I have a friend who recently sprained his ankle and is now on crutches. He is a basketball player so his ankles are vital to his sport. my question is: what sort of rehab exercises should he do to speed recovery and get him back on the court (or at least walking… ha ha) as soon as possible?
i had previously searched t mag and found nothing but after posting this i searched the forums and found some info.
if anybody else is interested here is a link somebody suggested in one of the topics
man i sprained my ankle bad, severe, from bball, was out a month and a half.
thought i broke it, but anyway hospital told me to take anti inflams, alot of ice, stay off it, it got to the point where i could finally start walking on it after a week or two weeks… then i had to just stretch it ALOT, still ice the shit out of it and just do toe raises…
if its a severe sprain, hes gonna be out a while, its worse than breaking it!
I’ve done this recently, and it was baaaaaaaaad. Actually twice in the past year, but it occurred not b/c of a weak ankle, but b/c I planted my foot down on someone else’s foot both times as I put all of my weight on my foot to jump into the air for a layup. Anyway the regular icing stuff works a bit, but I’d use a double layered compression stocking too, to keep swelling down in the day, and remove it at night. Anoher point is to walk on it as normally as possible unless it’s fractured or broken.
For actual exercises do some flexion exercises by pointing toes towards your head while sitting. Do this around 15 times for 3 sets 2 or 3 times a day. In addition tell him to do some:
Body lunges in a fixated stance, so in essence both feet are planted on the floor in a lunge position with problem foot in forward direction, then bend forward and focus on driving you toes through the floor. The more advanced injured person can use a ball to put their forward foot on. Do 15x3sets 2 or 3 times a day.
747’s, so for these you balance on problem foot and raise other leg up. Now extend raised leg forward, then back, then out to the side, then to the other side and bring back to hanging position. That is 1 rep. Do 10x3sets 2 or 3 times a day.
Bungee cord ??? This one is kinda hard to explain and I have no name for it, basically you buy a bungee cord from the dollar store and tie it around a desk leg. Now sit down in a chair and stick your foot in the circle, and turn toes towards your other foot while keeping heel fixated. You can also reverse direction if you turn around in the chair. Do 15x3sets 2 or 3 times a day. My excellent pic below demonstrates this.
shit forgot to label my diagram
Guys, once you sprain that ankle inflamation builds up in the area and scar tissue is formed that makes the ankle tight but also weak and more prone to sprains. Look into ART. Active Release Techniques will speed up the healing process by breaking up scar tissue and help speed up recovery. Rehab is great but if the tissue is damaged then you will never heal 100% effectively.
Good Luck.
thats how i severely sprained mine last year, fade-away, falling back, some big dork behind me, my foot twisted al lthe way to the side on his foot.
thats unavoidable crap it happens too much… hehe
Before doing any sort of rehab, make sure the swelling has gone down. R-I-C-E is what I follow after a sprain. Rest is number one - keep off it as much as possible. Ice it as much as possible (20 min on and 20 min off). Compression is key to keeping the swelling out. Use an ace bandage, but do not put it on too tight. Elevation is also very important for decreasing swelling. Try and keep it above your heart as much as possible. Taking ibuprofen is a must. Hope this helps.
I couldn’t agree more with the R-I-C-E theory as well as trying to walk on it more and more gradually everyday if you are able to apply the pressure to it.