Sustaining any injury that limits how much you can exercise is crushing. No one likes to sustain an injury, and one that could potentially undo all of your hard-earned gains is a pretty tough pill to swallow.
Ensuring you rest to allow your injury to recuperate is vital, especially if you sustain an ankle injury. Your ankle needs to support your weight, and by not giving it time to heal, you could be opening yourself up to a whole host of related problems and even making it worse than the original injury.
Once your physician gives you the all-clear to start working out again post ankle injury, you must pay attention to the cues your body is giving you regarding what type of exercise it can sustain and what could potentially cause more damage. Pain is your giveaway that something isn’t right and your body needs some attention, and ignoring the pain could be disastrous.
Supporting your ankle before and during workouts by wearing an ankle brace to help give you extra stability, or applying kt tape to an ankle before exercise can help you reduce the impact and help you avoid doing further damage. As can make sure you are alternating what exercise you are doing and when you are doing them to maximise your recovery times.
What type of exercise is good for ankle injuries?
Stationary Bike
Riding a stationary bike can allow you to exert as much or as little pressure as you need to effectively. The cycling movement can provide your ankle with a low impact workout and allow you to rebuild any loss of fitness while you are still recovering. Pay attention to time limits and try to go at a speed that doesn’t aggravate the injury and allows you to exercise as pain-free as possible.
Swimming
Swimming is the ultimate low impact exercise and allows the water to take the full weight of your body and support you as you swim. As your feet won’t sustain an impact from the motion and are supported, swimming is a great exercise for most injuries and ankle and feet related conditions.
Resistance Workouts
Resistance workouts can help you to regain the full motion of your ankle as it is healing. Follow your doctor’s advice regarding the right type of resistance workouts for your body to really gain the maximum benefits without doing any more damage to the original injury site.
Yoga or Pilates
Strengthening your core is vital to allow you to undertake more vigorous exercise and push your body to its limits. Yoga and Pilates are core training workouts and can allow you to work on your core strength and flexibility in a more low impact way. It will also include a full range of motion for your ankle, allowing you to exercise still while healing without putting too much pressure on your ankle.
Remember to make sure you are listening to your body and paying attention to increased pain levels or movements that are causing you more pain. Any sudden changes in your injury should be noted and brought to the attention of your primary care doctor to allow for further investigation.
Thank you for reading!
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