Avoiding Ankle Sprains on the Trails
Most new trail runners deal with frequent ankle sprains/rolls or “twists”, and for good reason! Our bodies are accustomed to strolling over sidewalks and paying little to no attention to where our feet land. A switch to trails and suddenly every step presents an opportunity to roll something or trip on something else. This is a new mental and physical challenge! In this blog I’ll provide my top tips for overcoming ankle sprains. Some of these techniques may surprise you!
My first year trail running I sprained my ankles a dozen times, literally. It was not only frustrating, but painful, too! I considered taping my ankles for stability, I thought about buying a brace. But today I rarely sprain an ankle (maybe once/year), even running out in Colorado where the Rocky Mountains 100% live up to their name. 🙂
Here's what I learned: ankle sprains are both a neurological issue AND a strength issue. The only real solution is to keep running trails and practice specific techniques that will minimize your chances of a sprain. This isn’t just a foot issue: your feet have sensors, yes (that’s your proprioception), but your brain is also taking in data from your eyes: where you look on the trail. So it’s a combination of what is immediately under your foot in that instant + the data your brain already has gathered by looking up the trail a bit.
Top tips to avoid ankle sprains:
1. Strengthen your feet and ankles: in particular, BALANCE exercises. Why? Because this trains your body's proprioceptive abilities to detect/adapt to avoid an ankle sprain. Look up ‘foot yoga’, grab a towel with your feet: all these activities will sharpen your brain’s connection to your feet.
2. Practice reaction time. Do exercises like fast feet, etc to get your nervous system talking to your lower extremities: that's the communication highway you need to react fast to changing trails!
3. Choose shoes with a lower ‘stack height’. Meaning, some shoes (Hokas notoriously) have a lot of foam/shoe under your foot which takes away your body's ability to feel the ground (proprioception). A shoe with less cushion will have a better "ground feel" and will help you react faster to possible sprains.
4. Practicing looking up the trail and back down at your feet in a cycle. How long you spend looking up the trail may depend on how technical it is, but generally speaking you should be looking 10 meters / 30-ish feet in front of you as often as possible. Why? Our brains actually remember what our eyes see coming up ahead! This does take practice, and trusting your brain to remember those rocks you saw coming up on the left.
As frustrated and sore as you may be today, know his does get better over time if you consistently run technical trails. It took me about 1.5 years of trail running to stop stumbling my way around. The combination of using your eyes properly, wearing the right footwear, and doing the strength work will absolutely pay off!
Here's a link to one of my favorite videos on this topic : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F5SC304uRII&ab_channel=TrailAmbitions
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