How many ankle rolls have you had in your life? One? Five? Some people say ten or more! If you roll your ankles a lot, you have something called
functional ankle instability (FI)
What is functional ankle instability exactly? Functional ankle instability is the feeling of reduced ankle stability that results in reoccurring ankle sprains. It is from both neuromuscular and proprioceptive deficits.
What are neuromuscular and proprioceptive deficits?
Neuromucular means how your nerves and muscles work together. For example, when you start to roll your ankle, does your body pick up on this quickly and send nerve signals to fire the muscles and prevent the sprain? In FI, this is weakened.
Proprioception is the body’s ability to sense things like movement, action, and location. With FI, proprioception is at a deficit for sure.
What causes functional ankle instability?
There are several reasons why somebody might develop reoccurring ankle sprains or have ankle instability. One would be the mechanical alignment of your ankle compared to somebody else’s. There is a joint in the ankle called the subtlar joint that is mainly responsible for your foot and ankle moving in and out. If the alignment of this joint is a little “off”, you might be predisposed to rolling your ankle more. Another reason might be your first 1-2 sprains. These injuries pull on the ankle ligaments. Those ligaments have sensors in them that prevent ankle sprains. When the ligaments are injured, this reduces those sensors. This then leads to a cascade effect of more ankle sprains. A lot of people believe that weakness causes ankle sprains, but it’s actually thought that muscular imbalance is more of a contributor to ankle sprains rather than weakness itself.
How is functional ankle instability treated and helped?
If you are currently experiencing ongoing ankle sprains with swelling and high rates of re-injury, it’s definitely time to consider the use of a brace during some activities. Think of what always causes your sprains. Is it walking on grass? If you are going to your child’s soccer game, maybe consider putting an ankle brace on. Hiking is a common activity that ankle rolls happen as well as running on flat or uneven surfaces. The goal is not to become highly dependent on the brace but to wear it sometimes to reduce the instance of re-injury.
Strengthening the muscles around the ankle joint can help to address the muscle imbalances mentioned. Stabilization and balance are extremely important to address with this condition. These include things like balance activities on flat and uneven surface. Working on reaction time is also key. Reaction time is addressed by working on things like agilities which include cutting, ladder drills if you are familiar, and more. Flexibility and range of motion also need to be considered. Maybe you are tight in another ankle joint which is contributing to the subtler joint mentioned being a little more stressed.
So, now that you know more about functional ankle instability, do you think you have it? It’s a pretty common condition. Physical therapy for this condition includes the treatments discussed above. We are highly skilled in assessing your muscular imbalances, testing balance, and more. Talk to us for help!