Regular exercise is very important for your overall health. Not only can it help to build muscle, it can also reduce our risk of injury and other health issues. That said, exercise is also a grueling undertaking, and if you’re not careful about your approach to exercise, you could end up overloading or injuring certain areas of your body.
One area that’s prone to exercise-related injury are your feet and ankles. Oftentimes they have to handle stress many times greater than your body weight as you walk, run, jump and move during exercise, so it’s important you work to protect your ankles when you exercise. In today’s blog, we share some tips for protecting your ankles while you exercise.
Caring For Your Ankles During Exercise
Regular exercise can increase your likelihood of having strong ankles, but exercising incorrectly can lead to the need for a visit with an orthopaedic specialist. We’d love to treat whatever foot or ankle issue you’re dealing with, but we’d rather help you avoid an injury in the first place if at all possible. Here are some tips for protecting your ankles during exercise.
1. Wear The Right Shoes – For starters, you absolutely need to match your shoes to the activity you’ll be performing. Get a running or similar high-performance shoe if you’ll be doing a high impact workout, or find a shoe with qualities suited to your individual needs. Shoes with good grip are great for those who like to exercise outdoors in wet or slippery conditions, while shoes with a little more cushion in the heel or the forefoot can be protective based on your foot-strike pattern. Exercising in shoes not suited for the activity can be a recipe for sprains and other ankle injuries.
2. Warm Up – Once you’ve slipped into the right pair of exercise shoes, it’s time to prepare your ankles and your whole body for the activity that’s to come. When your muscles, ligaments and tendons are eased into activity, they respond better to tension and stress. Abrupt stress can increase your risk of a tear or other tissue damage. We oftentimes focus on warming up large muscle groups like our biceps, hamstrings, glutes and calves, but we don’t always stretch and move our joints before activity. Make sure you move your ankles a bit so they can prepare for the activity that lies ahead.
3. Target Your Ankles – Most exercises target specific muscle groups or work to strengthen some larger joints like our knees and hips. However, many people never put themselves through a workout that specifically targets their ankles. Strengthening your ankles with a targeted workout can greatly reduce your risk of an ankle sprain or injuries to the supportive ankle ligaments. Single-leg exercises and box jump routines can really enhance your ankle strength and reduce your risk of an injury.
4. Don’t Overdo It – Make sure you’re varying your workouts so that you’re not always targeting the same areas of your body. If you’re going for a run every day, your lower body can end up being overstressed. Vary your exercise program, especially if you’re drawn to high impact exercises that really stress your feet and ankles.
5. Help Fuel Your Recovery – After an intense workout, help your body recover by providing the right type of environment for healing and muscle building to take place. Consume a healthy diet that avoids pro-inflammatory foods, re-hydrate with plenty of water and get at least eight hours of restful sleep. Ice any inflamed areas and avoid other high-intensity activities that could end up overloading the area you tested during your exercise program. Many athletes exercise regularly, but not all of them pay as much attention to how they recover after exercise. Focusing on your recovery can ensure your ankles and your whole body are ready the next time you want to put them to the test.
For more tips on how you can protect your ankles during or after a workout, reach out to Dr. Silverman by filling out this contact form.