Ankle sprain and return to running

Anyone? I thought this was a pretty common thing.

Ive never sprained my ankle. Guess I have strong ankles.

Same here

Do not push it. Wait until the swelling goes down, at bare minimum. If you can, push on your medical provider and get an MRI. It's probably only a sprain, but you never know.

I turned my ankle a couple years ago and thought it was a sprain. I went to the emergency room and the doctor told me to wait until the swelling subsided before I ran again (he estimated 2 weeks). I was on my feet within a couple of days, but I waited two weeks and started running again (~ 1.5 - 2 miles). The ankle swelled up after a couple days. I finally got an MRI and found that I had torn the ligament. It took 2 months to get running again, and almost a year to be completely pain free.

Formless, how bad was your ankle the first couple of days after the sprain (amount of swelling, discoloration, pain, stiffness, etc.)?

i have sprained my ankle pretty bad last year during track, was warming up on a field and put my foot in a hole. It instantly swelled up and went blue/black. i kept a low profile for a week then went and saw my physio/massage man. He then proceeded to perform the most excruitating act of grinding all the inflammation out of it. He had another assistant in there holding my foot. However the next day i was able to job on it and within about 3 days was back on track- suggest tapping it however

It was very swollen (which happened immediately), but there was never any discoloration. I was able to walk normally with an air cast after a few days, and the swelling was ~90% reduced by the time I tried running again. At that point, it probably wasn't near 100% in terms of mobility or strength, but I foolishly tried to test it anyway (still using the air cast).

I sprained my ankles a whole bunch playing soccer and it depends on how bad the sprain is. If you were walking within 2 days, and can jog 100m w/o pain already you should most likely be okay to run in less than one month.

I would tape your ankle or get a good brace, run on soft surfaces and cross train for awhile, but go with how you feel. There is not magic time frame with ankles -- I've sat out anywhere from 2 days to 3 months with ankle sprains.

I bought a an electronic tens unit which aided in my recovery:

http://www.austinmedical.com/tensunits.html

I would definitely go to a doctor and get an x-ray just to be sure nothing is broken.

Good luck on your recovery.

How am I supposed to tape the ankle (any links would be appreciated)? Also, do you think stationary biking is OK to do? It doesn't hurt at all when I do it, but I'm not positive that it's not delaying the healing process.

Thanks for the help so far everyone.

I sprain my ankle about every 4 months. Get in the pool and run in place. Use a floatation device at first and then after a while you can run in place and float. Run in the water for as many minutes as you would run. You can even do sprints in the pool. It is all about heart rate and resistants.

2 weeks in the pool and still ice your ankle twice a day.

Warm your ankle before any running.

I don't have access to a pool right now unfortunately. Only a stationary bike.

This may sound weird to you, but I have a friend (her computer's busted right now, so I'm writing this for her) who really wants to sprain her ankle cause she loves being in the center of attention. Well, at least she wants to pretend its sprained so she can go to the doc and get crutches, etc. She's a big soccer player, so I'm wondering if you can give her any tips on "spraining" her ankle…would be appreciated!

I'd strongly recommend NOT taping your ankle.

Have you seen a doctor for this injury?

Lastly, if it doesn't hurt...run! Be attentive to it, but by all means run...and don't play any soccer until it is fully healed Dathan!