Ankle mobility impacts high ankle sprains

Ankle mobility drills have become popular in the training world over the past few years. As an athletic therapist, I worked extensively with football, rugby, field hockey and various other field sports and can safely say that decreased ankle mobility can contribute to both functional and athletic limitations and is an important component of any rehabilitation or injury prevention program.
Yup, I just said injury prevention and that might make you feel anxious. How about I call it decreasing the risk of injury? Because that is essentially the point.
The idea of injury prevention, especially for traumatic lower limb injuries such as ankle sprains, is often a subject of debate. However, while traumatic injuries and accidents are part of the risk of sports participation, non-contact mechanisms, overuse and microtrauma are also likely to result in injury. For example, a frequent mechanism of ankle injury in football involves the foot planting on the playing surface with the body rotating in the opposite direction, such as when decelerating and/or changing direction.
Injury prevention is a term that refers to implementing structure and strategies that reduce injury risk, occurrence and severity. Fundamentally, range of motion, motor control and strength play a role in injury prevention because they provide athletes with the capacity to absorb, distribute and transfer forces along the kinetic chain.
Let’s dive into why rotational mobility of the ankle plays a role in the prevention of ankle sprains and how to specifically improve it.
HIGH ANKLE SPRAINS - HOW DO THEY HAPPEN?
High ankle sprains, or syndesmotic ankle sprains, are less frequent than lateral ankle sprains, but according to Prentice, are more common than has been realized in the past . This type of ankle sprain occurs with excessive external rotation or forced dorsiflexion of the ankle and may be injured in conjunction with the medial ankle ligaments.
READ FULL ARTICLE HERE: rehab-u.com/bl...
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Want to pick my brain? Drop your questions in a comment

[@jamaicangainz]

You deserve more attention !! Love your work

[@rehab-umovementperformance]

Hi ! Thank you so much, really appreciate that! 🙏😊

[@stephkera9976]

I had an high ankle sprain when i fall of a climbing wall and landed on full dorsal flexion and external rotation and ripped my anterior syndesmois. Using these exercises to gain stability back. Thanks for the input.

[@rehab-umovementperformance]

Thanks for taking the time! That is a serious injury and I wish you the best recovery! So glad these exercises can help get you "back on your feet" hehe! 😊🙏

[@VNCNvan75]

Thank you for your work! My question is are these exercises, in particular the first banded traction, meant for rehabbing post injury or for injury prevention? I’m about 6 weeks out from a high ankle sprain and wondering if mobilizing the joint in this manner would reduce my pain bwhen running and jumping.

[@rehab-umovementperformance]

Hi there! Depending on the severity of your high ankle sprain, you might use some of these exercises to restore the mobility required for absorbing torsional forces. But, you first need to make sure you are ok to mobilize this way given the injury that you had. If you are still having pain with running and jumping, it may be that these activities are currently surpassing the capacity of your ankle at present. High ankle sprains can be tricky that way wit healing, because of the way the tibia-fibula splay in weight-bearing, stressing the joint. Hope that helps!

[@VNCNvan75]

@@rehab-umovementperformance Yes that helps a lot! Its a little tricky to gauge because my weight bearing tolerance is pretty high and range of motion is not too compromised, but pushing off and exerting force brings pain into what I believe is the AITFL area. Will have to bring this information to my PT’s attention. Thank you.

[@rehab-umovementperformance]

@@VNCNvan75 That makes sense with that kind of injury and so you want to make sure you are not exceeding the tissue tolerance at this point in the healing process. It may still be possible for you to resume these types of activities, but with protective taping or bracing to start

[@fingerstyleacoustic6214]

Nice video!! Hey i got my ankle ultrasound done and report say For medial part -- Hypoechogenecity with thickening noted at the insertion of posterior tibialis tendon. No evidence of tear noted. No evidence of calcification noted Spring ligament is showing flattening with altered echogenicity in the fat pad of medial arch Deltoid ligament is showing thickening with partial tear at the level of talus ( tibio-talar component) . Tibio-calcaleal component is showing dense calcification. Ganglion cyst noted from talo-navicular joint space extending medially and displacing Posterior tibialis tendon with mild impingement on the Posterior tibial nerve For lateral part -- Rest of the underlying bones are showing no evidence of cortical breach . Surfaces are irregular with significant osteophytosis and reduced intertarsal joint spaces. My doctor suggested to get prp done and then immobilise it. I want to ask if prp is necessary in my case or it can heal properly without prp too? Pls reply 🙏🙏

[@rehab-umovementperformance]

Hi there! Sorry to hear about your ankle. Unfortunately, I cannot make that kind of diagnosis. There is injury to your ligaments and it seems there is some evidence of post tib tendinopathy, but not knowing anything otherwise about your history, I cannot comment. If you are unsure of your course of action, you can get a second opinion and work directly with a therapist as well to figure out the best course of action for you. Good luck!

[@fingerstyleacoustic6214]

@@rehab-umovementperformance ok no problem! Just one more thing does mri and ultrasound report shows different results because my mri report says everything is fine but ultrasound report says that i have ligament tear

[@rehab-umovementperformance]

@@fingerstyleacoustic6214 Well, an ultrasound shows soft tissues and is very useful in detecting issues with muscles, tendons, ligaments, and other connective tissue- MRIs are usually used for larger areas where we want to see bones, cartilage, etc.

[@rehab-umovementperformance]

READ FULL ARTICLE HERE: rehab-u.com/blog/ankle-mobility-impacts-ankle-sprains-3-exercises-to-address-it/

[@blryze1128]

How do i increase the range of motion of the external rotation

[@rehab-umovementperformance]

Hi! You can increase general mobility with ankle traction - then working on dorsiflexion and eversion will help your ankle have the mobility it needs to absorb external rotation forces. At about 3:50 and 5:30 in the videos, I show these mobilizations. Hope that helps :)