3 Ways to Prevent Ankle Injuries
According to statistics, nearly 28,000 ankle injuries occur each year, with ankle sprains constituting as the most common injury type. Most of these are applicable to athletes, but even individuals who don’t engage in sporting activities are prone to ankle injuries.
However, there are a few easy ways for you to avoid such injuries.
Strengthen the Foot & Ankle Muscles
Muscle strengthening exercises help improve stability and allow your ankle muscles to support your lower body better. If your leg or foot muscles are weak, then you’re likely to tire out after short movements and exercises, and find it difficult to maintain stability when doing strenuous tasks. It also makes you more prone to sustaining ankle injuries.
To keep your muscles active and strengthened, you can engage in quite a few easy exercises that can be done at home. For instance, you can trace out all the alphabets in the air using your feet. This will help the muscles move in different directions and angles, improving their range of motion and strength both. Similarly, you can also do short running or walking exercises in your backyard, allowing your core leg and ankle muscles to gain strength.
Improve Muscle Flexibility
Our ankle muscles tighten up when the body’s at rest, clenching in the process. The longer the period of rest, the tauter they become. In this duration, there’s a certain amount of inflexibility within our body, which can result in awkward and odd muscle postures when there’s sudden movement.
This lack of flexibility tends to cause ankle injuries as the muscles are unable to support the lower body. Therefore, it’s imperative that you make it a habit to stretch your ankle muscles regularly, even if you’re not engaged in a physical activity that requires you to walk, so that flexibility may be maintained.
Before you go out for a jog or bike your way back home, make sure you’ve warmed up and stretched enough times so that your ankle muscles can adjust to the exercise ahead. This’ll also help you prevent sustaining an ankle injury.
Choose the Right Footwear
Don’t underestimate the power of picking the right shoes! Your choice of footwear should be based on the type of activity you’ll be engaging in. For instance, if you’re going on a hike, then you need shoes that come with a spiked sole and provide adequate ankle support for you to climb up the elevated ground.
Running shoes need to be equipped with the right sort of ankle support as well, allowing your muscles and ligaments to cope with the increased stress caused through the repeated motions. Investing in the right footwear will take you a long way—literally!
At Foot & Ankle Institute, we have the best ankle surgeons on board to provide an effective treatment for your foot and ankle ailments. We also offer a host of sports medicine services.
Call us at (305) 695-7777 to get in touch with our team!