Part Two Of Dealing With Injuries: Ankle Impingement

In my last post I discussed all the injuries I was forced to overcome in the last year and some broad strategies on how to go about doing so (start small, build slowly). In years past I’ve suffered numerous injuries, ignored them for too long, and then tried to rehab them way too aggressively. Don’t make this mistake! The most valuable lesson I’ve learned from this experience is that there are no shortcuts with a chronic injury. You have to be careful, take your time and progress slowly or you’re wasting your effort and making things worse.

The injury that tipped the scales into total body decrepitude for me was an anterior ankle impingement.  This occurred (I think) from doing kicking drills on a heavy bag. One day I jogged down the hall to get a drink in between sets and had a very sharp pain in the front of my ankle. It didn’t go away, and anything that involved impact or flexing the ankle (like calf raises or lunges) aggravated it. I already had a myriad of other injuries at the time, so this was the last straw in many ways.

I spent months working around it by always wearing work boots with full ankle support and avoiding all aggravating exercises, and during this time I also scoured the internet for solutions that didn’t involve cortisone injections or surgery (no thanks!).

I unsuspectingly hit the jackpot  when I came across a parkour athlete’s home video on the topic:

The exercises demonstrated in this video looked to be exactly the kind of movement that would make things worse, but luckily I was desperate enough to try and immediately felt some improvement. After performing this series every night before bed for about a month my ankle was remarkably improved, and not long after I strapped my Vibram five fingers back on and resumed all my normal activities! 

There does seem to be a catch though. Doing these exercises daily has kept my ankles completely pain free for about 6 months now, but I’ve noticed if I miss even a few days the pain starts to creep back. For now I’m perfectly content to spend 60 seconds a day to have healthy ankles, but I am on the lookout for a more permanent solution as well

• Also important to note: I perform these exercises right before bed so my ankles won’t have any additional stress for several hours afterwards!

Remember that one of the most important components of recovery is taking your time and desisting anything that cold make things worse! My next post in this series will cover Jumper’s knee rehabilitation. Stay tuned and enjoy some Beans&Greens!