Shared this with r/footfunction a few weeks ago but thought this would be useful here. Not a PT and this is more for folks who keep getting minor ankle sprains. If you have an acute ankle injury, you should go see a orthopedic doctor or physiotherapist.

I hurt my ankle badly 15 years ago and it never fully healed. And ever since then, I'd tweak my ankle once or twice a year like clockwork, mostly when trail running or rucking or walking on an uneven surface. Been to PT multiple times but it was hard for me to stick with a rehab program.

What causes chronic ankle sprains?

Once you sprain an ankle badly, the ligaments around get looser/weaker and the nerves around the joint get poorer at sensing its current position. So when your foot lands weird, your body is unable to react subconsciously and you roll it again.

My program/protocol

Single-leg kinetic chain strength

The most important thing I learned is that ankles don't stabilize themselves in isolation. Your glute and knee are upstream and if they're not strong, all the work in stabilizing goes to your ankles. You need to ensure this foundation is strong. Complementing a balanced strength training routine, I found these exercises to be effective for me:

1. Weighted calf raises
2. Single-leg RDLs (unweighted -> add weight)
3. Forward step-downs from a 6-12" box, ensuring the eccentric aka lowering phase is controlled
4. Tibialis raise
5. Glute bridges
6. Banded monster walks

Proprioception

The next component is proprioception, aka your body's internal GPS. Your nervous system needs to learn how to react fast enough to prevent rolls. Exercises that were good for training this:

1. Single leg balance with head turns
2. Single leg balance with head turns on a half bosu ball or uneven surface

Controlled plyometrics

This part teaches your ankles how to absorb impact. Example exercise:

1. Lateral & forward hops with stick, need to ensure you can effectively stop and balance

Mobility (YMMV)

This wasn't a particular limiter for me, even with my bad ankle. But I know that this might be an issue for you. To increase your ROM, some exercises include:

1. Banded ankle dorsiflexion mobilization
2. Wall ankle stretches

Hope this is helpful! I'm still experiencing my ankle clicking or locking up occasionally but I've effectively stopped the same injury pattern. Every gym session, I try to do a handful of these exercises as preventative work as part of my warm up or cool down.

I posted here half a year ago about constant recurring ankle sprains for 15+ years and someone mentioned I look into chronic ankle instability. Finally got tired of it and made it my goal for 2026 to fix this for good. This is mostly a repost from r/ankle that I made recently.

I'm not a PT and this is more for folks who keep getting minor ankle sprains. If you have an acute injury, please go see a orthopedic doctor or physical therapist.

After spraining my ankle badly 15 years ago, I'd tweak or slightly sprain my ankle a few times a year, usually when I'm trail running or running on an uneven surface and my brain "turns off" a second. Went to PT several times but it was hard to stick with a program as I didn't understand the mechanism of injury very well.

What causes chronic ankle sprains?

Once you sprain an ankle badly, the ligaments around get looser/weaker and the nerves around the joint get poorer at sensing its current position. So when your foot lands weird, your body is unable to react subconsciously and you roll it again.

My program/protocol

Single-leg kinetic chain strength

The most important thing I learned is that ankles don't stabilize themselves in isolation. Your glute and knee are upstream and if they're not strong, all the work in stabilizing goes to your ankles, making it vulnerable. You need to ensure this foundation is strong. Complementing a balanced strength routine, I found these exercises to be effective for me:

1. Weighted calf raises
2. Single-leg RDLs
3. Forward step-downs from a 6-12" box, ensuring the eccentric aka lowering phase is controlled
4. Tibialis raise on wall
5. Glute bridges
6. Banded monster walks

Proprioception

The next component is proprioception, aka your body's internal GPS. Your nervous system needs to learn how to react fast enough to prevent rolls. Exercises that were good for training this:

1. Single leg balance with head turns
2. Single leg balance with head turns on a half bosu ball or any unstable surface

Controlled plyometrics

This part teaches your ankles how to absorb impact. Example exercise:

1. Lateral & forward hops with stick, need to ensure you can effectively stop and balance

Mobility

This wasn't a particular limiter for me, even with my bad ankle. But I know that this might be an issue for you. To increase your ROM, some exercises include:

1. Banded ankle dorsiflexion mobilization
2. Wall ankle stretches

Hope this is helpful! I definitely feel way more confident on trails and in different shoes. I wish someone had explained to me all of this.

