Recovering from Ankle Injuries

by Baxter

Part 3 today of my series on ankles! This post is for those people with more serious injuries than ankle sprains or with post-surgical repair. Although many of recommendations for acute ankle sprain may apply (see Ankle Sprains), your ankle may have some movement restriction in any of the directions we have covered under Getting to Know Your Ankles (plantar flexion, dorsiflexion, supination, and pronation).  And because of this, you may be advised by your surgeon to avoid overstretching your ankle to help preserve the stability that surgical correction has provided. Therefore, you may need to modify poses that require more plantar flexion or dorsiflexion than your ankle safely permits, as well as any other combination of movements.

My favorite way of accommodating these variables is by using a yoga wedge. Many studios have at least a few of these around for you to use in class, but you may want to get one for yourself to use for your home practice.

Typical Yoga Wedge

Let’s look at an example of how you might use the wedge. Say you have limited ability to point your right foot; in other words, you have limited plantar flexion. Poses like Triangle pose (Trikonasana) and Pyramid pose (Parsvottanasana) would be challenging for your front leg when it is your right one. Without support, the ball of your foot might be up in the air, unable to touch the ground. By placing the wedge pointing toward you under the ball of your right foot, you can now ground down though both your heel and the ball of your foot.

For limited plantar flexion, wedge goes under  front foot.

The opposite case would be limited dorsiflexion of the foot. Say you have limited dorsiflexion of your right foot. In this scenario, poses like Downward-Facing Dog pose or the back foot in Warrior 1, Warrior 2, Triangle pose, Extended Side Angle pose and Pyramid pose,would all challenge your ability to safely press your back heel onto the floor.  By positioning the wedge toward your heel and slipping it part way under your back foot, you may very well be able to ground both the ball and heel of your right foot.

For limited dorsiflexion, wedge goes under back foot.

Another challenge for our first example, limited Plantar flexion, is poses that require your shins to be on the ground and your feet to point backward, such as Hero’s pose, Child’s pose, Vajrasana and several other seated variations. In this situation, you want to create a support for the front of your ankle joint to diminish the pressure on the front of your ankle joint. Sometimes the wedge can be positioned to do the job, but I prefer to create a small roll with a yoga blanket and place that under the front of the ankle joints. As you drop into Child’s pose, for example, you should monitor your ankle for pain or any other suspicious sounds or symptoms. If you have the proper sized support, all should be quiet and happy on the affected side. By the way, place the support under both ankles so you don’t end up listing to one side.

As always, cultivate patience with your body to both gently guide it back to a healthier place and honor its limitations.