Best Ankle Rehabilitation Exercises For Those Recovering From Ankle Injury

Summary

This physical therapy instructional video covers a series of ankle strengthening and rehabilitation exercises. It begins with intrinsic muscle movements like foot shortening, toe tapping, and towel scrunching. Next are extrinsic muscle movements: tracing the alphabet with your foot, plantar/dorsiflexion, and ankle inversion/eversion. The video then covers overall ankle strength exercises: heel raises, resistance band movements, and balancing (standing on one leg with eyes open/closed, balancing on blocks). The exercises progress from gentle and stabilizing intrinsic work to dynamic extrinsic movements to standing compound exercises to improve ankle mobility and function.

Takeaways

• 😀 The video covers ankle strengthening exercises for rehabilitation
• 💪🏽 Exercises target both intrinsic (deep) and extrinsic (outer) ankle muscles
• 🦶 Foot shortening, toe tapping and towel scrunches work intrinsic muscles
• 🖐️ Drawing alphabet and plantar/dorsiflexion target extrinsic muscles
• 👉🏽 Inversion and eversion movements strengthen ankle's side-to-side mobility
• 🚶‍♂️ Heel raises build strength for daily activities like walking
• 🏋️‍♂️ Resistance bands add load to ankle movements like plantarflexion
• 🧘‍♀️ Balance exercises like 1-leg stands improve proprioception
• 🛌 Start rehab exercises once pain-free after ankle injury
• 🚴‍♂️ Complete full routine for comprehensive ankle joint strengthening

Q & A

What are some key muscles worked during intrinsic ankle exercises?

Intrinsic ankle exercises work muscles like those in the tarsal bones and plantar fascia of the foot.

What is the purpose of the toe tapping exercise?

The toe tapping exercise stretches and extends the toes to strengthen the small muscles in the foot and ankle.

How long should you hold each foot shortening repetition?

Each foot shortening repetition should be held for 5-10 seconds.

What is the difference between intrinsic and extrinsic ankle muscle exercises?

Intrinsic exercises target the deeper muscles inside the ankle joint while extrinsic exercises work the outer muscles surrounding the ankle bones.

What does drawing the alphabet work?

Drawing the alphabet with your feet works the ankle muscles and calf muscles in all directions.

What muscle actions do dorsiflexion and plantar flexion emphasize?

Dorsiflexion emphasizes pulling the top of the foot up while plantar flexion emphasizes pointing the toes down.

What items could you use for resistance band ankle exercises?

Items like towels or exercise bands can provide resistance for moves like eversion, inversion, dorsiflexion and plantar flexion.

Why close your eyes during one-leg standing balance?

Closing your eyes challenges your proprioception and balance since your brain can't rely on visual input.

What do heel raises strengthen?

Heel raises strengthen the calf muscles and toe extensor muscles when lifting up onto the ball of your foot.

How can you make heel raises more difficult?

Doing heel raises while going below flat ground level on the way down increases difficulty.

Outlines

00:00

😀 Introducing Ankle Strengthening Exercises

The host introduces intrinsic muscle ankle exercises for rehabilitation after an injury. Three exercises are demonstrated: foot shortening, toe tapping, and towel scrunch. The exercises work to strengthen the deep muscles of the ankle.

05:00

😀 Extrinsic Ankle Muscle Movements

The host demonstrates extrinsic ankle muscle movements for further rehabilitation. Exercises include: drawing the alphabet with the foot, plantar/dorsiflexion, and ankle eversion/inversion. These exercises strengthen muscles directly around the ankle bones.

10:04

😀 Ankle Joint Strength Training

Additional ankle joint strengthening exercises are introduced involving heel raises, resistance band work, and balancing. These aim to build functional strength for daily living after injury.

Keywords

💡Ankle strengthening

The main theme of the video is doing rehabilitation exercises to strengthen the ankle after an injury. Ankle strengthening refers to the goal of rebuilding strength in the ankle joint and surrounding muscles through targeted movements and resistance training.

💡Intrinsic muscles

Intrinsic muscles refer to the deep, inner muscles of the ankle joint. The video covers intrinsic muscle movements, such as foot shortening, toe tapping, and towel scrunching, to activate these small stabilizer muscles.

💡Extrinsic muscles

Extrinsic muscles are the outer muscles around the ankle joint. Exercises like drawing the alphabet, plantar/dorsiflexion, and ankle eversion/inversion engage the extrinsic muscles to rebuild strength.

💡Rehabilitation

Rehabilitation refers to the process of helping an ankle recover functionality and strength after an injury. It involves pain alleviation, range of motion exercises, strength training, proprioception, and more.

💡Proprioception

Proprioception refers to the body's sense of position and movement in space. Balancing exercises with the eyes closed target proprioception by challenging the ankles without visual feedback.