Shared this with r/footfunction a few weeks ago but thought this would be useful here. Not a PT and this is more for folks who keep getting minor ankle sprains. If you have an acute ankle injury, you should go see a orthopedic doctor or physiotherapist.

I hurt my ankle badly 15 years ago and it never fully healed. And ever since then, I'd tweak my ankle once or twice a year like clockwork, mostly when trail running or rucking or walking on an uneven surface. Been to PT multiple times but it was hard for me to stick with a rehab program.

What causes chronic ankle sprains?

Once you sprain an ankle badly, the ligaments around get looser/weaker and the nerves around the joint get poorer at sensing its current position. So when your foot lands weird, your body is unable to react subconsciously and you roll it again.

My program/protocol

Single-leg kinetic chain strength

The most important thing I learned is that ankles don't stabilize themselves in isolation. Your glute and knee are upstream and if they're not strong, all the work in stabilizing goes to your ankles. You need to ensure this foundation is strong. Complementing a balanced strength training routine, I found these exercises to be effective for me:

1. Weighted calf raises
2. Single-leg RDLs (unweighted -> add weight)
3. Forward step-downs from a 6-12" box, ensuring the eccentric aka lowering phase is controlled
4. Tibialis raise
5. Glute bridges
6. Banded monster walks

Proprioception

The next component is proprioception, aka your body's internal GPS. Your nervous system needs to learn how to react fast enough to prevent rolls. Exercises that were good for training this:

1. Single leg balance with head turns
2. Single leg balance with head turns on a half bosu ball or uneven surface

Controlled plyometrics

This part teaches your ankles how to absorb impact. Example exercise:

1. Lateral & forward hops with stick, need to ensure you can effectively stop and balance

Mobility (YMMV)

This wasn't a particular limiter for me, even with my bad ankle. But I know that this might be an issue for you. To increase your ROM, some exercises include:

1. Banded ankle dorsiflexion mobilization
2. Wall ankle stretches

Hope this is helpful! I'm still experiencing my ankle clicking or locking up occasionally but I've effectively stopped the same injury pattern. Every gym session, I try to do a handful of these exercises as preventative work as part of my warm up or cool down.

I posted this here a few months back after getting intrigued by shorter distances (100m-400m) after doing 5K + distance races for a few years. I decided to train for the 400m 8 weeks ago to see how well I could do.

For context, I'm 31 years old, never sprinted, and my approximate mile time fitness was around 5:45. I found a novice sprint plan that had me go to the track 2x week and lift 2x a week. The first track day focused on max speed and acceleration while the second track day focused more on speed-endurance like 4x150m or 3x200m with 6-10 minutes of rest. Besides my prescribed workouts, I didn't do anything else. I didn't do an initial 400m test as I really didn't want to pull a hamstring or hurt myself without having the right conditioning.

Yesterday, I finally decided to run a 400m timed trial and my time was 62.03s.

The last 80 meters are no joke, feeling the lactic made me see stars. Slightly bummed that I couldn't get below 60s but will continue training and racing every few weeks. I thoroughly enjoyed this block and for anyone who's looking for a new challenge, I'd highly recommend trying short distances a try. I hope this can be a useful measurement of what is a realistic outcome for a novice.

Here was my 8 week workout, which is comprised of two track days per week.

Weeks 1-4:

• Workout A - 4x30m flys, 3x120m, 4-8 mins of rest between reps
• Workout B - 3x200m, 6-8 mins of rest

Weeks 5-8:

• Workout A - 2x60m flys, 3x150m
• Workout B - 2x300m with 10 min rest