How to Strengthen Your Ankles? (Need Advice Please)

J

Jason Salamone

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What are some things you can do to strengthen your ankles in order to be able to do things like run on a treadmill at a steep incline more consistently without spraining your ankles, and/or to be able to be a better ice hockey skater???....

Jason Salamone
 
I'm thinking calf raises, but then I'm a proponent of working out your whole body. :-D
 
I have a friend who had just sprained his ankle from basketball and what his therapist told him was that you can support your ankles and make sure you don't twist them. The whole getting them stronger thing is well, to have stronger bones and make sure you get enough nutrition. Flexibility is also one thing you need to address here.
 
illiniphase4 said:
Try moving some of your normal leg exercises to unstable surfaces like airex mats or coreboards, such as squats on an airex pad.
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I think illiniphase has the right idea, but ankles are funny. They don't strengthen the same way as a muscle does. You do have muscles around your ankle area, just not the same type. A usually just tears ligaments around the area, which are hard to strengthen up.

Although, if you do move some of your exercises to a pad, or balancing board, it should help strengthen up the tiny muscles around that area, and probably even tighten up the ligaments too.

I sprained my ankle pretty badly at the gym a few months ago, and it still gets sore. Most days, I try to find time to do small exercises with it. Like rolling it around in a circle, up and down, etc. It seems to help a bit.
 
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In terms of your hockey aspirations, you need to start doing some sport-specific plyometrics as well.

I have some of the SPARQ training handouts if you want me to get them to you, then just PM me.

Also, take a look at some of the conditioning books out there for ice hockey.

In general, you need to start with a more typical strength/cardio tranining program, and progress to more power/plyometric exercises and interval cardio workouts. Provided that you try to take some of that initial strength training and utilize balance boards and whatnot to improve proprioception, you should be able to transition well to the more dynamic plyometric exercises.

Also, take a read through my post and the attached study: http://training.fitness.com/article...t-50-all-acute-knee-ankle-injuries-43151.html

The take away from that is the fact that a "warm-up" of dynamic movements, plyos, balance, and strength/power exercises can and will help to prevent knee and ankle injury. The SPARQ documents I have are hockey specific and encompass most of those area, so let me know if you want them.
 
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