Exercise to Strengthen My Ankles.

Try a balance board. They sell the Gold's gym version at Walmart for about $10. It has a dvd of exercises and there is no cardio involved. You can stand in front of the tv, its very small so its easy to keep it with you.

Make sure to stretch them out before and after walking.A lunge with more weight on the back leg and bend your back leg a little may work. Another stretch is to put the foot you want to stretch on a step in front of you, reach down and pull your toes to you with a straight or bent leg. And just pointed and flexing your foot can help.

Also heel raises will help with strength. To start you can do them on level ground and while standing go up on your toes and back down, make sure to go slow when going up and down and you can hold at the top for a couple of seconds. Also do them with your toes pointed in and out to work the sides of your calves too. This works well for ankles and calves. Once you have it down you can do them on one leg at a time and also hang your heels off a step so you have to go below level when you go down.

A thera band would work too. So pull one way with the band and move your foot in the other direction, go up, down, right and left. Each direction will work different muscles in the ankle on each side. You can also "write" the alphabet with your foot in the air since this will give you a wide range of motion.

Other ideas: balance on one foot, try it with weights, on an uneven surface.
walking lunges and you can add weights at some point if you want.

You may want to go to a specialty shoe store and have them look at your foot and help find the right brand of shoe and fit for you. If you have wide feet so will come in wider widths. I wear kids shoes a lot since I have small, wide feet and sometimes they fit better than women's shoes. I also have several brands that I just cannot wear.

Here's a site with some stretches/exercises for ankles:

http://www.shapefit.com/ankle-exercises.html

Before I looked that up, the first thing that came to mind was to slowly stand up on your toes & then lower back down. They show this as #4 in their list.

Good luck!!

i definitely don't agree with pushing through the pain in your ankles. Every morning when you wake up, every day when you sit for lunch and every night before you go to bed flex your foot (toes to the sky) holding for the count of ten, point your toes to the count of ten, and 5 ankle rolls each direction slowly....
find a theraband or a pillow...balance with one foot on theraband or pillow, practice until you can hold for up to 5 minutes...
also remember to invert (put your feet up) whenever you're sitting to move the blood around instead of having it stagnate to your ankles.
good luck.

K.,

I recently sprained my ankle and am going through some PT (with my ex who is a PT). He started me with writing the alphabet with my toes; then heel raises. He said after I feel better, to start doing squats (on both legs and on one leg only) to strengthen up my quads. Being a former ballerina, who has put on a few pounds, I understand your position. Google "exercises for ankle sprains" and you will find a lot more. Good luck!!

M.

Have you tried wearing ankle supports/braces when you walk? I had multiple ankle injuries playing volleyball when I was younger and to this day my ankles hurt whenever I run or walk long distances.

Good luck,
K.

I have very weak ankles, too. There is a yoga pose called palm tree that is helping (you can probably google it) also you can just do calf raises. When you feel strong enough from those graduate to calf raises with your toes on a step with your heal hanging off! Good luck.

I think all the advice you've received so far has been really good.

The only other thing I could add is to possibly wrap your ankles or get some kid of supportive ankle brace if it's an issue initially. It sounds like your ankles just need to strengthen.

When I was in gymnastics, my tiny ankles were always getting injured, and the best exercise was to stand on the edge of a step and slowly do toe raises (3 days - toes forward, toes inward, and toes outward).

Good luck and congratulations on starting your exercise process!
Best wishes.

I had an ankle injury while playing college tennis, our trainer had me doing a lot of balance stuff to get my ankle strong again. When I could easily balance on one foot he would then *gently* push me while balancing on that foot to regain my strength. Also, as recommended by the others, lots of stretching, rolling your ankles before hand etc. Good luck!

K.,
If you get a stretch band to add resistance to the exercises Sandy recommended, they will be even more effective.
I am a personal trainer and wellness educator. If you would like advice on naturally balancing your hormones and a safe weight management program, let me know.
Good luck and have fun!
Victoria