💡Heel raises

Heel raises are a calf strengthening exercise where you lift your heel off the ground while keeping the ball of the foot planted. This engages the calf muscles and helps rebuild strength for daily movements.

💡Resistance band

Resistance bands provide opposition to ankle movements, like plantarflexion/dorsiflexion and inversion/eversion, to strengthen the joint against an added force.

💡Weight bearing

Weight bearing refers to exercises done standing, where the ankles must support body weight. This helps strengthen ankles for functional, everyday activities.

💡Range of motion

Range of motion refers to the ankle's ability to move through its full arc or degree of motion. Flexibility exercises improve range of motion after injury.

💡Pain alleviation

Pain alleviation is the first step of ankle rehab to reduce swelling, inflammation, and discomfort before rebuilding strength back up through intrinsic, extrinsic and resistance exercises.

Highlights

Doing rehab exercises for ankle strengthening, focusing on deep intrinsic muscles

Foot shortening exercise - shorten foot by pulling toes closer to ground

Toe tapping exercise - lift toes up like playing piano then tap down one by one

Towel scrunch exercise - use toes to scrunch and pull towel to work plantar fascia

Extrinsic ankle exercises work muscles directly around the ankle bones

Alphabet exercise - draw letters with foot to improve mobility in all directions

Dorsiflexion and plantarflexion - stretch ankle up and down through full range of motion

Eversion and inversion - move ankle side to side to strengthen supporting muscles

Heel raises exercise - lift heels to work calves and ankle strength for daily tasks

Resistance band exercises - dorsiflexion/plantarflexion and eversion/inversion against band

Single leg balance - stand on one leg with eyes open/closed to improve proprioception

Advanced balance - stand on one leg on unstable surface to challenge ankle muscles

Start with pain relief before beginning rehab exercises

Exercises use bodyweight and bands, not weights which could overstress injury

Do full routine daily to rebuild ankle strength after injury

Transcripts

[Music]

hey there welcome to welkey's Mobility

Series where we do some Rehabilitation

exercises for different joints in your

body right now we're going to be doing

some ankle strengthening exercises and

these are going to be called intrinsic

muscle exercises because it's like a

really deep muscles of your ankle maybe

some exercises you haven't seen uh

before so after an injury

obviously your first step is getting

your pain and then alleviated so once

you're pain-free it's time to now go on

to the strength training portion which

doesn't involve a lot of dumbbells and

barbells just right here and doing some

very intricate muscle movements and so

the first thing we're going to be doing

is called a foot shortening exercise and

this is a little little strange it's a

little subtle I don't know if we'd be

able to catch it on camera but so you

have the foot right here and what you're

basically trying to do is shorten it and

you can do that by pretending your ball

underneath your foot and so you just

kind of pull

Closer by keeping almost all your toes

on the ground as you can see there's a

little bit of a shortening going on

right in the middle there so you hold

that anywhere between five and ten

seconds and then you let go

it's easier to do maybe with a towel

underneath you or if you're wearing

socks but again like just want to pull

it in and shorten the foot again it's a

little subtle change so you don't really

get to see

that much of a movement going on but

again you want to hold for five to ten

seconds in that strengthening shortening

movement and maybe repeat that anywhere

between 8 and 12 times total

hey there welcome back to welkey's

Mobility series we're doing some ankle

rehab exercises and so this is another

intrinsic muscle movement so it's a very

deep

inner muscles of the ankle joint here so

some is going to be called toe tapping

so you just lay foot out right here and

then bring all the toes up and just like

you're playing a piano bring one down

after another

and start over again where you want to

stretch and extend those toes to feel it

really working these little muscles

right here and tarsal bones and then one

two three four or five

just like that tapping it and playing it

do between eight to twelve

little toe Taps as part of the set and

repeat the set two or three times and

you'll be all set move on to the next

exercise

hey there welcome back to welkey's

Mobility series we're doing the ankle

strengthening exercises so the last

intrinsic muscle movements gonna be

needing a towel

so it's gonna be a towel scrunch you'll

be doing that with your toes

so I've laid it out there and then take

the uh the rehab ankle and then you just

scrunch it and then pull it kind of like

flexing the

plantar fascia on the bottom of the foot

hold that for five to ten seconds and

Let It Go

let's go again so again you're trying to

get every single toe to wrap around that

towel and then pull in and then hold

that three four five and then release

and repeat that anywhere between eight

and ten times

and then you'll be able to move on to

some of the more advanced ankle

exercises for rehabilitation

[Music]

