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Exercising When Injured? (Sprained ankles)


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Soooo...I'm a massive klutz, and I've manage to mildly sprain BOTH of my ankles in the past week. :( My left is worse, but the left one has permanent ligament & nerve damage from being sprained far more times than I can count (let's say I stopped counting at 20 times, and that was over 10 years ago) in the past. The right one isn't super strong, but it is my "good" ankle, and had only been sprained once, 10+ years ago. I'm very, very scared about causing any further damage or weakness to the ligaments in my right ankle.

I ALWAYS seem to sprain an ankle right after I've started exercising alot, and then I get blown way off course and it's all over. :( I'm really upset about this, because I was feeling good about things this time, already started to lose weight, and was working towards becoming a runner, and then I have my hashing that I love to do, and now I can't run a trail for at least a month. :(

Anyone have any advice or words of encouragement as to how to keep going? I guess I can do upper body workouts and abs, I just don't want to put *any* stress on my ankles or cause any more damage. :(

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that sucks, sorry :(

it's a set back, sure... but it doesn't have to be all bad, right? do focus on your upper body for a while, and eat right... and wait out the month or whatever and just get back to it. :D

"shawn mullins", as i always say (otherwise known as "everything is gonna be all right").

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I don't know if swimming uses ankles (I feel like it doesn't when I swim but I'm not sure). You could always try water stuff. I know swimming takes a lot of pressure off. Try it and see if it feels ok :) I use swimming and cycling as cross-training for my running.

You can DEFINITELY strength train too. Give yourself time to recover. It's better to recover fully than to be too anxious to rush back out and risk more injury.

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I killed my left ankle a couple of weeks back. Never did get it looked at, but it was a really bad twist or a sprain (seriously it swelled up golf ball size). I find mine feels better as I move around though, so the gym is pretty great for me. I started doing 10 minutes on the bike every time I go to the gym, just to loosen it up a bit, and that's been helping. I did try a treadmill once but the impact hurt too much

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Sounds like you might want to scale back on your regular work outs and focus on strengthening your ankles when they're better. You're only as strong as your weakest link. : /

That said, maybe check out a chiropracter? We have a *really* good one where I live who can do some pretty cool things with sprained ankles (my sister can attest to that).

Also, as mentioned, upper body can be worked out, as can your core. You could work on flexibility as well. The swimming idea has merit. :3

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Thanks for the suggestions everyone! I really appreciate the support :)

Istra- I love chiropractic, so I'll look into it! How has your sister's helped her ankles?

She was dealing with a badly sprained ankle, and he .. fixed it. In one visit. She had another one a few months later, and showed up and "Ta da." All better.

It would smack of black magic to me, except he also fixed my chronic knee problem of 12 years. So uh ... yeah. Make sure you get a good one though.

If you're in the willamette valley, Oregon, I can give you a recommendation. :3

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