Sprained Ankle: What Can I Do for Home Treatment?

One of the conditions I hear people “walking off” the most is a sprained ankle. More specifically, I am referring to a lateral ankle sprain. A lateral ankle sprain, as opposed to a high ankle sprain, is the one we typically think of as “rolling” the ankle.

For clarity, I am going to refer to a lateral ankle sprain in this post as simply an ankle sprain.

RICE is an out of date approach for sprained ankles

You probably used to hear the term RICE – Rest, Ice, Elevate, and Compress – for immediate treatment. This is no longer the recommended approach. The new treatment for ankle sprains is: POLICE.

• Protect
• Optimally Load
• Ice
• Compress
• Elevate

You may be thinking, “ok, what is the difference? And what the heck does ‘optimally load’ mean?” The previous acronym, RICE, implies that you shouldn’t put any weight through your foot. If you roll your ankle and you can’t take more than 3 steps, this actually means you may have broken something. You should head to the hospital for some X-Rays if this is the case.

After an ankle sprain, it really is important to put a little weight through your foot. You may have to use crutches in order to walk without a limp, and this is ok. After you’ve gotten some of the swelling down, it’s time to rebuild your ankle strength.

Before you build ankle strength, you must understand the injury to the ankle

The ankle contains important receptors for balance. These receptors tell our brain where our foot is in space without us having to look at it. With a sprained ankle, this signal is disrupted. The brain then thinks that the foot is landing flat when it’s actually landing on its side, and we end up rolling our ankle over and over again. This type of signal is called proprioception.

When you sprain your ankle, the ligaments have become stretched. They will heal, but we want to use exercise to ensure they heal in a tightened position. If left untreated, ligaments heal in a loosened position and can cause lingering issues.

Sprained ankle treatment is always unique to the individual and severity of the sprain, but here’s where you can start

I suggest staring with:

• Ankle ABC’s : picture the tip of your big toe is a pen and you are drawing out the alphabet. This helps restore range of motion
• Banded 4way ankle – think of the bottom of your foot pointing away from midline, then pointing toward midline, then a gas pedal pushing away from your face, and pulling your ankle back (as though coming off a gas pedal). I prescribe these using therabands

• Calf stretch: Place a belt/towel/dog leash around the ball of your foot to pull it back and get a nice stretch in your calf. Do this both with your knee straight and knee bent, for 3 rounds of 30 seconds.
• Balance on one leg: This is where the restoration of those signals, or “proprioception” discussed above come in. Try to balance on your affected side for at least 30 seconds. No touching your legs to each other, and no arms out wide (give yourself a hug). Once this becomes easy, close your eyes for an added challenge.

Home treatment of a sprained ankle is not a substitute for physical therapy.

What I have provided in this post is only how we START treatment. Interventions become much more challenging later on in therapy in order for you to reach your goals.

As always, I would like to add that although this post sounds very specific, it is still very vague. There are several potential ligaments involved in an ankle sprain, as well as a target muscle group. Treatment looks slightly different from person to person based on their age, athleticism, and goals. If you are looking for some additional exercises, subscribe to this blog for access to the exercise database. I suggest starting in the balance section.