First of all I want to mention that this is not a “I don’t want to go to the doctor so I ask here for advice”-thread.
About a month ago I tried a rolling drop. Unfortunately I jumped off wrong and landed with my hole weight on my back foot and so my foot buckled to the front in the ankle area. Because I am somehow addicted to unicycling I only paused for a week (5 days actually) and tried again and buckled again. I did it that way until now (pause for 1 week and tried riding again) because neither I don’t have any pain when walking normally nor it is swollen or has unusual colors. It only hurts when I bend my foot like I wanted to touch my shin with my toes (weird description ).
Because it doesn’t heal I will visit a doctor and ask him for advice but in future I want to prevent such an injury. So I am asking you for advice how to stabilize my foot. I already have 661 Race braces but I can’t use them because they don’t fit well. I also bought some High Top shoes and they help a lot but recently I was thinking about 5.10 Impacts. Do they give much support to the front of the foot? Or maybe someone has a completely different advice?!
I don’t know about any of those things you just said about. But a simple ‘support’ bandage could be of use. They’re reasonably cheap and you could wear one under your sock…however you should probably go for something stronger as well like those things you were talking about…
Thanks for your tips, especiallly the vid. I will start with those exercises as soon as I can do them without pain. Those foot movements are actually those which hurt most.
Yeah, my ankle gets the way yours does i think for pain wise.
Are you rolling your ankle when it 'buckles"
if you have insurance, and it covers doctor visits, i would definitely say go to the doctor if you actually rolled your ankle completely to the side (not forwards or backwards.
Sometimes it rolls to the side when I am running out while downhill riding and make some false steps but that usually is not worth to mention. The pain comes from bending the ankle too far forward than it would be good.
I wear these on MUni rides as my ankles are shot from football. They help the most from side to side but will give you confidence along with strengthening exercises and rest. Lightweight and they are comfortable … I wear them backpacking too.
Make sure your foot is well on the pedal when you go for a drop. Slip your foot further forward so the pedal is closer to your heel. it will put much less strain on your ankle. Then just concentrait on launching off more forward so you can roll out nicely. I hurt my ankle really badly a while back and still have problems with it if Im not carful and dont do these things, even on small like 3ft drops.
All the things you mentioned I try to do every time (and if nothing goes wrong I don’t even feel little pain even if I hurt it a rew minutes ago). Unfortunately I hurt my ankle when I make small mistakes like when I jump off bad or when the foot slips forward on the pedal while in air. For sure I will have to learn/train a lot regarding jumping and dropping but how shall I do that any other way than doing jumps and drops.
Sound basicly the same as what I have done, I still get by though. I can still do just as big drops, I just choose to avoid them if I can. Maybe slightly strangely, 180ing down drops works well, and it looks good to
Active Ankles are useless for preventing the kind of injury you’re talking about; they will stop you from rolling your ankle, but not from flexing it upwards (dorsiflexion).
I’ve been using the AirCast A60, which is better then the Active Ankles at protecting against dorsiflexion injuries, but it’s still not perfect. As someone else said, taping is probably the absolute best. And move your feet further forward on the pedals.
Doctor: In a few days they will be back to normal.
Well actually it’s 6 months later and I still have buggered ankles. My ligaments are strained and have been for 6 months. I haven’t given them a rest. I’m seeing he pediatrist in 2 days time so hopefully I will get it all sorted. It is kind of annoying with these 2 screwed ankles.
I use Active Ankles and they do the job though take a while to get used to and wear in. I have bad ankles from years of abuse (not unicycling) and not knowing 'till resently that I had Hypermobility . My consultant has advised that I have reconstruction surgery but that will take me off me feet for ages and I’ve had one ‘tidy up op’ which was bad enough so I’ll keep wearing the AA’s and being careful.
They do have a strap at the back to restrict that movement.
I’d like to try them but until my AA’s break I can’t justify buy them.
They have a strap at the back, but it does virtually nothing to resist dorsiflexion. (I rode with Active Ankles for years). If dorsiflexion is your problem, Active Ankles are the wrong solution.
I haven’t read the whole thread, but it seems like everyone is recommending ankle support. Ankle support is good, but I think poor technique could be an underlying problem. Landing with all your weight on your back foot coming off a rolling drop is certainly not ideal. I suggest starting smaller and learning to roll off drops smoothly and confidently before you try bigger drops.
Very true and I recommended that already for myself earlier in this thread, but that’s still not enough for me. I really want support for those jumps where anything goes wrong (and that also happens with jumps/drops that I can do most of the time). It’s depressing that one small failure can lead to weeks of no unicycling.
Maybe try looking for a chiropractor in your area. it sounds to me maybe like you could have rolled your ankle inward rather than outward. That would cause the pain when the foot is pointed forward. A standard family doctor wouldnt catch this, necessarily, but a chiropractor would bew able to fix it in a jiffy. And if it was caused by the inward roll I can even tell you why it happened. You proably did too intense of a ride and then before your ankles could recuperate, you went fr another one. With the ankles weakened, they easily roll. Only by taking a break day or two after a particualrly strenuous ride can you really prevent those. Now, as for supporting it while it heals, you can probably pick up a normal ankle support, the elastic type that straps around your ankle.
Doing a bit of research I found that there are generally three types of ankle sprains, and mine is likely a grade ll. It may be only a grade l but I made it worse-at least the massive swelling- by continuing to ride for at least an hour, after the injury!
I’ve been using the RICE method and it’s helped a lot, and the swelling has decreased at least 50% just in the last 24 hours. The sprain occurred about 43 hours ago. I can walk on it, and there has been some pain, but not much. Again, the swelling gave me the most concern.
If I was a runner, tennis player, or did any type of sport where you are making quick moves on your feet, I would probably be out of commission for a long while. But I wonder if I could start riding again…at least some easy cokering on flat, smooth bike paths, without a problem. They say you should keep your ankle at least somewhat mobile, to prevent stiffness.
This was my ankle after I got home Saturday, 8/8/09:
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