then they found the muscles didn't really heal properly if they overdid it?

Answer 1

I've sprained both of my ankles.

To strengthen them back up the physio gave me lots of balancing exercises to do.

Started out simply balancing on one foot. When you're trying to balance you move your ankle a bit and this strengthens it up.

You can move onto balancing on a bosu ball if you find this is too easy.

You can also close your eyes to make it more challenging.

Don't forget to do this for your good ankle too. You don't want an imbalance.

Also don't do this if it is still really swollen.

Answer 2

Something to consider in the mean time is everything you're not doing in physio.

For example, it's a good idea to examine your footwear. Think of how people often say they rolled their ankle when stepping on something. This could be someone else's foot, or stepping on the side of a curb.

Found. Original Source.

                                                     

Found.

So, the higher your foot is off the ground, the more easily it can roll over to sprain. A shoe with a big heel lift provides room for the ankle to sprain:

Source: Can foot and hip pain be related?

Think of the plate as a curb, lifted shoes, whatever. You can imagine if that foot is only on the ground, it's harder for the ankle to sprain.

Another aspect to consider is how you hold that ankle throughout the day. After a sprain, it's common for the ankle to become lax / hypermobile. For instance, you're laying down. Rather than the foot be held straight,

              

It lays like this:

               

One of the main ideas of strengthening the ankle is to tighten up what was stretched out in the sprain. We can do that throughout the day too though. For instance:

               

Images from b-reddy.org

If you're Steph Curry, who has a history of nasty ankle sprains:

               

Then you don't want to be sitting like this:

Rather you want that foot flat:

               

And you might want to be careful about playing golf, doing this to his ankle:

Close up from one of his sprains and another one of his swings:

               

Curry media from How golf can negatively impact the ankles.

I use Curry as an example due to his fame, but the principle is don't ignore the other 23 hours of the day. You might attempt to tighten your ankle with 30-60 minutes of exercise per day, but if you're holding the ankle in a stretched position many hours outside of the exercise, it's hard to offset that.