The Infamous Ankle Sprain

Now, we've all heard of an ankle sprain and if you don't have first hand experience, you for sure know or heard of someone who has suffered from this. But what does it mean when someone has sprained their ankle? How does one heal from it?

There are 2 types of ankle sprains: inversion and eversion ankle sprains. Inversion is twisting your foot inwards (where the sole of your foot is facing in) and an eversion sprain is twisting your foot outwards (where the sole of your foot is facing out). The first type is the most common.

It usually happens when you "roll" onto the outside of your foot and may have sensed a popping/tearing sensation.They can happen in so many different ways and at different severity's, as outlined below.

Grades of Ankle Sprains from Conditions Manual by Dr. M. Carnes and Dr. N. Vizniak

But now we know what it is, how do we heal from it? Up to 72 hours after injury, just remember PRICE.

1. P - Protect the ankle with splints, tape, or loose lace-up support. Don't want to injury yourself even more now, do we?
2. R - Rest by reducing any weight bearing activities, but try to return to activity ASAP (don't want to be resting too long).
3. I - Ice 20 minutes on with 1 hour intervals to control any inflammation and reduce secondary injury (this is especially important within the first 24 hours).
4. C - Compression. This can be done with elastic wrap or tape, or even keeping your shoe on while on the field (if injured in such a manner) to help with any swelling. If there's little room to swell, the swelling can only go so far!
5. E - Elevate your leg to allow you to rest up and help control swelling for the first 48 - 72 hours.

After the first 72 hours, you want to wean yourself off crutches and try to get back to pain free activities. Once you've mastered one activity pain free, try to challenge it a little more. BUT make sure you don't overdo it! We don't want to re-injure ourselves now do we?

A great way would be to start with alternating pointing toes and bringing the toes back while sitting. Once that no longer hurts, then try doing it while you're standing (stand on your tippy toes and back down). Once you've jumped that hurdle, let's go for a walk. It's great weather now, so why not go for a walk, barefoot, on the beach? The uneven surfaces of the beach really challenges those muscles and helps your muscles/ligaments heal much better. Besides, exercising and healing while having the sun shining on your face, breathing the fresh air, and hearing the waves crashing on the shore - can you think of a better way to heal yourself? 

Continue with these exercises and continue to challenge yourself once you've reached the "pain free activity" stage until you're pretty much back to your normal self! Now you're able to walk properly again and got a sweet tan, perfect.

To learn more about ankle sprains, how to manage them, or learn about other conditions that can afflict our fabulous bodies, click here to order the Conditions Manual.