Ankle Sprain & Pain Rehab for BJJ | Part 1 (12 min)

Now, this may or may not be painful, this position, if it is, just keep it on the edge of discomfort. So you're going to hold it at a level where it's uncomfortable, but not making it worse. Okay, and I'm just going to hold that pressure, I'm pushing down with the toes. I'm not trying to pull the foot back into a stretch, I'm not trying to take the foot into a range it's not comfortable in, I'm just keeping it in that ordinary mid-range and just pushing down against the belt.

And we're going to just rest, take a minute, and this time when I do it, I'm going to push as though I was twisting my foot that way, but the belt is stopping me. So I'm going to push down as though I was turning my foot in, but I'm holding with the belt so that I can't actually do that. And again, we're just going to hold that nice, not too hard. I don't want you to, you're not going to be a hero at this stage in the rehab plan, just keep it nice and easy, just hold it, relax, move the foot around a little bit.

And then fold the foot over the other leg, and this time we're going to go the other way, so we're going to pull the foot up. I'm going to use my hand this time to stop that movement, so I'm pulling up against my hand. And just hold that at a comfortable level. And then the final direction we're going to do, I'm just going to hook my fingers over the the little toe edge of my foot, and I'm going to pull up against my fingers there.

So I'm trying to bring my little toe up, I'm using the muscles on the side of the side of the shin here. And again, just engaging the muscles in a comfortable position is a really good way to start reducing that sensitivity, reducing the pain around the area and starting to get some function back in the ankle. I want to remember that we want to load it, we want to use the muscles, we want to keep the movement going as much as possible. I'm going to go back, we're going to do those again, I'm just going to push down against the belt, toes.

Again, the great thing about this is you can control exactly how much force is going through that, so I'm not going to do it any harder than is reasonably comfortable. Like I say, mild discomfort is okay, that's not something to be afraid of, but obviously if there's any sharp pain then that's too much. I'm going to rest, move backwards and forwards, and then we're going to go back to the same thing, but this time I'm going to turn my foot as though I was trying to turn my little toe towards the camera there. Again, we're going to hold this.

The great thing about these isometrics is because it's not involving any movement, I'm able to keep the foot in a nice, comfortable mid-range position, I'm not stressing any of the damaged structures, the ligaments or anything like that. I'm just going to pull back, so I'm going to pull the toes up towards my knee, and then relax, and then hooking over the little toe edge of the foot. Now, I don't want to pull the foot into this position because that's where you're going to get the pain at the moment, so I'm going to keep it carefully in the mid-range here, I'm just pulling up in that position there. Okay, I can just hold that.

So again, you can do lots of these, it's absolutely fine, you can do them several times during the day. Relax. And then, I'm just going to get a foam roller, I'm just going to get a little bit of work into the calf. Now, along with all of this, you may want to use an ice pack on the ankle, the ice pack can help to control the amount of swelling that you're getting, and also to reduce the pain, that's quite useful.

If you are going to use an ice pack, make sure you don't put ice directly on the skin, make sure it's wrapped in a damp tea towel, or you're using a proper ice pack that's been made for purpose. I'm just turning my leg as I do this, so I'm just getting all the different parts of the calf muscle and the other muscles in the lower leg, and in and out. Again. Okay, and then, finally when I've done that, I'm going to come up onto my feet, so again, we're assuming that you can put weight on this foot without it being too extremely painful, like so you may still get some discomfort when you're doing it, but you can still do it.

So, we're going to start with the foot, and then we're going to start with the foot, without it being too extremely painful, like so you may still get some discomfort when you're doing it, but what we're going to start doing is just stepping forwards and back, and you might find that you're starting to get pain in certain ranges there, and you can keep those steps as small as you like. I say at first, sometimes I have people just doing this here, and then as they get more comfortable, we start being able to make those steps a little bit bigger, but it's almost as though I'm just going to walk straight forward. And the nice thing about this is it's getting me into the habit of moving as normally as possible on that leg. The trouble is when you've got an ankle sprain, you'll tend to limp, and you get into the habit of limping on it, and then sometimes that can end up putting strain on other parts of the ankle and the knee and elsewhere in the leg that can cause problems elsewhere, and also we then have to get people out of that habit later on.

So, by just doing some work again, well within your level of tolerance, it's a good way of building that up. And from there, I'm now going to just start shifting my weight out to the side and back towards the middle again. So, we're just shifting the balance on that foot, and what you'll find is that it may be a bit sore in certain positions in that range, but as you do it, it'll start to feel more comfortable. So again, this is another one that you can do multiple times through the day.

This is a really good, this is your early stage ankle sprain rehab. So, as soon as you can put weight on that foot, you can start doing this to some degree. And as I say, feel free to keep those steps small at first, and then build up to larger as that becomes more comfortable. And if you can see I'm starting to come up onto my toes there.

And then, middle, and then we're just going to go out to the side again. So, shifting the weight out. Again, I'm not going too far. This is all very easy at this stage.

Okay, so we're going to finish day after day. That's your early stage rehab. And as I said earlier, you may want to do that a few times. If you've just sprained your ankle recently, then you may want to do that a few times before moving on to day two.

Day two is going to be a little bit more advanced. It's where you'll want to pick up about, between five and seven days, if you're interested.