It is very easy to twist an ankle, which is well known to athletes, especially basketball players. This is the most common injury in basketball. It is very important for an athlete to quickly recover and return to the court, and for this it is necessary to strengthen (pump up) muscles and tendons with ligaments.
Below is a selection of simple and very effective exercises that you can do yourself at home to quickly get back into the game. They will be effective for any ankle injuries - from sprains to bruises.
Clothes should be loose, it is advisable to remove shoes. Perform all exercises (especially the first days) smoothly and gradually. Remember the important principle: “Endure mild pain, do not allow severe pain.”
Try to do these exercises daily for at least 2 weeks.
Calf muscle strain
Stand at arm's length from a wall or other fixed support. Hold onto the wall with one hand. Bend the leg you are working on at the knee, and grab its toe with your free hand. Pull your toe toward your heel until you feel a stretch in the front of your shin. Hold the stretch for 15-30 seconds. Repeat 3 times.
Balance
- The feet are also critical to balance.
- Exercises to help strengthen and maintain balance:
Balancing one leg
- While standing behind a chair, place your hands on the back of the chair for support.
- Raise your healthy leg so that your affected leg bears the weight of your body. Make sure your knee is slightly bent and balanced for 30 seconds.
- Use a chair for support at first, but it is important to perform this exercise with little or no support. This will increase your overall ankle strength.
Once a person has mastered this skill, they can move on to more advanced balance exercises. Variations may include balancing on the affected leg while:
- you move your head from side to side
- slightly bend and straighten your knee
- keep your eyes closed
These exercises are difficult to do, but they can help train your leg to improve your balance.
Ankle resistance
Sit on the floor facing the door. Using a loop, fasten one end of the expander to the toe of the leg you are working on, and the other end to the door. Move away from the door until you feel enough tension. Keeping your leg straight, pull your toe towards you, stretching the expander. Slowly return to the starting position. 2 sets of 15 times.
How can you tell if your feet are deformed?
There are only three main signs of planovalgus foot deformity. If there is at least one, this is a reason to think about a visit to an orthopedist.
- My legs get tired and hurt quickly.
Pain is associated with deformation if it appears during physical activity and does not bother you at night. Moreover, some places in the foot suffer more than others. First, the heel: the plantar fascia on the sole becomes chronically inflamed, and the heel hurts when walking, especially when taking the first steps in the morning. Secondly, the tendons that connect the joints in the big toe area: they also become inflamed and painful. - Calluses appeared on my feet.
The foot becomes deformed, the load when walking is distributed incorrectly, and calluses appear on the plantar surface. If you take them to a dermatologist, he will refer you to an orthopedist, because he himself can only cope with the symptoms: prescribe medications that soften the skin and promote its exfoliation. But the overload of the sole of the foot and the skin in this area will remain, and calluses will appear again. - The shoes became too small.
Our bones stop growing by age 22. Later, the leg increases in size only in two cases: if it swells or if the bones in it become deformed. In the second case, the forefoot usually widens, so shoes with a narrow toe feel especially tight and uncomfortable.
Achilles strengthening
Standing behind a chair (needed for support), feet shoulder-width apart. Rise up onto your toes and hold this position for 5 seconds. Then slowly lower yourself down. The exercise will be more effective if you do not hold on to the back of the chair while doing it. As soon as the exercise is no longer difficult for you, try performing it exclusively with your working leg. 2 sets of 15 times.
Rehabilitation of the ankle joint after injuries
Ankle joint
- a complex anatomical formation represented by the articulation of the tibia and fibula and the bones of the foot. The shape of the ankle joint is block-like, but such close contact of the articular surfaces of the bones, on the one hand, reliably protects it from injury, on the other, makes its treatment, and therefore rehabilitation, a complex process.
The evolutionary development of upright walking involves increased loads on the joints of the lower extremities, including the ankle.
Rehabilitation of the ankle joint directly depends on the type of injury, the pathogenesis of the disease, and the individual characteristics of the body also play an important role. Due to the impossibility of completely refusing to walk, physical activity cannot be completely excluded for obvious reasons. Therefore, physical therapy for ankle injuries as a universal therapeutic method is often quite limited.
Terms of rehabilitation
Based on the individual characteristics of each person (age, gender, degree of ligament damage - sprain or fracture, treatment method, etc.), the recovery time after ligament damage varies from 1 to 5 months. Main direction of rehabilitation
- Physiotherapy - this technique has had a good effect. Methods of additional physical influence, generally used both in the acute period of the disease during treatment, and in subsequent periods of rehabilitation. For example, electrophoresis, phonophoresis, which allows you to deliver medicinal substances directly to the site of inflammation. The method is quite simple and practically does not harm the body.
- Massage - to develop the joint.
- Exercise therapy - in addition to everything, rehabilitation of the ankle joint includes general hardening of the body, dosed physical exercises, therapeutic physical training in water (Aqua exercise therapy).
