Swelling

DON'T LURK... Join The Discussion!

Members see FEWER ads

On Tuesday night I stepped off the beam( yeah just stepped) and rolled my ankle. Of course I sprained it again. (Thus is the 3rd time since may) we'll normally by now the swelling would have gone down but I won't. It's HUGE. And this time it bruise, it has never done that. I was just wondering if anyone know how to make the swelling go down?
 
Ice and anti inflammatories like ibuprofen. It needs to have support like tape when you are on it. If you do range of motion exercises it will heal faster.
 
I'm a big ice fan, and always have been. I was so sold on ice that I rolled my eye when people would add compression and elevation. Well, I had this kid who sprained her ring finger and was told by the doc no bars for three weeks or until the swelling and pain could be managed. I had her just ice it as many times as she could find time for during her own time away from the gym, and then every 40 minutes while at the gym.

She felt she could try some bars as the second week began, but it started to puff up after a few skills. The worst of it is that icing it didn't get her back to where she was before trying bars, so I had to come up with some way of controlling the swelling. That's when I figured maybe an elastic bandage would slowly squeeze the swelling down. It and was so effective combined with ice that she was able to get a little bar work done two days later, and a little more each day. She'd work until it started to get painful and swollen, and then she'd use the bandage (ace wrap) combined with ice while warming up for beam and working single elements that were feet to feet without hand support.

The swelling always went down and it hurt a lot less, so we kept at it through the first half of the third week before taking off for her last meet of the season, and kept icing it up to, and after bar warmups, and then again after she competed bars.

Give it a try. Use a wet ace wrap to put slight pressure on all parts of your ankle and foot, pack ice around it and wrap that up as well. then lay down and prop your foot up on something so gravity can help out too.
 
Compression combined with a lot of ice does wonders, as already mentioned above.
If the joint is not back to normal range of motion in a few days however, let someone take a look on it. (even if it doesn't hurt, ice tends to kill all the feeling ;))
 
Google and buy an AirCast. Every gymnast needs one. It's basically an ice cooler that pumps cold water into the ankle sleeve. When the sleeve fills up it adds compression to the ankle. After a few minutes it empties back into the cooler for a couple of minutes. It then repeats the cycle. You can get knee, shoulder, wrist sleeves. You can sleep with it on. At some point you wake up and it's not cold any more. Sorry you'll have to handle the elevation yourself.
 

New Posts

DON'T LURK... Join The Discussion!

Members see FEWER ads

Gymnaverse :: Recent Activity

College Gym News

New Posts

Back