Physical Therapy For Foot/Ankle Pain and Injury
A bad ankle sprain or foot fracture normally takes six weeks to 3 months to heal. It is crucial to protect your feet during this healing process but after the healing is completed, the work is not over because it is extremely easily to re-injure your ankle due to the weakness of that ankle.
Much a person’s balance and weight is placed on the ankle and if it is weak, a simple misstep can easily cause the ankle to roll and suffer another sprain. Because you don't want to have to undergo another six weeks of healing, it is vital to do some type of re-strengthening exercises for the ankle.
Physical Therapy is perhaps the best way to guide the ankle toward full recovery and strengthen because at Cross Bay Physical Therapy, you will have one of our professional Howard Beach physical therapists helping you at each step along the way.
Our physical therapists will create a custom physical therapy program for you to follow and help you while you complete this program. Afterwards, your ankle will not only regain its strength but also become stronger than it was ever before drastically reducing the chances that you will re-injure your foot.
Here are just a few exercises that help to restrengthen the ankle:
- Balance on a Bosu Ball - This ball is an inflatable ball with a flat surface. Our patients balance on the ball with one foot and as this is very difficult to hold one’s balance, the muscles surrounding the ankle become increasingly stronger.
- Calf Raises - Both calf raises and calf stretching is key to help the ankle become strong and loose and able to support the full weight and balance of the body.
- Running/Bicycling - An aerobic exercise will help the ankle get used to regular and advanced movement so that you can participate in any activity, sport, or exercise that you like after your physical therapy program is completed.
Importantly, make sure to first have supervision by one of our physical therapists before beginning ankle physical therapy or training. Training in the wrong way often produces injury and this is something we need to avoid.
The ankle must be rehabilitated and re-strengthened or there is a great chance that the weakness of your ankle will not be able to support your body during a misstep and the ankle will again be injured leading to many more weeks in recovery. This phenomenon is called having chronic ankle sprains.
Schedule Your Evaluation!
We look forward to helping you get back to your normal fun activities without pain or worry. Call 718-835-0084 and schedule your first session today!
By Benjamin Bieber