I would appreciate anyone's in-put on this who are familiar with ankle injuries.

I recently suffered a pretty bad sprained/twisted ankle during Judo randori, and I rest it for a couple of weeks and got back to normal training. It feels better then when I first did it in, but it still feels weak and painful during some range of motions - and I seem to keep getting repeat minor injuries to my ankle.

So, I was wondering if anyone could suggest any good exercises for strengthening and increasing the range of motion in the ankle?

Thanks,
Craig

you should always warm up before rondori rotate all the joints, stretch the core muscles, especially obliques and inner thighs, and try not to overwork your muscles while working out. usualy strains are caused by trying to make your body do something that it is simply not strong enough to do yet.

a simple exercise for the ankles would be calf raises,and stomping, but flexibility and range of motion as well as a rubbery bouncy quality rather then stiff and brittle qulity to the bone, which is acquired through stress type workouts and stretching.

you can sit with your legs crossed, sort of how a lady sits on a chair, form here you can rotate the ankle and use the hands to increase the stretch.

a good front bow stance will stretch the achilles tendon pretty good, you can press against a wall to increase the stretch..

also, the kneeling, seiza style sitting in judo also stretches the ankles.
there are plenty of stretches and strength training methods for the ankles.

here is a pretty good video for ankle stretching.




http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IUTJDuzUZKw

Thanks, Robert for the advice and video. I do the usual warm ups and stretches in Judo, but I'm sure the specific exercises will help.

I should have mentioned that the injured part is the front of the ankle and I haven't been able to sit in the seiza position since it happened.

I injured mine in 1981, it has never been the same. Takes much longer to heal than you may guess. Strength and stability of mine is ok but the range of motion never returned. Give it several months.

It also kinda depends on the angle of your sprain. A few years ago I sprained my ankle at a sort of "inward" angle (as opposed to the typical outward angle that usually happens with you sprain it) during an improperly applied leg scissors takedown. So a whole different sort of injury with different muscles and tendons involved, and I know that took me a lot longer to heal, then longer to rehab because of more strength loss. I think overall, I didn't get a full recovery, (strength and stability) until like 3 months later.

I didn't do anything special for rehab except to do my typical forms and routines as slowly or quickly as I could at any given time. The material gave me enough throughout the range of motion to help rehab it. (Stuff like Bagua or Taiji type stuff.)

But to speed up recovery, I did put my foot and ankle in a mini ice bath though - just a little styrofoam cooler with water and ice for 15 to 20 mins. Ideally, it would have been good to have a heat pack with that.. but yeah, the ice bath is a lot more effective in immersing your foot in cold than some regular cold pack. I recently did that again to heal a minor foot injury, too.

i bet a physical therapist could help with this.

I've been doing forms too and it helps a little, but not that much in my case.

I was told by a sports doctor that icing injuries like that should only be done at the time the injury occurs, for things like Hematoma, but to soak it in Epson salt warm water. I've also been using Asper creme, Capsisum (spl?) and Ibuprofin.

Mark H. is correct. You have to give it time to mend. I got heal hooked last month at the New England NAGA tournament and felt a couple of pops and it's just now starting to feel a little better.

Just make sure you don't rush back too fast. It will only set you back and in the long run take longer to heal.

Good training,
Joe

http://www.thestudywithin.com
http://thestudywithin.blogspot.com

Here are three ankle exercise I really like- which help me significantly when I do them regularly;

Stand on one leg- lift the other knee until the thigh is paralllel with the ground (let the lower leg dangle)- slowly rotate the foot in several small clockwise circles- then reverse and go counter-clockwise. (I then do the same with then Knees and hips)

Do with both legs

Another- stand on one leg, put the toes of the other leg on the ground (curled under so the tops of your toes are contacting the ground)- gentlely rotate your whole leg in a clockwise circle so your foot rolls around your toes... The toes will roll around so the tops, sides, then the bottoms of the toes contact the ground- then go in the opposite direction (with a sprain this my be too much of a stretch)

And-
Put both feet side by side- even weighted, big toes and ankles and knees touching- bend your legs a little- lean forward at the hips slightly and rest your hands on your knees (do not put weight/pressure on the knees)- while leaving both feet flat on the floor- make clockwise circles with your knees-then in the other direction.

When you do them for a while- you may be able to squat all the way down touching your butt to your heels mid-circle.
But remember- soles of the feet and the toes remain stuck to the floor through out each rotation- and do not put pressure on your knees with your hands. Start with slow small circles and work up to slow big circles

Try them and let me know what you think.

Shane

Thanks for the advice, guys... and thanks, Shane for the exercises - I'll let you know how it goes.

Craig

Shane,

I've been trying the exercises you recommended and I have to say that I like the 3rd the best. It's been nice to exercise the range of motion in my ankle with weight on it - I guess it also gives me some confidence in how much I can actually move it and when to stop.

Great. I need to get back in the habit of doing them daily too.

remember- if you let the toes or the side of the foot lift off the floor during the rotation you're cheating yourself.

Shane

haha, yes, I seem to find a way to cheat my from time to time, but thanks for the heads up.

Craig

Craig,

Ankle sprains are the worse kind of injuries. It's better to actually break your ankle then to sprain it because it heals easier. When an ankle gets sprained the ligaments and tendons get stretched, muscles get spasmed which causes pain because they pull on the joint, and the bone chips when the ligaments stretch. I have a bum ankle because it didn't heal right.

It's important with ankle injuries, in the beginning, to reduce swelling and gain range of motion back. I recommend massaging trauma linament(dit da jao) on the area because it is cooling and the massage will move stagnant blood out. Massage especially the areas that hurt as long as you can handle the pain. Take a sterile lancet and bleed the swollen area because that will get blood flowing to the area. Have someone stab you cause it will be hard for you to prick yourself. If you can get your hands on some herbal ice(Chinese herbs ground into a power) it will reduce swelling by a ton.

Excercises: A good excercise to do initially, when the joint is swollen, is to draw the letters of the alphabet with your ankle. As swelling and pain go away start doing the mud step of ba gua very very very slowly. Take atleast 30 seconds to a minute to take each step.

My right ankle sucks by my left one recovered fine because I did all of the above. In the beginning you'll notice your balance off due to pain but as the days go on you'll notice that your balance gets better and better. Then the pain will disappear. Do the bagua mud step for like 10 minutes EVERY day until you get full range of motion. Keep massaging the sore areas with dit da jow. When the swelling goes down you use warming lamps/patches to bring new blood to the area.

It's a lot of info but it's better than having a chronically injured ankle(I hurt mine over 10 years ago before learning the above treatments).

Oh yeah. Forgot this. Have someone massage the muscles of the calf particularly the muscle inbetween the gastrocs. This muscle is in the middle of the calf but you have to push through the big outside muscle to get to it. There is a membrane connecting the two bones of your legs. It's also helpful to separate that with your fingers. All this will stop the spasmed muscles from pulling and help with the pain. Massage it yourself if you like just don't hurt your hands in the process. Peace out