The Importance Of Re-Strenghtening Your Ankle After An Injury
Many people succumb to multiple ankles sprains one right after another. At Cross Bay Physical Therapy, we help our patients understand how to avoid this terrible fate. It is an awful experience to spend weeks resting and healing your ankle only to twist it again after a few days and have to spend more weeks in pain and physical therapy.
The reason this occurs is because people focus on getting better but forget the necessary rehabilitation for an ankle sprain. After a sprain, the ankle and it’s surrounding muscles are extremely weak. Any little mis-step can cause the ankle to twist or roll. Since ankle sprains take around 6 weeks to heal, if you end up spraining your ankle again, you will have to undergo another 6 weeks of rest.
How to avoid this fate is by simply coming into Cross Bay Physical Therapy for physical therapy during your sprain. Our Howard Beach physical therapists will usher your ankle sprain back to full health and then once healthy, strengthen your ankle so that it can handle the daily movements, stresses, and pressures without succumbing to them. This means that even if you do trip up, you won’t have to worry about twisting your ankle so easily.
Here are a few exercises that help prevent a future ankle sprain by making the ankle stronger:
- Balance on A Bosu Ball - This is a half inflated balancing ball with a flat surface. Our patients balance on the ball with one foot strengthening their ankle and getting it used to balancing again. It is very effective in re-training the ankle to handle the balance and weight of the body.
- Calf Raises - Strengthening the calf will provide immediate support to the ankle. During a sprain, the calf muscles become strained and tight by overcompensating once the patient can walk again. By keeping the calf muscles loose and strong, it can protect the ankle and help balance the body.
Our physical therapists provide hands-on physical therapy watching and guiding our patients during their visits. At the first appointment, we will create an individualized physical therapy program for you according to your age, gender, strength, severity of injury, and lifestyle. This is all about you and getting better. We pride ourselves in making sure that when your ankle is healed, it is strong enough to handle intense pressure and not easily succumb to another sprain.
Call (718) 835-0084 and schedule your appointment.