Looking for ideas on how to strengthen ankle

MariahMichaels

I'm looking for ideas on how to strengthen my ankle. A little back story, I strained my ankle back in 2008, I went to the doctor and he gave me stretches to do and instructed me to rest it for a few weeks. After it felt better I continued working out, but stayed away from jumping or anything that seemed to bother my ankle. After about 6-8 months I didn't have much pain, usually only when I pushed myself really hard. My ankle started bothering me again in late 2010, days after I had my daughter and after a few months it stopped bothering me. I started exercising again in late 2011, light cardio a couple of times a week and I had no problems. January 2013 I started increasing my workouts to 4 x a week elliptical and 3 x a week walking, I started strength training (1 x a week) using a total gym a few weeks ago and my ankle is bothering me again. I started feeling my ankle pain the day after I did leg curls for the first time. I sort of forgot about my ankle injury until after I finished doing the curls, otherwise I probably would have skipped it. I haven't done the leg curls since that day but I'm still having mild pain in my ankle. Is there anything I can do to strengthen my ankle?

jeffrodgers1

Ankle injuries usually benefit from strengthening not only the ankle but the surrounding muscle tissues.

Try these a couple of times per day;

Single leg calf raises ( start at 1 set of 10 and build)
stand on one foot and hold that position for as long as possible. Repeat on other leg.
Make a fist with your toes, while your toes are balled up walk on your heels (1 set = 30 steps)
Get 100 of those little green army men (marbles work too). Dump them on the floor. Pick them up with your toes and put them back in the bucket.
Use a theraband wrapped to a table leg. Pull the foot away from the table leg. Repeat on both legs and repeat such that you are flexing your ankle inwards and outwards. (i.e. have the table leg to the inside of your ankle and then again to the outside of the ankle)

You should see some improvement fairly quickly (a couple of weeks). This also works for shin splints.

Hope that helps!