ankle brace suggestions please

wannatri?

A couple of questions regarding your ankle support. I am a certified athletic trainer. What kind of support are you looking for? Are you looking for support on the outside (lateral)? Through my experience I have found out that the ASO brace and the Mueller "The One" are the best. I am not endorsing their products nor do I make a profit from their merchandise. This is just my experience for the past 5 years. The athletes get a lot of support out of them, especially football lineman where a lot of ankle sprains happen (in the trenches). They both provides adequate support for inversions and eversion ankle sprains. It is not "hinged" which allows for a little more mobility. Hinged braces restrict your sid to side motion which is what you need on trail running. They are about 25-35 bucks. depending on where you find it online.

I use Mueller "the One". Works great for racquetball. I have had 4 avulsion fractures on my Left ankle and one of my ligaments is 100% full thickness tear anterior talofibular ligament. I have been waiting a while to get it looked out because of the triathlons I have entered. I will need Ankle reconstruction surgery.

I "sprain" my ankle about once every month. Since there is no ligament to sprain, my ankle subluxes (dislocates then slips back in). It's something that I have been dealing with for about 2 years now. Those two braces would be what I would use. Either or. They are almost identical. I use the mueller "the one" because I got it for free, but if I had to purchase one it would be out of those two.

Look on their website for sizing. (might even be one size fits most).

Hope this helps!

-Joe Di Biase

Also,

Aside from a brace. I would recommend a home exercise plan to work the muscles around the ankle. This would strengthen your ankle. Once you have the brace, your body will start to RELY on the brace and make the ankle muscles work LESS (and weaker). If you strengthen your ankle at least 3-4 times a week and only use the brace for when you run that is fine. A brace is a "bandaid", your muscles need to be worked to build that strength to make your ankle stronger. When your ankle is gaining strength, I would start to slowly ween yourself off the brace. It is a great tool to use, but you're built with muscles, use em!

Hope this helps!

-Joe

Agreed Joe. I still have the rubber band and lots of exercises given to me from my physical therapist. Do I always do them? No. Should I? Yes.

I have sprained each ankle twice in the last year. I just thought I might want to wear something on the trails where the terrain is technical while I'm still in the healing process. I hate not being able to run!