The American Heart Association recommends including exercise into your weekly routine approximately 30 minutes a day, most days of the week. However, health conditions that create weak joints or affect the surrounding tissues of your joints can make meeting this recommendation difficult. This is especially true if the joint in question is your ankles. Luckily, just because you have weak ankles, does not mean you have to avoid activity all together. There are several different ways you can stay active while reducing the impact on your ankles.
Utilize Water
Water aerobics and swimming both help reduce the effects of your weight on your ankles, as well as reduce the overall impact of exercise on the joints. Water has a natural property called buoyancy, which supports a portion of your weight depending on how much of your body is immersed in the water. Performing exercises in water up to your waist will take as much as 50 percent of your weight off the ankles, while exercising in water up to your neck can support as much as 90 percent of your weight, according to Dr. Andrew Cole, from the University of Washington.
Biking
Biking helps those with weak ankles exercise in two main ways. First, the seat of the bike removes your body weight from the ankles. Second, both indoor stationary bikes and outdoor bikes use a circular motion to create exercise, instead of the traditional up and down motion of exercises like running. It is the impact of your feet against the ground in up and down exercises that creates stress on your ankles. Removing that impact helps create a low-impact exercise option.
Elliptical Trainers
Like bicycles, elliptical trainers use a circular motion to create exercise, removing the impact of your feet against the ground. Ellipticals use a motion similar to cross country skiing, and may even have arm poles -- depending on the model -- to further mimic the arm motions of the sport. Ellipticals allow a wide range of custom exercise levels as well by allowing you to increase or decrease your speed or the resistance of the elliptical pedals.
Sitting Exercises
If your ankles are weak enough that it's difficult to even stand, change your exercise routine to movements that can be performed while sitting. For example, exercises like arm circles and leg lifts can be used to increase your heart and breathing rate for cardiovascular exercise. Free weights like dumbbells and kettlebells can also be used from a seated position to strength train your muscles without placing any pressure on your ankles.
References
- American Heart Association: Physical Activity
- American College of Sports Medicine: Selecting and Effectively Using an Elliptical Trainer
- American College of Sports Medicine: Selecting and Effectively Using a Stationary Bicycle
- Spine-Health; Pool Therapy to Relieve Osteoarthritis Pain; Dr. Andrew J. Cole, et al.; December 2006
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