Small coup to prevent ankle sprain from running, a hidden skill that 99% will not pay attention to.

More and more young people are involved in running, whether it's a road run organized by a daily running group or a city marathon in full swing, many young people can be seen. Some injuries often occur during running, and the most common one is probably ankle sprain (ankle varus sprain). This common fault is attributed by many people to the hard and uneven road surface and poor cushioning of running shoes. The occurrence of these problems is actually more due to the lack of strength and stability of the ankle joint. If you want to run fast and far, you can't just train by speed. Strengthening ankle strength is also an important special training.

In order to improve their performance in the marathon, many runners will do some targeted strength training before the marathon, but most of them focus on leg muscle strength, and few people involve ankle strength training. In fact, feet and ankles, as the first key parts to land and transmit pressure, can bear three times their own weight, which plays a very important role in cushioning and improving action efficiency. If the muscle strength around the ankle is good and the stability of the ankle joint is high, it may prevent ankle sprain. If the ankle strength is not enough, running for a long time will easily lead to pain and swelling. If ankle sprain happens frequently, it may cause chronic ankle instability and even traumatic ankle osteoarthritis. So it is very important for runners to do ankle strength training at ordinary times. The following simple exercises can help you improve the strength and stability of your ankle.

Lift heel practice

Lift heel is the most basic method to train ankle strength, which is also easy for non-professional athletes to learn. The action is simple, feet apart, shoulder width apart, toes forward. Slowly lift your heels off the ground until they reach the highest point, and then let them fall slowly. If you want to increase the intensity of lift heel training, you can do a step lift heel: the forefoot stands on the steps, and the arch of the hind foot remains suspended to increase the range of activities. This exercise needs to be done according to your own ability.

Jumping practice

You can also do some simple jumping exercises at home every day, such as jumping left and right, jumping back and forth, spinning, jumping in figure eight, jumping vertically, jumping horizontally and so on. If you feel monotonous, you can also use skipping instead. High-frequency jumping helps to improve ankle strength.

In-situ single-leg support rotating leg

The rotation mode of one-leg in-situ support is also relatively simple. The experimenter stood on the ground with one leg, kept his upper body still, lifted the other leg for 3 to 5 cm, and then rotated on one side of his body, keeping this posture as long as possible until he felt tired and out of balance. After a brief rest, repeat this action for about 3-4 times/group.

Elastic band practice

You can also use some tools when training ankle strength. If elastic belt is put on the front side of the foot, and elastic belt is used to make proper resistance, the ankle joint can be trained in all directions, which can improve the movement efficiency of muscles near the ankle joint, and at the same time, this group of movements can also improve the proprioception and coordination of the ankle joint, so as to avoid injuries caused by uncoordinated joint movements or stiff movements.

All listed above are relatively simple action training. It is recommended to do it repeatedly at home without obvious pain in the feet. These movements are quite safe and effective strength training for ankles, which can not only enhance the strength and stability of ankles, but also enable runners to better protect ankles during running and reduce injuries such as ankle sprains.