Exercises for the ankle joint are divided depending on the point of application of the force directed at it. It is necessary to understand that in rehabilitation there are no universal schemes prescribed, for example, for ligament ruptures, etc. The doctor must individually select the treatment plan that, in his opinion, will be optimal. Below we describe the most common exercises:
Ankle rehabilitation - “classic” exercises for beginners
Exercises while sitting on a chair. 1. Feet together. Roll a stick or a water bottle back and forth. 2. Alternately bend and straighten your feet at the ankle joints. 3. Feet together. “Stroke the floor” - without lifting your feet forward and backward. 4. Feet parallel. “Collect sand” with your fingers. 5. On the spot, gather the mat with your fingers under the sole and push it out. 6. a) rolls from heel to toe; b) first, toes up, c) heels up. 7. Feet together, stroke the healthy foot with the sore foot, without lifting the heel.
Exercises with the ball. 1. Roll the ball forward and backward with one and two feet. 2. Circular movements of the ball in both directions with one and two feet. 3. Grab the ball with your fingers and lift it with the middle of your foot. 4. Roll the ball from foot to foot with your feet turned out.
Exercises with a stick. 1. Roll the stick with pressure. 2. Grab the stick with your fingers without lifting the sole.
In our center, traumatologists and orthopedists provide consultations on diseases of the musculoskeletal system, individually determine and prescribe methods of treatment and further rehabilitation.
Rehabilitation of the ankle joint directly depends on the type of injury, the pathogenesis of the disease, and the individual characteristics of the body also play an important role. Due to the impossibility of completely refusing to walk, physical activity cannot be completely excluded for obvious reasons. Therefore, physical therapy for ankle injuries as a universal therapeutic method is often quite limited.
Terms of rehabilitation
Based on the individual characteristics of each person (age, gender, degree of ligament damage - sprain or fracture, treatment method, etc.), the recovery time after ligament damage varies from 1 to 5 months.
Main direction of rehabilitation
- Physiotherapy - this technique has had a good effect. Methods of additional physical influence, generally used both in the acute period of the disease during treatment, and in subsequent periods of rehabilitation. For example, electrophoresis, phonophoresis, which allows you to deliver medicinal substances directly to the site of inflammation. The method is quite simple and practically does not harm the body.
- Massage - to develop the joint.
- Exercise therapy - in addition to everything, rehabilitation of the ankle joint includes general hardening of the body, dosed physical exercises, therapeutic physical training in water (Aqua exercise therapy).
Ankle inversion
Sit on the floor with your legs extended in front of you. Cross the ankle of your healthy leg over the one you are working on. Wrap one end of the resistance band around the developing and healthy leg (as shown in the photo). Hold the other end of the resistance band in your hand. Rotate the leg being worked out inward and upward. This movement will stretch the expander. Return to the starting position. 2 sets of 15 times.
When to start rehabilitation exercises
Increasing flexibility is a key factor in ankle sprain rehabilitation. Immediately after a foot injury, the most important factor is rest for a few days.
Elevating your feet can reduce swelling. Placing an ice pack wrapped in a towel on the area for about 10 minutes every few hours can also reduce swelling and pain. Medicines such as ibuprofen (Advil) or acetaminophen (Tylenol) may also help with pain.
A few days of rest is usually sufficient for people with mild to moderate sprains. After a few days, a person can begin light exercise to rehabilitate the ligaments in the feet. Ligament recovery usually takes about 6 weeks.
The rehabilitation phase is just as important as the rest phase as it helps the injured ankle regain its strength.
Why strengthen your ankle?
Remember the feeling when you twist your ankle. If it were not for the ligaments and muscles of the legs, we would do this at every step. Each time the joint would suffer. But this doesn't happen. The leg is held tightly by the calf muscles. We won’t go into detail about what other muscles form the lower leg and foot - this is not an anatomy lesson.
The first and main function of a strong ankle is to maintain the human body in an upright position. Because of this heavy load, the Achilles tendon is quite thick (you can feel it above each heel). The next function is to support walking and running.
People with weak calf muscles are more likely to twist their legs, they are more likely to fall and injure themselves. The ankle system plays an important role in this.
And finally, the gastrocnemius and soleus muscles organize the appearance of our lower leg. This is very important for bodybuilders. Therefore, they pump the calves from all sides.
Characteristics
- Generating the maximum amount of muscle force is directly related to the number of muscle fibers involved in the movement and the cross-sectional area of the muscle.
- The arrangement of fibers according to the angle of their insertion into the tendon, the length of the muscle, the amount of joint flexion, and the rate of contraction can alter the expression of muscle force.
- The magnitude of the force also depends on the degree of activation of the motor unit (according to the size principle).
Adaptations to resistance training allow greater force to be generated through multiple neuromuscular mechanisms. Muscle strength can increase significantly in the first week of training (improved nervous system control), and long-term strength gains are realized through improved changes in muscle architecture, increased muscle cross-sectional area, and adaptation to increased metabolites.
You can read about chronic instability of the ankle joint here, and about syndesmotic sprains here.
The rate at which strength increases depends on the type of program used and careful adherence to recommendations regarding intensity, choice and order of exercises, volume, frequency and length of rest periods between sets.
Predictors of CNGS
Doherty believes that a combination of the SEBT balance test and the Foot and Ankle Ability Assessment Test (FAAM) can predict the likelihood of developing CNHS.
- The SEBT balance test (especially the posterolateral direction) has a very significant predictive ability for CNSH.
- The FAAM test (especially the activities of daily living subscale) can be used as an objective assessment of recovery from acute lateral sprain. A low score on the questionnaire, especially in combination with a deficit in movement in the posterolateral direction on the SEBT balance test, indicates a high risk of developing CNHS.