hey there welcome back to welkey's

Mobility series we are doing some ankle

exercises for rehab and strengthening so

this time we're going to be moving on to

What's called the extrinsic muscle

movements for your ankles that involves

some of the muscles that are directly

around the two little bones right here

the malleoli malleolus and so we're just

trying to get these muscles they're

involved in a lot more of the ankle

movements of the foot so the first one

I'm going to do is just drawing the

alphabet so you just with your foot up

or on the ground or you can actually be

on the ground and then with your feet up

you just want to draw out the alphabet

so like a

nice and slow movements see

because you just don't want to rush it

very fast it's all about regaining

strength and the muscles of the ankle

and also the uh kind of the calf muscles

here and then the extensor muscles on

the side here so it's all involved in

all different movements in all

directions so again you just want to

complete an entire alphabet movement D

and then e all the way down to Z and

then it should be all set with that

exercise

[Music]

hey welcome back to welkey's ankle

Mobility series we're doing some rehab

exercises for the ankle joint so the

next one in our extrinsic

muscle series is just plantar flexion

and dorsiflexion so this means

dorsiflexion here so like the dorsal

side

of your foot and then plantar flexion so

it's like you're stretching and flexing

the plantar fascia so just movements

just like that you might want to hold it

on one side for a couple seconds

and try to do 10 to 12 movements on each

side so that's anywhere between 20 and

24 total movements

and then if you want to repeat that do

it maybe once or twice a day you should

be all set Dorsey and plantar flexion

hey there welcome back to welkey's ankle

Mobility series we're doing some rehab

exercises for that ankle joints so the

last of our extrinsic muscle movements

is just going to be side to side

Mobility for your ankles we're going to

be doing e version where you kind of

move the ankle out like that or I should

say move the foot out at the ankle joint

and then inversion where you kind of

move it inwards

so here nice and slow movements you

don't want to do it too quickly

and maybe do anywhere between 10 and 12

e version and inversion movements

in one set

and then you want to do maybe two to

three total sets

and you should be all finished with your

extrinsic muscle movements for the ankle

[Music]

hey welcome back to welkey's Mobility

series for the ankle joint so we've

already done some intrinsic sort of

inner muscle movements some extrinsic

muscle movements but now we're going to

be focusing on gaining overall strength

in the ankle as it relates to kind of

daily living so the first one we're

going to be doing is heel raises so you

can either go against the wall or hold a

chair and then with the ankle that you

want to strengthen you simply lift the

heel off the ground through the strength

of both your toes and then your calf

muscles as well push it up just like

that again nice and slow you don't want

to do anything too drastic when you're

rehabbing

just do about anywhere between 10 and 20

heel raises in one set and there's

another option you can do if you have a

bench or any sort of elevation then you

can do the heel raise but then when you

go back down you actually go below like

level and that adds a little bit more

strength component that's a little bit

more difficult but again 10 to 20 do it

anywhere between two and three times

total and it'll be all set

hey there welcome back to welkey's

Mobility series focusing on the ankle

joint so the next one that we're going

to be doing for some strengthening of

the joint is some band work so grab a

chair you also need some sort of form of

resistance you can either have a towel

or an exercise band we're going to be

doing dorsiflexion and plant reflection

which is basically ankle flexion or

extension but this time you're gonna go

against a force

so basically right here you just want to

press it down

so that's how you start it that's the

plantar flexion

so you want to do anywhere between 10

and 20

flexing the movements

then you just go the other way

it might help to because you can't

actually

you know fix it somewhere where you're

gonna be able to extend it from the

ground so you just hold it right here

against the force

just like that

it's the dorsiflexion

and for that one again do about 10 to 20

total movements

and you'll be all set to move on to the

next exercise

hey there welcome back to welkey's ankle

Mobility series for rehab and

strengthening exercises for that ankle

joint I'm using the band again this time

we're going to be doing the e-version

and inversion movement so side to side

mobility and so you wanna

push it against this Force this is going

to be doing the E version so about 10 to

20 times these pull against the band

strengthen all those outer muscles right

here

just like so nice and easy then we get

done with those

switch it around to the other side

for the inversion movement

here you can either put something down

there or wrap it around basically you

are pushing against that Force

for that I'm going to do about 10 to 20

as well or moving on to the next

exercise in the series

hey there welcome back to welkey's ankle

Mobility Series this time we're going to

be doing some ankle joint rehab

balancing exercises so your first basic

exercise would be just sanding one leg

balance

so you just hold here for 30 seconds

and then uh come right back down but the

next level up

using a little proprioception which is

your brain's ability to know where your

body is in the universe and so when you

close your eyes

your brain can't see that your eyes

can't see so you just have to really

work a lot harder in that ankle joint

and muscle surrounding to keep yourself

balanced so again for there 30 seconds a

minute if you can but the last level

involves these blocks

so for this type of balancing

on one foot and just slowly come down

and then back up and obviously you're

just putting blocks wherever you like

nice slow movements

coming back down

and then you just completely

finish up

taking the blocks

back up

you can do this as many times as you

feel that you're necessary

now complete your entire routine for

strengthening up the muscles surrounding

and also the intrinsic muscles of the

ankle joint

[Music]