Ankle Sprain Therapy
An ankle sprain injury requires physical therapy. The reason is because once the ankle is sprained, the surrounding ligaments and tendons are weak. They cannot support the weight and balance of your body meaning any little misstep can cause the ankle to re-twist or re-roll.
This means that after weeks of careful healing, you can easily re-sprain your ankle and have to undergo another several weeks recovering. At Cross Bay Physical Therapy, our physical therapists makes sure this won’t happen to you.
A combination of strengthening, stretching, and therapeutic modalities like icing, heat, and massage will get your ankle back to full strength so that you don't have to worry about injuring your ankle again. Recurrent ankle sprains are extremely common and can become a chronic injury without physical therapy.
Just the simple task of strengthening your ankle will tremendously boost recovery and keep your ankle healthy. Here are a few exercises we apply during your Physical Therapy sessions:
- Balance on a Bosu Ball - A Bosu ball is an inflatable ball with a flat surface. Our patients balance on this ball with one fee for a minute at a time. This is an ankle stabilization exercise and the ankle has to balance on this unstable ball. This trains the ankle to handle the pressures of balancing the body and by doing so, your ankle is being trained to catch itself during a potential slip.
- Calf Exercises - Muscle tightness keeps the ankle week. During your physical therapy sessions, we will strengthen and stretch your calf muscles including the Achilles Tendon. Keeping these muscles loose and strong will help the ankle repair damage tissue and get stronger.
- Stationary Bicycle - When you are no longer experiencing ankle pain, we will begin with a stationary bicycle that introduces your ankle to consistent movement. Here, we are training and strengthening your ankle to undergo normal daily activity.
If you have just experiencing an ankle sprain, make sure to ice your ankle at lest 3 times per day for 15 minutes. When doing so, elevate your foot. The exercises mentioned above should be tried under the guidance of a physical therapist.
We look forward to helping you overcome this injury and most importantly, ensure that you don't develop chronic ankle sprains due to weakness and have to spend many more weeks recovering.
Schedule Your Evaluation Today!
Call 718-835-0084 and schedule your first session today!
By Benjamin Bieber