Adding warm up exercises to your daily routine helps your body get ready for activities. Not only will a good warm up get your muscles and joints ready, but it also helps your heart and lungs prepare for the exertion.
Balancing Exercises
Anything you can do to help your body balance will help prevent injuries in your ankles and other joints. By challenging your balancing abilities, you strengthen your proprioception, which is the ability of your body to be aware of where your limbs are at all times. In regards to ankles, your legs have less of a chance of stepping down wrong or making another mistake that could injure you.
Plyometric Exercises
These types of exercises including skipping, jumping, hopping and other activities that involve bouncing off the ground. This is a great way to condition and strengthen the muscles as well as the ligaments and tendons in your ankle joint so they are prepared for strenuous activities.
Choose Ideal Footwear
Try out different types of shoes until your feet feel like they are supported and comfortable. The right pair of shoes stabilizes your ankles while also providing comfort to your feet. They should also support your lower leg while you’re walking, jogging or running.
Strapping
If you have a weak ankle or one that has recently been injured, wrapping it in tape can give it some extra support and stability. If done correctly, this method can even provide support to injured ankles so you can still walk on it.
As with all muscle joints and ligaments, a few preventative tactics can prevent injury or lessen the impact that an injury could have on your body. With the complexity of the ankle joint, keeping it supported and flexible helps reduce the risk of a serious injury. A few preventative actions can keep you from getting a serious injury that could have a lasting impact on your body for months or even years.
The R.I.C.E.R. Treatment
Even with precautions, injuries do happen. Applying immediate treatment at the first signs of an ankle or other joint injury reduces its negative effects. The most effective treatment for a soft tissue injury of any kind is the RICER method. Not only does it relieve pain and swelling, but it’s also the most effective in reducing your recovery time. It’s essential to any successful recovery. Following is a simple explanation about the RICER method.
What to Avoid During Recovery
Now that you know what to do to aid recovery, there are some things to avoid for a successful recovery. These things increase swelling and bleeding, making your injury worse and taking more time for recovery.
Following the R.I.C.E.R. method and staying away from certain things is the ideal way to a full and fast recovery. In case of an ankle injury, immediate action gives the best results for getting your ankle back to normal as quick as possible. Consult your doctor immediately and follow his or her directions.
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