Question - Rehab After Ankle Sprain

by Erin

Hi! I've been reading all of your great information on ankle sprains and rehab. I fell from an 8 foot ladder a week ago. I got ice on it within 3 minutes and had ibuprofen on board within about 15 - 20 minutes. The swelling is gone, and the bruising is down to an area of 4 inches by 2 1/2 inches.

I'm a fitness instructor and have been training for a marathon I'm scheduled to run October 5. I know how important it is that I do my rehab correctly.

Here is my question that I'm not finding on your web pages: If there is still pain when I rotate my foot outward( the sharp, "grabbing" pain ), should I be doing the rehab exercises? I can walk comfortably. Being on my feet for too long causes soreness, but the only actual pain comes from rotation. I would imagine that letting the ankle roll under would also cause pain, but for obvious reasons I have made sure to avoid that. :-)

Thanks so much for any help or advice you can give me!

Erin

PS I didn't see a doctor as I didn't think there was any chance that it was broken. I bought an ankle brace to use when getting back to running and teaching.

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Question - Rehab After Ankle Sprain

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Aug 06, 2008
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Only a week out...
by: Bart - SII

Since you are only a week out from your sprain, I would expect you to have some pain with eversion of the foot - this is probably due to a strain of the peroneal muscles. I would also expect pain with inversion, as that will stress the ligaments.

If a specific exercise is painful, then you should avoid it for another 7-10 days - right now you are in a protective phase, and the ligaments are still working on getting the healing started. Give it another week or two and you should be able to progress your exercises.

For a complete guide of everything you need to be doing for your sprain, you can check out my Ankle Sprain Solutions. It has all of the information you need to get back to all of your activities.

Feel free to comment with other questions.