Badly sprained ankle - recovery time

97th choice

As above, sprained it very badly last week, foot swollen up like a ballon and couldn't walk for best part of 24 hours.

Can walk ok and foot back to normal, albeit blackish, but ankle joint is still puffy and sore to touch, although no redness there.

Thinking of doing some swimming as training to keep the CV going, if it's happened to you, how soon were you back cycling?

Xommul

I was off my feet completely for 4 days, on light duties at work hobbling round for a week. Then back to work and kept it moving.

What you must do is keep it elevated at all times when not needing to walk on it. Compression is essential so get a sports bandage or something similar. The Dr Said cold packs and hot packs to encourage circulation and drainage. I didn't do that as it was a faff.

I did exercises specific to ankle injuries, point and flex/ankle circles/tilting it in and out. 8-10 reps each.

Then eventually when no pain was felt i did some turbo training on it, light spinning, not too hard or fast until it built up strength.

If you dont let it heal it may sprain again and you will be off longer.

97th choice

Cheers, the elevation bit is a good tip, the swelling gets worse from morning to evening which I assume is from being up and around on it.

gsej

97th choice wrote:

As above, sprained it very badly last week, foot swollen up like a ballon and couldn't walk for best part of 24 hours.

Can walk ok and foot back to normal, albeit blackish, but ankle joint is still puffy and sore to touch, although no redness there.

Thinking of doing some swimming as training to keep the CV going, if it's happened to you, how soon were you back cycling?

How old are you? I'm 43 and everything takes a lot longer to heal than it used to. I sprained my ankle badly in mid-November. I stopped riding for about 3 weeks, running for about 8. It's still sore now.

DCR00

You should be icing it 2-3 times a day to help with the swelling

Once you feel you can, get some stretching going on that area.

Ankles take forever to heal properly. I twisted mine when i broke my leg and the break was healed way faster than the sprain.

97th choice

Frig.

Went for a small ride today, seemed ok which was reassuring. It's still sore around the joint and there's a bit of 'clicking' when I rotate it. Just taking to v easy, sort of.