Avoid sprains with this exercise routine

Few people know it, but sprains are avoidable if we know how to strengthen the feet, ankles and calves. It is an exercise routine that we should introduce to our children, the elderly around us, and ourselves as adults. We are going to explain what kind of exercises are how they are done.

We have before us the best kept secret and that is that it is possible to avoid sprains and no one ever told us. The ankles are a very sensitive area of our body because they hold all our weight and allow us endless movements that we do not miss until we are impaired.

The ankles are an essential part of our body and it is also very exposed to everything related to our physical activity and the terrain we walk on. Any bad fall can cause us to injure our ankle, so it is important to anticipate and strengthen those joints.

If we are one of those who believe that anti-sprain exercises do not exist, we are going to stay until the end, to show that they do exist. In fact, a servant, suffered a serious sprain a few years ago and as a result of that I promised myself that not one more. The joke comes when two years later I ended up with a knee-length cast on my other ankle. But jokes aside, that ankle did recover well because it was previously strengthened and after recovery I continued to strengthen feet, ankles and calves.

These are very simple exercises that you have to do several times a week, you don’t even have to do it daily. They can be done on the couch, in bed, while hanging clothes, walking the dog, talking on the phone, in the office, etc.

Benefits of strengthening the ankles

Strengthening the ankles goes beyond recovering faster from an injury or better supporting some physical activity, we can even enjoy more than one specific type of footwear, such as heels in women, but today there are many benefits around these exercises to strengthen the ankles, feet and calves.

  • The chances of injury such as sprains are reduced.
  • Faster recovery.
  • After an ankle injury, the affected area will return to its normal state more quickly.
  • Better balance.
  • Improves blood circulation.
  • We will be able to bear more weight.
  • We will be more agile.
  • We prevent muscle atrophy.
  • We will have a more efficient footprint.
  • We correct the body posture.

As we can see, having well-trained ankles is a very important plus for our day to day life, hence we recommend that children, our elders and ourselves should do it. They are very simple exercises that do not cause pain or stiffness, but little by little they help the rest of the body, especially with circulation, balance and footsteps.

Una mujer se hace un esguince en uno de sus tobillos

Anti-sprain exercises

These exercises will improve our day-to-day life, as they will help us perform routine tasks with greater skill, such as standing on our toes, walking faster and improving our blood circulation. We repeat that these are very simple exercises that are suitable for the whole family.

Walk on tiptoe and with heels

It is a very simple and effective exercise. It consists of walking on tiptoe and then walking with the heels. It is common to see children playing with these movements, so it will be easier to include them in their routine.

To walk on tiptoe, we can do it barefoot, with socks, with shoes or whatever we want. To make them more relaxed, it is better to do them with socks that do not constrict or with bare feet.

We have to walk forward a few meters and also backwards, interspersing toes and heel. They are two very simple exercises that will help us exercise our ankles and stretch our feet and calves.

Skipping

It is quite likely that we have never heard this word, but we did run without moving and bringing our knees to our chest. And it is that it consists of an exercise that increases our stability , raises the pulsations and exercises many groups of muscles.

In addition, we can run with our feet flat or on tiptoe, which is how the feet, ankles and calves are strengthened with these exercises. While we do it, let’s not forget that the arms must go at the same rhythm, it is vitally important to increase the pulsations, put the arms in motion and not lose balance.

Jump squats

We do a normal squat, but when we get up, we stand on our toes and do a little jump up . When falling, we repeat the exercise until our body resists and we rest a few seconds or minutes, and we repeat the jump squat.

This exercise is not suitable for the very old, so it can be changed to a no-jump version. That is, we perform a light squat, when we get up we stand on tiptoes and instead of jumping, we raise our arms up.

Obviously it is not the same effort, but it is an adaptation for people with little mobility or who cannot jump due to some medical problem.

Dos chicas subiendo escaleras

Steps

How easy is it to go up the elevator, right? Well from now on, we will start to do it up the stairs. Climbing the steps in an exaggerated way strengthens the ankle joints, and with an exaggerated way we refer to going up step by step performing the same flexion that we do naturally, but slower and forcing more the flexion of the ankle, raising the knee more and stretching the knee more. foot. As if we were in slow motion.

Another exercise with a step or step is to put the toes (better with footwear) at the end of the step and try to raise and lower our body several times . We rest and repeat. This exercise helps to strengthen the tendons and muscles of the entire foot, ankle and calf area.

Elastic band

The elastic bands with our allies and with them we can help our feet to perform movements and stretch smoothly.

One of the exercises is to place the band in the ankle area, as if it were a bandage that covers the heel, and with the hands we pull the ends. Next, we perform circular movements with the foot, first one foot and then another while we remain seated on the floor, sofa, bed, etc.

Another exercise is to place the tape around the instep and force to one side and with the foot bring the force to the opposite side. We can also place the elastic band in the area of the toes (for the silver) and pull towards us to stretch the sole of the foot.

Balance board or ball

It is a concave board or with a rounded leg where we have to climb up and hold our balance. We can also sit on a chair, place our feet on that table and do push-ups with the ankles , that is, force the foot to touch the ground and then return to the original position.

Balance balls are the same. They are like a kind of yoga ball with a hard, resistant and flat material surface. There are also minimalist versions, or we can even use a float or a mat, the point is that it is not a stable surface and that our muscles are strengthened and we improve balance.