Protect Your Ankles While You Run

            Have you ever sprained your ankle?  You know if you did or not, there is a panicking feeling when you have to put weight on it again.  The feeling of having your ankle bend sideways beyond what it should ever normally bend is very painful.  And while the pain is kind of a quick sting at first, when you try to move or put weight on that foot, you’ll know right away - it isn’t going to feel good.

            What happens when you sprain your ankle is that weight is placed on the outside edge of your foot, and then your foot shifts sideways, making you place all you weight on the foot, while it is sideways.  This stretches and/or tears the ligaments in your ankle.  As you would know, or imagine, this doesn’t feel pleasant at all.  Your ankle, especially if you take your shoe off, will swell up to the size of a softball, or baseball, depending on how big your ankle was before.  The best thing you can do is to not try and fight through the pain and continue running or continuing doing whatever it was you were doing.  Instead, get somewhere where you can rest and ice your ankle, elevating your ankle.  However, it would be recommended to see a podiatrist to make sure that you haven’t torn any of the ligaments, which will take surgery to fix.

            When you're not running, this is also another reason why you shouldn’t be wearing ridiculously tall high heels.  If you get the heel caught or walk on a slippery sidewalk, chances are that your high heel will slip sideways, making your foot go sideways, and all your weight will land right on the side of your foot, thus spraining your ankle.

            To learn more about ankle sprains check out http://www.eastpennfoot.com/anklesprains or for other sports related injuries, check out http://www.eastpennfoot.com/sportsinjuries.  Make sure to check back every once and a while to see the additions to the sports injuries page, as we are adding more content.  If you have suffered an ankle sprain, we’d love to help get you back on top of your game.  Contact us at http://www.eastpennfoot.com/contact-east-penn-foot or by phone at 610-432-9593 to schedule an appointment.