While a swollen ankle can happen for a number of reasons, I’ll be discussing how it specifically relates to a sprained ankle within this article. If you haven’t sprained your ankle, and you’re not sure why your ankle is swollen, it would be a good idea to contact your doctor to set up an appointment.
Now – following an ankle sprain, swelling is one of the most common symptoms. Bruising and pain are also generally present, depending on the amount of force that was applied to your ankle during your injury.
A swollen ankle is a good indicator that the ligaments in your ankle have been injured, resulting in your body’s use of the swelling to help remove any excess blood, fluid, or toxins that may have built up.
Initial Swollen Ankle Treatment
Since you’re most likely here to treat your sprain, let’s start at the very beginning. Initial treatment is one of the most important portions of your recovery. Once you can successfully contain and begin to reduce your preliminary swelling, you can also introduce unique swelling reduction techniques to help alleviate the rest of your remaining swelling.
These include contrast therapy, as well as self-massage, and are best done after a day or two of initial treating following the RICE treatment of rest, ice, compression, and elevating. While RICE is normally prescribed for a complete swollen ankle treatment, it’s best to only use it initially, before moving onto the swelling reduction techniques.
When done correctly, you end up short-cutting a lot of the suffering and limping during the beginning of your recovery, which will allow you to get back to enjoying your life much faster.
Range-Of-Motion, Stretching, and Strengthening
Beyond initial treatment, it’s incredibly important to also stretch to help realign your ligament fibers and reduce ankle stiffness, introduce range-of-motion movements, and also begin to re-strengthen your ankle with progressive, specific exercises.
These exercises and techniques should include a mix of ankle circles, calf raises, side-steps, dynamic stretching, and a few other movements thrown in along the way for good measure. Going through these movements progressively and listening to your body is important when using these techniques for the fastest results.
Now – while arming yourself with the correct knowledge is a good start, putting that knowledge to use is the only way you’re going to achieve the results you’re after. This is why we’ve taken our research, study of the body, and rehab injury knowledge, and created an online, at-home swollen ankle rehabilitation program known as ACT.
ACT – which stands for active, corrective, therapy – takes a much more practical, hands-on approach to a successful, fast recovery. The program is presented through videos online, where I’ll be taking you through the rehab process step-by-step.
From initial treatment to swelling reduction, all the way to strength exercises and balance retraining, ACT is engineered to provide the fastest, easiest results, while also dramatically preventing future injury, too.
To get started with your free online consultation, click here or on the banner below this paragraph. You’ll get to know me a little better, understand the science behind your injury, and also be introduced to everything that’s instantly available with the ACT rehabilitation program. If you’re tired of the frustration your swollen ankle is causing, you owe it to yourself to get started today.
