Strengthening Ankle Exercises

The ankle in comparison to the rest of the body is a very weak point. Ankle injuries are one of the most common mishaps to happen during any sporting event. Even everyday activities like walking up and down stairs threaten your poor ankles. You can prevent these injuries though. With strengthening ankle exercises you help decrease the risk of a twisted or sprained ankles.
Actively stretching your ankles helps reduce the risk as well. Just by bending your ankle in different directions and holding will loosen the ligaments and tendons allowing less damage on impact. Stretch the ankle side to side and front to back.

These strengthening ankle exercises will help build stronger ankles:

Jump Rope This basic strengthening ankle exercise with low impact is great for building the ankle and knee joints as well as build cardiovascular endurance.

Body Weight Calf Raise Hold onto a chair or table. Flex your calf muscle, raising yourself onto your toes. Hold this position for 5 seconds. Slowly lower yourself to start position and repeat this 10 times.

Toe Pulls While standing, roll back onto your heels. Keep your toes pulled back as far as you can and hold this position for 5 seconds. Repeat this 10 times.

The Alphabet This can be done anywhere, at work, at home while watching TV, or even at the dinner table. Use your foot to write the alphabet in the air. Finish the whole alphabet and repeat with the other foot.

These exercises are both great for preventing ankle injury as well as recovering from one. Of course, take it at your own pace if you are suffering from an ankle injury.
To help increase ankle strength, there are a few pieces of equipment that come in handy. Exercise bands are great to add resistance to your light weight ankle exercises. The bosu ball comes in handy when wanting to improve balance and ankle stability.

Looking for more injury prevention exercises? Check out Go Healthy Fitness' article on a back pain cure.