You rolled your ankle again. Another set back. Back to the physio again for ultrasound and exercises for your ankle sprain treatment. You’re frustrated because you have had many ankle sprains and have spent time and money trying to prevent it from happening again. Is there a way to prevent a recurrent ankle sprain? Is there a way to make your ankle stronger and more stable without taping or bracing it? I am absolutely 100% certain there is.
Ankle sprains are one of the most common injuries in sports. (1) I see a lot of young athletes involved in soccer, tennis, basketball, gymnastics, and volleyball get ankle sprains. These sports involve a lot of quick stops and starts which increase the risk of the athlete rolling their ankle. If you play one of these sports, you have probably sprained your ankle. And the chances are if you have sprained your ankle once, it will happen again. (2, 3)
A thorough examination of your ankle and spine will often reveal what else could be the weak link in your ankle. There are five other problems you may have to get fixed to help your ankle sprain heal faster and avoid another ankle sprain:
- weak peroneus longus and tertius muscle (muscles on the outside of the lower leg)
- misaligned bones or joints in the foot and ankle
- misaligned bones in the spine
- misaligned fibula bone (outside bone by the knee joint)
- stretched skin on the outside of the ankle and foot
I love dealing with foot and ankle problems because they respond so quickly to chiropractic adjustments and proper soft tissue work.
Cross friction massage to strengthen weak peroneus muscles
The peroneus tertius and peroneus longus muscles attach to the fibula (a long bone on the outside part of the shin bone) and into the foot. When those muscles are strong they contract to help prevent you from rolling over on the outside of your ankle.
Most often, your peroneus muscles get strained (torn) during an ankle sprain. If they heal poorly, there will be scar adhesions within those muscles. The scar adhesions prevent your muscles from lengthening and contracting leading to weakness. If those muscles stay weak, you will be prone to turning over on your ankle and spraining it again.
Getting cross friction massage on your peroneus muscles will break up the scar adhesions within your muscles, strengthening them to help prevent another ankle sprain.
Getting cross friction massage on your peroneus muscles will break up the scar adhesions within your muscles. This will strengthen strengthening your muscles to help prevent another ankle sprain.
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Chiropractic adjustments for foot and ankle joint misalignments
Most people think chiropractors only adjust or manipulate the spine to deal with low back pain, neck pain, and headaches. While it’s true our profession does an amazing job with the spine and those conditions, chiropractic adjustments to the ankle and feet also work very well for conditions like ankle sprains. (4)
There are many bones and joints in your foot and ankle. Any misalignment in your ankle or foot will cause a loss in its’ range of motion and poor nerve communication to your brain. The foot and ankle have lots of nerves in them. Their function when the bones and joints are in good alignment and move properly are to send nerve signals to your brain. In turn, your brain sends nerve signals back down your spinal cord to the muscles in your leg to stabilize and move your feet. It’s like an electrical circuit.
If the bones and joints in your feet become injured and misaligned, not only do you lose range of motion of your foot, but you also lose some nerve input into the brain and nerve output from the brain. What will result is a blown circuit and a weak and unstable ankle, prone to another ankle sprain.
Furthermore, adhesions will occur in your ligaments in and around your ankle and foot if your ankle sprain isn’t treated properly. This will further restrict your ankle and foot range of motion leading to more weakness.
A chiropractor can push your pull your ankle and foot bones back into their proper position (adjustment). The chiropractic adjustments will increase the range of motion of your ankle and foot and strengthen it, helping to prevent another ankle sprain.
The chiropractic adjustments will increase the range of motion of your ankle and foot and strengthen it, helping to prevent another ankle sprain.
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Chiropractic adjustments for spinal misalignments
Remember, signals from your foot and ankle to your brain, and from your brain, have to pass through your spinal cord. Your boney spine protects your spinal cord. Any bone or joint in your spine that is out of alignment can disrupt those nerve signals needed to strengthen your ankle.
It’s important to get chiropractic adjustments to your spine to strengthen the nerve signals to your ankle to help prevent another ankle sprain.
It’s important to get chiropractic adjustments to your spine to strengthen the nerve signals to your ankle to help prevent another ankle sprain.
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Chiropractic adjustments for your fibula
Remember your peroneus muscles attach into your fibula. If your fibula is out of alignment it can weaken your peroneus muscle which will weaken your ankle.
