I recently rolled my ankle and, although the pain was excruciating, it thankfully turned out to be just a sprain.
In the exercise classes I lead, I always include drills and protocols that help prevent injury, and I’m convinced that stood me in good stead and helped me avoid worse damage.
Here are some ideas to add to your own regimen:
At the simplest level, just getting moving is good for injury prevention — someone with a sedentary lifestyle is likely to fare worse in a fall than someone who is active. Any and all movement is good, and bonus points for getting outdoors; take a walk along the beach or through Edith Read Sanctuary, and the uneven surfaces will subtly improve your balance and the stability of your ankles and knees.
An easy to adopt at-home routine is to stand on one leg regularly. You can do that daily, perhaps while brushing your teeth or waiting for the kettle to boil. While you are balancing on one foot, with your other knee out high in front of you, bring your focus to the sole of your foot. Then for a few seconds at a time, think of balancing on the inside of your foot, then the outside, then the heel, then the ball, and finally back to fully centered. You’ll be surprised how much you feel something so simple working.
Moving on to your exercise routine, the Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans recommends strength training two to three times per week. Strength training offers a host of benefits apart from just muscle building, such as increased bone density, and metabolism and joint stability. Perform activities that work all major muscle groups, (legs, hips, back, abdomen, chest, shoulders, and arms) with good form to keep the muscles that support your joints strong. Injury often happens because the body has adapted to mostly moving in one plane — the sagittal/forward plane — so it can’t cope with unexpected sideways stumbles. Make sure to train your body in the frontal and transverse planes by adding drills like side lunges and side squats, or if you’re using machines at the gym, the hip adductor.
Improving your balance and strengthening the tendons in your ankles and knees is a virtuous circle — each improves the other. Unilateral drills are great for tapping into that circle, because any time we work our body asymmetrically, our balance and core are challenged. Try Bulgarian split squats (where your back leg is elevated on a bench, almost all of your weight on the front leg) or single leg presses on the machines.
Two inexpensive pieces of equipment I use in my classes are resistance bands and Versa Discs. Wear the resistance band just above your knees or ankles while doing squats or side steps and you’ll feel all the joint stabilizers working even harder. I love the Versa Disc, because it takes up so little space. If you do any lower body drill with either one foot or both feet on the disc, you immediately add a core and balance benefit.
Finally, to ensure good flexibility, make sure you take time to stretch properly after your workout. And relaxing habits like ankle circles while you have your feet up watching TV feel like a treat, but they are great for mobility.