Another championship in the books brings an end to the NFL season. This year’s post-season competition has been an interesting one, with plenty of controversies and lingering injuries leading up to the final game. You can be sure the Patriots’ Tom Brady worked hard on his sprained ankle rehab leading up to the big game to deal with his injury from this past fall! Even for professionals, ankle rehabilitation takes time.

Your ankles are stabilized by multiple ligaments that hold each of the bones in place. When you sprain your ankle, one or more of these ligaments is suddenly and sharply over-stretched, leaving it loose and ineffective. Even once your ankle technically heals, it can be looser and weaker than it was before, which is difficult enough for anyone, but can spell disaster for an athlete.

To get your ankle strength back, you have to rehabilitate the joint. This means performing regular exercises to strengthen and condition all the soft tissues that stabilize it, including the surrounding muscles. Here are a few exercises that may help with your sprained ankle rehab:

• Balance Exercise – Try to balance on your recovering foot. Start easy by holding on to a nearby chair until you feel stable. Then make it progressively harder as each balancing stage gets easier: let go of the chair, then close your eyes, and then stand on a pillow.
• Resistance Pointing – Loop a resistance band around the ball of your foot. Hold it tight enough so there’s some tension in the band. Then point your toes as much as possible. Hold this for five seconds, then relax and repeat ten times.
• Resistance Side-to-Side – Loop a resistance band around your foot, then attach it to a stable object like a table. Hold your foot far enough away so the band is taut. Rotate your foot inward, pressing against the band ten times, and then switch and rotate your foot outward.

Ankles do take a little time to recover, but if you want to get back in the game without your joint giving out under you, taking that time is worth it. Our team at Parker Foot & Ankle is happy to help you through your recovery. Just contact our Houston office through our website, or by calling (281) 497-2850.