Pilates and The Ankle

Spring is coming and exercising outside becomes more pleasant. As you head into training for your spring and summer activities, a part of the body we often forget about is the ankle. We forget until we injure them, that is. An ankle injury can really put a crimp in your training schedule. Common foot and ankle injuries include strain, an injury to the tendon that connects the muscle to the bone, sprain, an injury to the ligament which holds two bones together, tendonitis, which is inflammation of the tendon that connects the muscle to the bone and stress fractures which are tiny cracks in the bone due to repeated stress to the weight bearing bones. The soft tissue injuries like strain, sprain and tendonitis should all be treated with RICE: Rest Ice Compression Elevation. A stress fracture needs to be determined by your doctor usually with an x-ray. Since most of these injuries are due to over-use, there are things you can do to prevent them. First, make sure to warm up adequately, that doesn't mean stretching but warming up your whole body with walking or full body movement. And don't forget about the ankles, some foot circles or just pointing and flexing should do the trick! Second, build your exercise regime slowly. If you haven't been exercising all winter try to restrain yourself from running 3 miles the first time it's warm and sunny enough. Even if it feels good at the time, you are setting yourself up for potential injury. Start with moderation and build up gradually. You can also use your pilates classes to train and strengthen the ankles. Sitting on the mat you can use a band around the ball of your foot to point and flex the foot. Then loop it around the top of your foot and anchor the two ends to something in front of you like a couch, then pull your toes towards you. The reformer has many leg and ankle exercises, the flex and releve specifically target the ankle and foot. Balance exercises are important for the ankles too. Something simple you can do anywhere is just standing on one foot for a whole minute. This makes the ankles and lower legs work and is something most people don't do enough. If you've had ankle injuries in the past, the time to make sure you don't re-injure is before you start the activity. Happy Spring!