Friday, April 18, 2008

Fast Fitness - Sprain Prevention and Rehab Training

Here is Fast Friday Fitness - feel how your own muscles work to hold ankle position, so that you can have stable ankles without artificial shoe supports or bracing, which weaken the supporting muscles from disuse:
  1. Stand with feet parallel and look in a mirror where you can see your feet, or just look down.
  2. Rise to toe and hold
  3. Keep body weight over big and second toe with straight ankle position as you remain on tip-toe. Don't let your weight shift over the small toes, allowing ankle to bend outward.


Click the arrow to see this short movie of my student Diana's feet, as she first allows rolling the ankle outward when rising to toe, then at second 3 in the movie, she uses ankle, foot and leg muscles to pull to straight neutral ankle position. She prevents outward rolling as she again rises to toes three more times.

Prevent rolling outward whenever you rise on toe or push off or land from a jump or step.

Developing positioning sense in the receptors of your ankles prevents the sprain-promoting position called inversion, and gains built-in foot and ankle muscle strength and stability. Nice foot stretch too. Practice balancing on tip-toe, and rising up and down without rolling outward every day.

More to Prevent and Rehab Sprains:


Movie copyright © Dr. Bookspan

2 comments:

  1. Hi It was great to be able to see that video. I do tend to roll out on my outside toes when sitting. When wearing heels it tends to put me in the correct position described but I get knee pain after. I only wear them once in a while. Any hints on how to wear or and what should be the highest heels?Or should I take them out totally. Sloan

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  2. Hello Sloan, thank you. The idea is that you use your own muscles to maintain ankle position to prevent rolling outward, regardless of what shoes you wear, and when you are barefoot.

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