How to Do Ankle Pump Exercises

If you have an ankle sprain or other ankle problem, you can do some exercises to rehabilitate your ankle. One of these is the ankle pump exercise. If you have had ankle surgery, you can do this exercise right after your surgery, as long as the pain has subsided enough that your ankle can handle it. The following steps will show you how to do ankle pump exercises to strengthen your ankle.

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• 2 chairs
• Pillow or cushion

1. Sit on a chair.

2. Elevate the leg with the injured ankle onto another chair padded with a pillow or sofa cushion, or onto the bed so that the leg is in a straight line.

3. Hang the ankle off the edge of the chair, pillow or the bed. You can also place your ankle on a rolled-up towel so the ankle is hanging off the edge.

4. Bring the toe upward toward the ceiling and bring it back down. This movement should be pain free, so do not lift it any higher than your ankle can take.

5. Do this motion over and over slowly for about 15 to 20 seconds at first.

6. Continue the exercise daily, adding a little bit of time each day until you can do 2 minutes of this exercise. After a while you should have more range of motion, so lift the ankle as high as you can without adding pain.

Tips & Warnings

• Listen to your body and stop when your ankle has had enough. You don't want to re-injure your ankle or make your injury worse.
• Combine this exercise with other exercises to strengthen your ankle to regain strength, balance and flexibility such as: ankle twists, isometric exercises (pushing with the foot to place force on the ankle, working the muscles and causing them to contract) and stretching exercises.

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