Monday, March 17, 2014

Sprained Ankle Protocols

Everyone has sprained their ankle.  The stuff we do these days, is completely different then the stuff we did when I was in High School even College.

Inversion sprain.  The ankle buckles underneath you, so the outside goes into the ground, is the most common.  The old adage of ice and rest/immobilization are gone.  NSAIDS gone.  All three were commonly used.

Today, pump the swelling out of there.  Voodoo bands, or gentle upward strokes to get some swelling out.  Tissue work on the peroneal muscle groups.  This muscle must have given out to allow a sprain to happen.  Manipulating the alignment of talus/calcaneus/cuboid can help restore proper function. Keeping as much dorsiflexion as we can with drills like wall slides to keep the talus in place and keep it from traveling forward.

Keep moving.  Obviously taking care to not allow a reinjury, so nothing dynamic, uneven or unstable.  Simple drills like going up on the toes under support can be great though.

Some times extra enzymes can help in the form of supplementation, this potentially can speed up the inflammatory process.  (extra inflammation)  Inflammation is necessary to help remodel torn or injured tissue.  That is why NSAIDS are a bad thing.

If you sprain your ankle in the future, give these new protocols a whirl, they will have you up and walking much sooner.

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