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Balance and agility drills can help prevent sprains and other injuries
By Marlene Cimons
Runner's World
Balancing on one foot helps strengthen your ankles
Proper shoe selection plays an important role in preventing sprains and other injuries. Once you sprain your ankle,
however, the most important thing you can do to avoid future sprains is retrain your body through balance work.
Other preventive measures include strengthening your ankle and improving your agility. Here are some exercises
that can help:
1. Balance work
With your shoes off, stand on your "bad" leg, keeping your ankles close together, and try to balance
for 1 minute.
"If that's easy, do it with your eyes closed," says Janet Sobel, a physical therapist in Chevy Chase,
Md. "If that's easy, stand on a softer surface. If that's easy, do it with your eyes closed. And if that's
easy, go out for a run."
2. Agility drills
These include side-to-side shuffling, backward walking or running, and running in a figure-eight pattern (starting
with wide loops and progressing to tighter loops as the ankle strengthens).
During this retraining process, the idea is to put minimal stress on the injured ankle initially and then, over
time, increase the stress to strengthen the area.
"Our bodies have a marvelous ability to adapt to stress and get stronger, as long as the stress is applied
gradually," says Thomas Clanton, M.D., chairman of the department of orthopedic surgery at the University
of Texas Medical School in Houston.
3. Strengthening exercises
First, sit with your legs extended and crossed, and wrap a 2-pound weight around your healing foot. Bend your foot
up and out. Do three sets of 15 repetitions. As it becomes easier, increase the weight and repetitions. Jumping
rope, or standing and hopping on a mini-trampoline can be effective strengthening activities, but be sure your
ankle is fully healed before doing these.
Another exercise: Lie on your bed, on your "good" side, with your injured foot hanging over the edge
of the bed. Wrap a 2-pound weight around your foot, then turn your foot up and slowly lower it. As above, do three
sets of 15 repetitions.
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