Hey everybody, it's Doctor Jo, and today I'm gonna show you some stretches and exercises
for a lateral ankle sprain. Let's get started.
The first thing you're gonna do is stretch
out your calf muscle. So you can take a strap. You can use a dog leash. You can use a belt, or
you can use a large towel. Whatever you have handy. But what you want to do is make sure
and wrap it around the ball of your foot. You don't want it on your toes, and you don't
want it down in the arch of your foot because you don't want it coming back and smacking
you, but you want to get a nice stretch. So just wrap it around the ball of the foot there.
Relax your foot, don't try and actively move it, and just pull with the strap towards you
until you feel a nice stretch in the back calf area right there. And hold that stretch
for about 30 seconds. Relax. And do that 3 times. So just get that nice stretch in there.
After you stretch it out a little bit, then grab a resistive band and if you want to,
grab a foam roller so you can prop your foot up. If you don't have a roller, that's fine.
You can wrap up a big towel, but you want to have it so your heel is hanging off so
you can have some good movement in your ankle. Again, make sure that you put the band around
the ball of your foot because you don't want it coming back and smacking you in the face.
But you want to be able to get some good movement in there. Just wrapping around there and then
slowly. See how it rolls off a little bit. Happens to everybody. Slowly push down, and
then slowly come back up. So really trying to control this movement. And if you feel
like your ankle's doing like this, which it might if you have that sprain, then take off
some of the resistance cause you want to be able to control that foot coming down and
then coming back up. And try and get that full motion if you can. Now if this is painful,
then don't use the band and just do the motion cause your ankle might not be ready for the
resistive band yet. So just start off with about 10 of those, if those are easy then
you can work your way up from there. So now, put a little knot in the band so you have
a loop. Make sure it's tight so it doesn't pop out on you. This time, you're gonna use
your other foot kind of as an anchor. Put it underneath and prop your other one up and
over. Now you're gonna do an inversion movement coming this way, so you want the knot to be
on the opposite side. So I'm gonna put it here, and I'm gonna wrap that band around
the other foot as an anchor and then pull in towards me. Now try and keep your whole
leg still. You don't want to be doing this, but you really want that movement at the ankle.
Now you can also have somebody bold on to the band, but if your by yourself for a little
bit and you want to do those exercises, that's how you do it. You anchor it around that way.
Now to get the eversion, you change the placement of the knot to the inside cause now you're
gonna do the eversion that way. And then anchor it around the other foot like that. And then
come out and back in. Again try and keep the top part of the leg fairly straight. It's
not this. But getting that movement at the ankle. Alright, the next exercises are gonna
be standing up. Now I'm gonna do a standing calf stretch. So bring the foot back that
you want to stretch. Keep your foot facing forward, and keep your heel down. Make sure
you have something nice and sturdy to hold on to like a chair or a counter top. Keep
that heel down, and bend this knee forward until you feel a stretch in the back of the
leg right there. Come forward, hold that stretch for about 30 seconds, come back and do 3 of
those. Make sure that heel is down. If it comes up, you're not gonna get that stretch.
So make sure it's down and get a nice big stretch there. Then you're gonna come up.
Put your feet about shoulder width apart, and you're gonna do a heel raise. So just
bring your heels up off the ground and slowly coming back down. Make sure you've got something
sturdy to hold on to for balance, just in case you need it, but again make sure you're
coming down nice and slow. Working those muscles in both directions. Coming up and coming back
down. Don't just plop back down. Start off with about 10 of those and work your way up
to 20 to 25. If those become easy, then you can go to just one foot coming up and slowly
coming back down. And then the last one is just a single leg balance. So bringing the
other foot up. Again have something nice and sturdy to hold on to if you need it. Start
off with both hands, go about 20 - 30 seconds. If that becomes easy maybe just do 1 or 2
fingers. Work your way up. And then eventually do the balance without holding on. So there
you have it. Those were your stretches and exercises for a lateral ankle sprain. If you
have any questions, leave them in the comments section. If you'd like to check out some other
videos, go to AskDoctorJo.com Don't forget to like us. And remember, be safe, have fun,
and I hope you feel better soon.