The 3 most common ankle injuries, what they are, and how to prevent them (Kinetic Nutrition Fitness)

The 3 most common ANKLE injuries, what they are, and how to PREVENT them: (Kinetic Nutrition Fitness)

1. Ankle sprains occur when our ligaments or the connective tissue that connects one bone to another is over stretched and damaged. These are a little bit more problematic and may require treatment by a professional.

2. Ankle strains occur when our tendons the connective tissue that connects our muscles to our bones are over stretched and damaged causing swelling and pain. These can usually be treated at home, but also may need to be seen by a professional.

3. Ankle fractures occur when you have damaged a bone in the ankle, and this requires immediate treatment by a professional. Often identifiable by bruising, swelling, and the inability to put weight on the ankle without severe pain.

4. ANKLE INJURY PREVENTION - Make sure you are always performing a proper warm up before putting a lot of stress on the ankle during exercise, whether it's before a run, playing a sport, or doing an intense resistance workout by performing dynamic stretches where you take a specific joint through a full range of motion, perform static stretches after you train the muscle(s) or joint to keep them loose and prevent them from tightening as your muscle(s) will commonly do after training if you aren't recovering efficiently, and focus on building strength in the muscle(s) around the ankle, as well as the tendons and ligaments by following a resistance training program consisting of regular exercises that focus on strengthening the ankle. Performing self myo-fascial release using certain tools such as a massage gun or roller is also a great way to help bring blood flow to the specific area and to help loosen up any stiff or tight ligaments, tendons, and muscles. Wearing the proper type of footwear while training and making sure the ankle is supported by tightening the footwear properly is also very important!