Ankles

[bigDman]

So my right ankle hates me. Every year I hurt it. This off season was my first where I was really in to lifting and fitness. I spent a lot of time of keeping my calves loose and working on ankle mobility. Using the tennis ball on my calves and really working to avoid an ankle injury this year.

I come into wrestling with my ankle perfectly fine within the first 2 weeks of wrestling I hurt it. Then it stays semi hurt all wrestling season. Then lacrosse comes along and its weak so I roll it and sprain it, but not bad enough to stop playing

Some additional notes. Once wrestling starts I run A LOT more then I do in the off season. When I run i don't get out of breath. My calves just get extremely tight and pumped to the point I can't move them. Also my favorite series of moves for wrestling are pretty hard on the ankles and require you to use your feet as "another set of hands".

Right now my ankle doesn't hurt to walk, and is not swollen (maybe a little)
my right calf is tighter then my left. I have a pretty full ROM with the right being a tad bit limited. What bothers it is when there is any added resistance when going through the ROM.

My question is do you have any tips on how to keep my ankles healthy. Any articles or videos i can read or watch about ankles. Any information on ankle health would be greatly appreciated. Any ideas on whats going on. Pretty much I am open to any discussion about ankles

Thanks a lot

-Paul Milano

[Lost Dog]

Here's some reading material, Paul.

THE IMPORTANCE OF CONTROLLED FOOT AND ANKLE MOBILITY, by Mike Davis, DPT, ART

[JoshDunn]

Proprioceptors in the ankle tell your body where it is in space. Thing is that with each injury you kill off some of these receptors so its important to train the remaining proprioceptors otherwise you keep reinjurying the same thing time and time again.

Balance work on a mini tramp, wobble board, dura discs and all those "functional" movements that everyone always makes fun of, increase the awareness of the proprioceptors.

[BjsAust]

Of course, just plain balancing on one leg with your eyes closed also does a good job .

I need to be doing some of this myself. I notice now I'm doing more single leg work just how much worse my balance is on my right foot than my left after a few ankle injuries. Because the last few weren't "too bad" I didnt to the normal recovery work I would and I'm paying a price now by the looks of things.

[bigDman]

i did all the stuff. I guess just not as often as I should have. Ill keep working on it to avoid more injuries. Keep the comments coming. Any reading material would be great

[fitzy21]

do you have a jump stretch band or something similar?

you can do banded inversion/eversion and dorsi-flexion/plantar flexion movements

i found this to be a good read:
http://www.dieselcrew.com/articles/fip3.pdf
by Jerry Shreck