Knee injuries may grab the headlines more than any other type of athletic injury, perhaps because they can end an athlete’s career. But ankles get hurt more often, and these injuries can be pretty devastating, too.
Many of the same exercises that we’ve discussed for knee injury prevention can help protect ankles as well.
But you can do some other things to save your ankles.
- You can brace or tape them. Significant research shows that both bracing and taping can reduce the risk of injury. It is not clear whether rigid braces or tape works better. Not surprisingly, both achieve a much greater rate of injury reduction in athletes who have already injured an ankle.
- You can do balance training. In one recent study, 522 athletes who had recovered from ankle injuries were evenly divided into two groups. One group practiced various poses on a balance board. The other group did not. Over the following year, 39 of those who did the balance training were injured compared to 56 of those who did not, a 35% reduction in ankle injuries.
The idea is that these exercises improve your proprioception — the ability of your joints and muscles to communicate with your brain their location in space and time.
Here’s an example of basic exercises on a balance board.
http://youtu.be/BPMEj-jeH9w
You can make these exercises more challenging by standing on one leg and by closing your eyes.
If you don’t own a balance board, your gym probably has one. But you don’t really need any equipment.
The FIFA11+ program includes some balance training with only a soccer ball and a partner:
http://youtu.be/rSZKGuEOH90
http://youtu.be/s7zneqiilE8
http://youtu.be/aH_nbhuqy94
Even without a partner or a soccer ball, you can practice balance. A number of yoga poses, such as the tree pose, can also help improve your proprioception.
So far in this soccer series, we’ve covered running form, strengthening exercises, jumping exercises (plyometrics) and now balance training. We’ve also talked about heading and brain injury. Next we’ll answer the question: Does stretching help?
Just doing single leg standing while you’re waiting for the microwave to cook something, or while you’re brushing your teeth, can decrease the likelihood of sprains and falls. Take advantage of down time to prevent injury!
Barbara Bergin, M.D.
Board Certified Orthopedic Surgeon
Austin, Texas
Great suggestion! I also try to incorporate some balance training into my warmup and dynamic stretching exercises, for example by swinging one leg back and forth, gradually increasing the height of the swing, while standing on the other foot.
Laird