So it’s important to get your fibula checked to see if it’s out of alignment or not. An adjustment to your fibula can strengthen your peroneus muscles helping to prevent another ankle sprain.
By the way, a misaligned fibula can also weaken your hamstring muscle as it attaches into your fibula. Your hamstring also attaches into your pelvis. A weak hamstring can throw your pelvis out of alignment. So an ankle sprain can create many problems all the way up to the jaw. Everything is connected.
An adjustment to your fibula can strengthen your peroneus muscles helping to prevent another ankle sprain.
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Skin roll the outside of your ankle to strengthen nerve input into your brain
One of the functions of your skin around your ankle joint is to provide your brain with information about the position of your ankle. The skin on the outside of your ankle will get stretched downward when you sprain your ankle. This will cause a break in the nerve circuit as well. Without good nerve input from your skin, your brain can’t react as well to changes in foot and ankle positions. So your brain won’t send nerve signals to your muscle in time to react quick changes in ankle and foot positions. This leads to an unstable ankle prone to another ankle sprain.
Rolling your skin upwards from the bottom of your foot up towards the outside of your ankle will turn the nerve circuit back on to your brain. This will allow your brain to react more quickly to changes in your ankle and foot positions helping to prevent ankle sprains.
Rolling your skin upwards from the bottom of your foot up towards the outside of your ankle will turn the nerve circuit back on to your brain. This will allow your brain to react more quickly to changes in your ankle and foot positions helping to prevent ankle sprains.
Summary
I have given you five common causes of recurrent ankle sprains. I love fixing these types of problems and would be happy to help you or refer you to someone that I think would use the same approach. Taking this approach to treat your ankle sprain will not only allow you to heal more quickly, but will also help prevent the injury from happening again. Your performance will also improve. I hope I can help you win a Grand Slam or another type of championship some day. 🙂
Broken Ankle, six weeks on one leg, still limping a bit, lower back pain and experiencing some balance problems and some limitations in movement. Numbness from surgery, they put pins in the ankle. Would you be able to help with these issue and how far into the healing should I come see you.
Hi Sally,
I would be able to help you get more balance, strength and movement for sure. The low back pain should get less. As far as the ankle, yes, I would be able to help you with that depending on the stage of healing and other specifics. I would have to talk to you about your ankle more and have a look at it before I would work on it. Give our office a call or book online and I can help you out.
I sprained my ankle around 3 months ago,
And unfortunately I’ve just been trying to get it properly treated. I got an adjustment, but I know I need more therapy.
I’m going through a rough time, because I suffered a stroke 2 years ago and it is reactivating the burning and tingling even more. If anyone can help me with any advice, I will always be grateful
Hi Ismael,
Getting chiropractic adjustments to your spine and ankle helps to strengthen nerve connections between the brain and muscles providing a person with better strength, balance and coordination. The skin rolling I mentioned in the article is also important and it is rarely taken into consideration by practitioners when treating sprained ankles. Vitamin C, glucosamine sulphate, and getting enough protein are all important for proper joint healing. You might want to look into a very low carbohydrate diet (ketogenic diet) to help heal your brain. Also make sure you are eating an anti-inflammatory diet (whole-food nutrient dense diet). I have written about this in numerous blog articles. This provides all essential nutrients for the brain to function optimally.
Hope this information helps you get to the next level of healing. Good luck.
Dr. Collins
HI SIR MY NAME IS KD . LAST 1 YEAR BACK I HAVE INJURED MY RIGHT ANKLE DISLOCATION AND FIBULA BROKEN I HAD 1 SURGERY AND ITS COMPLETLY JOINT MY FIBULA BUT ANKLE IS NOT MOVING PROPERLY WHEN I AM WALKING ITS PAINING MORE SWELLING ALSO SIR KINDLY ADVICE ME .
REPLY . KADIRSHAIKH242@GMAIL.COM
Hi KD,
I would advise you to seek out a chiropractor that is comfortable in treating ankle injuries. Get your whole spine and ankle examined to determine if the chiropractor can help you. In most cases, adjusting the spine and extremities can help aid in the healing process to restore as much function as possible depending on the extent of damage you have done to your ankle.
Regards,
Dr. Collins