After suffering from an ankle sprain, ankle strengthening exercises should be performed once you can properly handle the resistance and you have near full range of motion in your ankle.
There are several different types of ankle strengthening exercises that should be done during the rehabilitation phase in order to strengthen the muscles surrounding the ankle.
Initially this could be achieved by doing isometric exercises, which basically refers to pushing your ankle against a fixed object such as a wall and holding for a count of 10-15 seconds.
Once this has been performed with some regularity and you’ve mastered it, you can then progress to isotonic ankle strengthening exercises, which helps to regain the full range of motion of the ankle that existed before the injury.
This could be achieved using therabands, also called resistance bands. Therabands are a great tool to strengthen muscles and doing ankle strengthening exercises with these bands helps to improve muscular balance of your body. More importantly for athletes with chronic foot and ankle injuries, it will help decrease the likelihood of future injuries.
If you’re not familiar with Therabands, they basically refer to elastic rubber bands that can be used to resist movement of the ankle. Ankle strengthening theraband exercises involve anchoring the theraband below one of your feet to create the tension. Typically they come in different lengths and tensions, although you can also increase the tension of the band simply by shortening the length of the Therabands you are using.
Ankle strengthening theraband exercises is an integral part of any rehabilitation program for sprained ankles and other sports injuries. Many physiotherapists will advice their clients who have had shoulder, knee, ankle surgery, and related injuries to use theraband exercises as part of rehab, particularly exercise routines that can be performed at home in order to regain the strength in their muscles.
Here is a common ankle strengthening theraband exercise to assist in the process of ankle sprain treatment to increase strength where the injury occurred.
Sitting in a chair, loop the theraband securely around the foot of the problem ankle. Make sure there are no movement around the foot to prevent the band from slipping off and creating a worse injury. While holding the end of the band, straighten your knee joint therefore lifting your leg with the band off the ground. Next, bend and flex your ankle so as to oppose the resistance. The movement of this exercise should be similar to pressing your feet down on the gas pedal. Repeat for a total number of 3-5 sets of 25 repetitions several times per day.
