Ankle injury, painful. What exercises and poses help?

Hello Sam

The stock answer you will get from most teachers is this: Obviously the whole series will bring you healing eventually. This is basically true.

However there are some other things that you can do within and outside of the practice.

Thanks for letting me know it is just your left ankle affected. With one ankle ‘out of action’ means you have been favoring the other leg. This undoubtedly affects the way you walk, balance, and just about everything you do.

Once I had the misfortune to badly sprain my ankle while backpacking. I was in Venice and tumbled when I placed my foot badly on a centuries worn irregular marble step. The bad part was actually having to carry my 50 pound pack. But it taught me a valuable lesson. If you can get up on your foot and weight it, then do it. Carrying a heavy pack meant I couldn’t favor my healing leg. The amazing thing is it healed incredibly quickly. I had no choice but to be mobile and scar tissue did not form. Other times in my life when I have babied a sprain (on 2 separate occasions) the swelling has not completely disappeared for up to a whole year.

During class:
Awkward pose: is particularly good for ankles. Although hard to work out in text form, in Part 1 if you PUSH your knees forward into the mirror and settle back down onto your heels (with the weight backward) this can really help. Obviously all 3 parts are great for opening ankles.

(Standing) Head to Knee: Support your foot don’t lean into your hands but at the same time FLEX as strongly as you can. Push your heel down, pull your toes up. Adapt that strongly for Head to Knee on the floor. Pretty basic stuff but what I am asking you to do is be very conscious of it and breathe through the pain or discomfort.

In Fixed Firm: Be careful. I have no idea as to the extent of your injury and how inflexible it is. But first few classes you should probably just sit on your ankles with toes out behind you and hips and heels together in a regular kneeling position. (This will also be incredibly restorative for your left knee if it still has some damage). If this is PAINFUL, then try bringing along a soft towel or an extra mat to class and place it under your ankles so that you can surrender to gravity without the aggravation of the hard surfaces under your feet. DO NOT bring your hands behind you at all to take you body back. Stay upright otherwise you dilute the effects of gravity.

Little by little you will bring the feet out to the sides of your hips. Stay with body vertical until bottom comfortably sits on the floor. Knees can be at any distance apart so long as the TOPS of your feet and ankles contact the floor. Use hands on floor to support you if necessary.
If you have to you can also place something soft between hips and heels. Wherever you need it.

You can practice this part of Fixed Firm at home. Sit on the floor or on a couch to soften the impact and do a lot of work to open up those ankles out of class.

Use a wall or stool: You may need to position yourself to get some support during class. You are aiming to put full weight through your left ankle. I don’t know if you can do that yet but you said you find balance difficult. You need to make sure you stand as upright as possible with whatever help you need so you can weight your foot properly. Try not to use your chosen prop for too long. Don’t come to rely on it.

Generally speaking, when you are standing on one or both feet try to evenly weight the feet. Notice whether you are avoiding the pain by moving the weight to an area that is not serving you (usually towards the toes). Mostly in this series you should have the weight centrally located or way back into the heels (toes are often off the floor too). Stack the joints vertically and don’t lean on one leg when both feet are on the ground.

Let me know if there are any poses that have become impossible and how. I will need more specific information.

The other thing you can do outside of class is this. When you sit at a desk, table or yes, on the toilet raise your heels up as high as they can go. Lean into the toes by driving forward through the ankle to open them. This is just like doing Part 2 Awkward without having to balance. It feels great and is really good for you…

The out of class exercises you can do anywhere and anytime you are sitting (in front of TV, at work…. the possibilities are endless). Of course just moving your feet around in circles in both directions will help tremendously. It will loosen them and break up scar tissue and inflammation. Do 10 circles in each direction both feet, several times a day. Movement is almost always the answer.

Hope that helps.

Namaste and thanks for the question

Gabrielle 🙂

Hi Nynn

Wow, that was some little mishap!

I’m obviously flying blind here :shut: so I will give you some ideas.

If you feel strong enough to go to yoga then do it. I would probably wear the brace for the first class to ascertain whether it should be worn again or for which poses.

From my last post you know that I believe in most cases that introducing movement will encourage healing and discourage scar tissue from inhibiting movement. Doctors often take a popular approach of keeping the sprained joint still and bound.

I would stand near a wall just in any case.

You may find that instead of putting all your weight on your left leg you could modify:

>> For standing head to knee first side, lift the heel of the right foot without dropping your hip at all (that means NO conscious weight shifting) to bring your foot off the floor leaving just the toes there to stabilize. You will lock your left leg and work on balance by standing tall shoulders back and that’s all. The idea is that you can pop the right amount of your right foot back down onto the floor to regulate and control the movement so that your left foot gradually accepts increasing challenge.

>> You may be able to do the second side – but I would not go past full leg extension for now.

>> Standing Bow – same again, stand upright and lift your right foot up leaving toes down (even just the tip down for stabilization). Second side approach the regular way with care because the stretch of that ankle will be therapeutic. Stay upright and kick back and that’s all you need. A gentle way to increase the flushing through that joint.

>> It probably stands to reason that you would just approach your class with super precision and care. For example in Awkward pose you may not be able to sit ‘down’ as usual in first part. For once, let your bottom stay high if it needs to. Second part you can practice on a chair at home (I would certainly be doing this to encourage the healing without weight bearing of your entire body).

>> Eagle just crouch down with both legs together keep chest up high now leg twisting at least first class. After class lie on your back and wrap your legs together to test.

>> On second side ‘Stick’ leave the right toes on the ground behind you for stabilization and stay at that angle there without coming down.

>> First side Tree keep your left hand on the wall. No Toe stand.

>> All of these instructions come with the proviso that you do what you know is right! I know you know that. They allow you to back off or advance with care.

Hope they work. Are you exercising your ankle now without the weight bearing?

Namaste
Gabrielle 🙂

Hi Nynn

I am happy to help. :cheese:

Sounds like you are doing the right thing. Keep flexing and pointing your toes, moving your foot around without weight bearing (introduce weight bearing when sitting as suggested and as you have been doing!) It doesn’t have to be constant just has to be frequent enough that your foot doesn’t get cemented in one spot: On and off throughout your day. It’s a process.

See you back here

Namaste
Gabrielle 🙂