[rich d]

Broke my ankle a couple of years back and it's relatively weak and a bit unstable, mainly due to pretending it wasn't broken for too long. Fell on it on Sunday and had to hobble back to the car. Anyone got any ankle strengthening exercises that they do?
Thanks Rich 

[Muenchener]

I have a similar problem with my right ankle having strained some ligaments years ago.

I decided to do something about it, so I took qualified and personalised medical advice from google. Standing on one leg is supposed to be good so I'm doing that e.g. whilst brushing teeth (decided it would be  too dangerous whilst shaving) with a view to graduating to standing on one leg on wobbly things. Am also doing foot circles whilst lying on my back with a theraband for resistance looped over my foot and tied to something, e.g. bedpost. But would also be interested to hear from somebody who actually knows what they're talking about.

[rodma]

I have a very spazzy ankle (also from break/ligament tear) and use a wobble board, which is pretty cheap, but standing on a rolled up beertowel (lined up down the length of the foot) works pretty well and is def a bit better than standing flat on the floor one-footed.

[nic mullin]

+1 for the wobble board.

I was told that standing on one leg with your foot in the middle (hold on to something to help balance if needs be) and rolling the rim of the board around the floor was good. It helped me out loads after mashing my ankle a few years back.

[r-man]

Standing on one leg with eyes closed works well. Surprisingly much harder than with eyes open. You could combine with the rolled up beer towel (or anything else squishy) to make it even harder.

[battery]

I trashed my ankle last year... exercises as follows (some recommended by physio and some from Google/forums) plus some incredibly painful but fantastic massage to break down scar tissue means I'm pretty much back to my old self:


Standing on one leg
Standing on one leg whilst doing something else
Standing on one leg with knee bent
Standing on one leg with eyes closed (this is the real test)
Standing on one leg on something uneven - I use a hedgehog (cheaper than wobble boards)
Lunging onto hedgehog forwards and to both sides
Raising up onto tip toes and balancing there (I couldn't even get onto my tip toes at first)
Balancing on tip toes with eyes closed
Stretching upper and lower calf muscles
Trying to sit back on you heals to stretch the front out (this is the one I still can't do)
I generally try to now only wear shoes which are fastened over the top - i.e. not slip ons

[rich d]

Some good ideas there guys thanks. Just one question what's a hedgehog? Rich

[rodma]

Some good ideas there guys thanks. Just one question what's a hedgehog? Rich

We have a hedgehog that we got from the osteopaths. really useful for other forms of torture too. I have actually stopped using the wobble board and use this instead

This is them http://fitness.d2fgroup.com/store/functional/balance/products/hedgehog-pods-set-of-6/default.aspx

[SA Chris]

I've seen those things before and wondered what they were. Nice background on that site too.

[battery]

Put 'balance hedgehog' into amazon. I bought 2 for £20 but you can buy them in singles too.

[rich d]

Thanks. Thought I was going to have to lure one into the back garden with a bowl of milk and the stand on it.

[battery]

Thanks. Thought I was going to have to lure one into the back garden with a bowl of milk and the stand on it.

Could be good training, uneven texture of the back and movement as it tries to run away...

[Nibile]

External ligaments gone in both ankles, +1 for the wobble board, done with two and one foot at a time.
Being very boring, last week I started doing my theraband warm up excercises on the wobble board.
Much more fun.

[John Boy]

Thanks. Thought I was going to have to lure one into the back garden with a bowl of milk and the stand on it.

This is crazy talk. You should only ever feed hedgehogs cat food; milk will upset their delicate hedgehog tummies.

[SA Chris]

Feed it catfood like a fokkin' prrrawn!

[rich d]

Thanks. Thought I was going to have to lure one into the back garden with a bowl of milk and the stand on it.

This is crazy talk. You should only ever feed hedgehogs cat food; milk will upset their delicate hedgehog tummies.

not an issue, was only going to intice it with the milk. I would be stood on the spikey bastard's back long before it got to the bowl.

[DubDom]

heard that trampolining is good for ankles too according to an orthopedic surgeon.