Ankle stability – Sturdy as a mountain goat
The ankle is a pretty awesome joint, out of all the major joints of the body it carries the most load and it keeps coming back for more, well most of the time. I have badly broken both my ankles (at the same time) one much worse than the other, not a very fun experience considering I spent the proceeding six weeks in a wheel chair.
This is an actual x-ray of my right ankle
Ankle injuries tend to vary from sport to sport, most moto guys or girls, tend not to have roll injuries, like BMX and skateboarders do. Instead, they prefer catastrophic structural failure from severe impact AKA they break their bones. That is not to say skate and BMX don’t have their fair share either, but one is more common than the other depending on the sport and they usually all involve ligament damage.
Now regardless of what the damage is or what your sport, the plan of attack for prevention and or rehabilitation is fairly similar. The key here is to build stability through muscular strength as well as increasing the proprioception of the ankle joint. There is that word again, proprioception, in simple terms is just means your bodies self-awareness and ability to react without thought, kind of like the safety over ride in a mechanical system.
Now if you remember back to my article on knee stability I spoke about the interconnection between the foot, ankle, knee and hip. More specifically, how the stability of each influences the other, this is very important to remember and why it is important not to focus on a single joint after injury but rather the whole chain.
So how do we strengthen the ankles? Well the simple answer is controlled movement under load or, lift heavy things with your legs. However, it is not always that simple because if someone is inherently unstable or post injury they may need remedial work to bring them up to speed before going for their 1RM squat or dead lift, so here is an example of how I might rehabilitate someone post injury.
Typically I would start, depending on the level and age of injury, with some strengthening work using resistance bands for medial and lateral movement as well as plantar and dorsiflexion of the ankle. As well as digital control and arch strengthen techniques. Once satisfied with their progress we would move on to some unstable surface work (balance disk, wobble board), focusing on range of movement and muscular control seated initially then standing. This stability work would usually be accompanied by mobility work to ensure the client retains or recovers full range of movement (ROM).
And yes, I did recently write an article about the ineffectiveness of stability training for optimal performance but in that article I also said how these devices can be useful for the remedial and rehabilitation stages of programming, so hold off on the hate mail just yet.
Once the client has satisfied the requirements of the initial stage of the programming, we would begin to add load through various exercises that target the same movement patterns as previously mentioned. Eventually building them up to where we can perform higher level exercises such as squats, dead lifts and plyometrics.
Now obviously that is quite a brief overview but it gives you an idea of the level of progression that is sometimes required to rehabilitate a particular body part after injury. As mentioned above this would all be incorporated in, at least, a regional (lower limb), if not a whole body plan to insure the athlete is structurally balance and are not being opened up to potential injury in other areas of the body as a result of overcompensation.
Understanding not only the ankle, but also the way the entire lower limb interacts, is the key to rehabilitating, maintaining strength, and avoiding injury. This, combined with the fundamentals from my FREE Ebook, is exactly the approach I take with my clients and athletes to keep them one step ahead of the competition. If you want to take your training and performance to the next level or, need help getting back into condition after an injury contact me now and start your path of success.
Train hard and be safe.
Your strength coach,
Cam
