Ankle sprains

Many people sprain their ankle during day to day activities, weekend sporting events or even just walking and rarely seek advice  from a doctor or physiotherapist and think it will “just get better with time” and then still struggle a few weeks or even months down the line to get back to their favourite sport or hobby due to the feeling of weakness or instability in the ankle joint. Also, we commonly see high re-injury rates in these people as they become more prone to recurrent sprains. When there is swelling and inflammation around the ankle joint, the proprioceptive muscles of the ankle, The Peroneals, may develop muscle inhibition and have reduced ouput in providing sensory feedback. Here at Wimbledon Physiotherapy and Sports Injuries clinic we break our rehabilitation down into 5 Stages of rehab:

1. Maintaining and improving range of movement by doing active or passive range of movement exercises and preventing atrophy and loss of muscle memory by initiating some static strengthening exercises. 
2. The emphasis shifts to restoring a more efficient muscle balance by stretching or relaxing tight/overactive muscles and strengthening the key stabilizers of the ankle.  Here we work on strength and endurance; the calf and gluteal muscle may also be targeted for both strengthening and stretching
3. As soon as you can weight bear with minimal pain, proprioceptive activities on stable and then unstable surfaces are incorporated and can be performed throughout the rest of the rehabilitation program.
4. Lastly, more dynamic exercises and sports-specific exercises are prescribed to help you return to doing the things that you love doing.  
5. Our hands on treatment includes mobilization, manipulation, soft tissue massage and neuromuscular stimulation which are used as needed throughout the program

We highly recommend that if you have had an ankle sprain or injury that you get it looked at by a Physiotherapist so that we can help you prevent future injuries and keep you doing what you love.