Rehab-ing a sprained ankle - what to do in the interim?

[LizO66]

Help! I badly sprained my ankle running and it seems to be taking forever to heal. Any suggestions on what kind of workouts to do while recovering would be greatly appreciated. I don't belong to a gym and I'm not such a fan of swimming. I have basic home workout stuff (dumbells, barbell, long step) and a treadmill.

I've worked so hard for my strength and cardio gains (I'm 46), and I don't want to lose anything!

Thank you!!
Liz

 

[maddiesmum]

Sprained and swollen ankle:
1. Strap it up. Soak bandages in cold water, wrap ankle tightly. Do this for several days. 2. Keep OFF the ankle for several days.
3. When you can walk on it again, gradually increase pressure you put on the ankle until you are walking normally again. Until you can resume normal walking gait without favouring the other side, you have no business working out at all!

4. Then, what I have used and which helps a lot is swimming. Somehow the foot motions and kicks help me resume full range of motion and gain strength back in the injured ankle. Couple of weeks swimming and I'm back to powerwalking and light running. But you have to build back up SLOWLY! I'm not a fan of swimming either. But it works. It's short term and will get you back to running.

If you are having discomfort after this, you should not be running. No treadmill. No barbells! If you are beyond the swelling and bruising stage and discomfort/pain/inability to put weight on the foot/walk normally persist, then you should get an x-ray. A very bad sprain will not heal without a fixed kind of bandaging around the ankle, lower leg. I know, because I have been through this.

After plaster/stiff bandage comes off, resume re-hab from #3 onwards.

Clare

 

[ElleJay]

Listen to Clare or you will just re-injure your ankle I fell in a hole running around the outfield in a softball game and was out of commission for a good 6 weeks. Do upper body work if you must, just try and be patient

 

[exercise-lover]

Can you at least do upper body or yoga?

 

[LizO66]

Thanks, everyone! I can do upper body and some core work, too. Yoga, I'm not too sure about! I can put some pressure on my foot - it seems to 'loosen' up as I walk more, but it is swollen. The hardest thing is just being patient!

Thanks for the input!
Liz

 

[maddiesmum]

Swollen ankle: really, start at step 1. You cannot be even doing a walking workout until that swelling goes down.

Clare

 

[dr.mel_PT]

What Clare said! I just sprained my ankle a few weeks ago so I know how u feel. I've been doing UB stuff and Pilates. It finally feels well enough to move so now I'm doing low impact cardio but I'm wrapping it to limit the ROM just in case. I probably won't be doing any high impact cardio for another couple of weeks. Im paranoid about re-injuring it.