{"id":14553,"date":"2019-12-02T01:20:50","date_gmt":"2019-12-02T01:20:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.healthymale.com\/squad\/?p=14553"},"modified":"2019-12-02T01:20:50","modified_gmt":"2019-12-02T01:20:50","slug":"how-to-heal-an-exercise-induced-sprained-ankle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.healthymale.com\/blog\/fitness\/how-to-heal-an-exercise-induced-sprained-ankle\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Heal an Exercise-Induced Sprained Ankle"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">If you\u2019ve ever sprained your ankle during a workout, you know it can be not only painful, but also debilitating. From rest and physical therapy to icing and wrapping your ankle in an ace bandage, a sprain can be a pain in more ways than one.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>What\u2019s a sprain exactly?<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">If you\u2019ve got a mild sprain, you\u2019re probably just overstretched and irritated your ligaments. If it\u2019s more severe, the ligaments may have actually torn.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Sprains can take anywhere from days to months to fully heal, depending on the severity.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Home treatment<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The first rule is to take weight off your ankle. That means resting it and elevating it. If you\u2019ve got crutches, you may want to use them to avoid walking on that leg. Use a bandage to immobilize the joint and reduce swelling. You can try propping your ankle up on a pillow so it\u2019s higher than your heart.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Take a nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory, like ibuprofen, to help with pain and swelling.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Apply an ice pack for 10 to 20 minutes at a time but wrap the ice in a towel to avoid hurting your skin. The ice will help reduce blood flow to the ankle and decrease swelling and pain.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Although heat can feel good and help increase blood flow to your ankle to speed up the healing process, don\u2019t apply heat while the ankle is still swollen. Once the swelling goes down, you can alternate heat and the ice pack.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Once the swelling has decreased, try moving your ankle around by rolling the foot, flexing forward and then back. By stretching your ankle, you\u2019ll increase blood flow and keep the muscles strong and flexible.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Walking a little bit can help\u2014but only after the swelling has started to go down, and only in short bursts.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">If the pain and swelling don\u2019t go down in a couple days, you may have a more severe injury that requires a doctor\u2019s evaluation. Serious sprains\u2014or sprains that are actually breaks\u2014may require surgery or physical therapy.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>If you\u2019ve ever sprained your ankle during a workout, you know it can be not only painful, but also debilitating. From rest and physical therapy to icing and wrapping your ankle in an ace bandage, a sprain can be a pain in more ways than one. What\u2019s a sprain exactly? If you\u2019ve got a mild [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[397],"tags":[1112,770,1113],"class_list":["post-14553","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fitness","tag-ankle","tag-exercise","tag-injury"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.healthymale.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14553","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.healthymale.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.healthymale.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.healthymale.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.healthymale.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14553"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.healthymale.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14553\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.healthymale.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14553"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.healthymale.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14553"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.healthymale.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14553"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}