During basketball season, one of the most common injuries for basketball athletes of all levels is the dreaded sprained ankle. While there are varying degrees of severity and different treatments for sprained ankle, most likely the athlete will miss at least a couple of weeks during ankle sprain recovery trying to get back to playing levels, and that is assuming that nothing was broken when the injury occurred.
What’s keeping you off the court?
So what are the limitations when trying to get back on the court?
- Loss of range of motion due to swelling and inflammation. Getting the ankle back to a normal size by eliminating swelling is the first step for recovery.
- Pain when walking normally. When the gait pattern (the way you walk) is altered because of pain, the body will compensate and overload other tissues to make up for the ankle that cannot accept the normal load of your body while walking. When this happens, most likely you can start feeling pain, or achiness in other areas of your body, most notably your knees, or your pelvis on the opposite side of the sprained ankle.
- The brain’s ability to recognize exactly where the ankle is in space. What this means is that your brain should know what your ankle is doing at all times, such as when it is plantar-flexed, or when your toes and foot are pointing down or away from you. It should also know when it is everted, or inverted (rolled out or in, respectively).
Ankle Sprain Recovery Treatments
The first thing that needs to be done in ankle sprain recovery is to eliminate the swelling and inflammation. This is typically done with the RICE method (Rest, Ice, Compress, Elevate), but here at 5280 Cryo & Recovery Clinic, we have Whole Body Cryotherapy, which is a much more effective way to reduce swelling and inflammation and help greatly with the pain. We also use Active Release Technique and biomechanical evaluation to help restore the normal range of motion not only in the tissues around the ankle, but also the other tissues that have started compensating due to the injury itself. Finally, we can help retrain the brain to recognize what the ankle is doing by offering some recovery techniques and exercises.
There isn’t another place that you can go to get as comprehensive care as you get by coming in to see us at 5280 Cryo & Recovery Clinic. Give us a call and schedule your appointment today!