As an AT I work a lot of tournaments where I hear “Why am I injuring my ankle even though I wear an ankle brace?”  As all AT’s know, braces are designed to lessen the severity should an injury occur, but are you recommending the most effective ankle brace to help prevent those injuries?

Evaluating the most effective ankle brace starts with taking a look at it’s design and ability to provide long-lasting joint support. Any ankle brace can feel supportive when you first apply it, but what happens to that brace in 30 minutes? An hour? Is there any support left?  Here is a breakdown as to why some brace designs work well for long-lasting ankle support, while others fall short.

Do You Restrict Range of Motion? 

Let’s start with bracing principles of effective design. A brace that moves freely with the natural joint motion will always be more effective at providing long-lasting support compared to a brace that resists the natural range of motion of the joint. Why is this? If a brace works against (or restricts) the material movement of the joint, it will stretch out, migrate and shift causing the brace to lose support rapidly.

An example of an ankle brace that restricts normal joint ROM is the lace-up style. Lace-up ankle braces were first developed as a reusable tape job that the athlete could apply themselves. However, like a tape job, the lace-up loses a majority of its support in the first 15-20 minutes of activity. 

Do You Control Heel Movement?

As athletic trainers we were taught that if you can control heel movement, you can control the ankle. You might say “Wait, lace-ups that have a heel lock strap can control heel movement.” Which may be true for the first few minutes of activity, at which point the lace-up ankle brace begins to rapidly lose support. In theory it is true that if you can control heel movement then you can control the ankle, however it is unachievable with any ankle brace.

Do You Use Hinged Braces?

If you want to know what the most effective ankle brace design is at providing long-lasting ankle support, just take a look at the way knee braces are designed – with a hinge. When the brace is hinged and able to move with the joint, the straps stay securely in place maintaining long-lasting ankle support.  By moving with the joint, the brace is not only providing long-lasting support, but it also does not negatively affect athletic performance. 

Although hinged ankle braces are able to move with the joint, there are still some negatives associated with them. Because most hinged ankle braces are made with a rigid plastic, they are bulky and uncomfortable to wear for extended periods of time. They are also more susceptible to cracking and breaking due to material fatigue. Unlike older versions of rigid, hinged ankle braces, our low-profile Ultra Zoom ankle brace uses an advanced material called Performathane which uses body heat to form-fit to the ankle.  This new material overcomes the negatives of rigid hinged ankle braces by being form-fitting, flexible and extremely comfortable while providing the long-lasting ankle support only a hinge design can provide. 

Is Your Program Up to Date?

Maybe you’re already familiar with the best types of ankle braces for your athletes, but your program is in the habit of purchasing the same old lace-up style brace every year. As athletic trainers we usually want to try the brace out on our athletes before we commit to purchasing the product. You know that hinged ankle braces are better than lace-ups, but will your athletes wear them?

Regardless of your situation, I would love to correspond with you about your ankle bracing protocol and how Ultra Ankle can help improve the effectiveness of the ankle braces you recommend to your athletes – just send me a message.

Ultra Zoom

Help prevent ankle injuries all season long.

Ultra High-5

Reinforce the ankle after a history of multiple ankle injuries

Ultra CTS

Maximize stabilization to treat acute ankle injuries

Even though they aren’t the most common ankle issue, acute ankle injuries tend to be discussed more among athletic trainers and sports medicine professionals since they can be the most damaging to an athlete and their career. But what about the most common, less-discussed ankle issue that is prevalent among today’s athletes both young and old? I’m talking about non-acute mild/moderate ankle instability.

Let’s say an athlete has a brief history of previous ligament injuries to the same ankle and they play a sport with a high incidence of ankle injuries, like basketball or volleyball. One goal as an athletic trainer would be to stop the cycle of ankle injury to prevent more severe problems down the road – but what are the best injury prevention methods for mild/moderate ankle instability?

After an ankle injury occurs, the standard next step for most athletic trainers is to implement a rehabilitation program customized to the injured athlete’s specific needs. Though stretching, strength-building, and proprioception exercises help to heal the ankle, it’s never back to 100% because the damaged ligament has lost some of its integrity (tightness) making reoccurring ankle injuries a distinct possibility. For that reason alone, it’s important to prevent ankle injuries before they even occur.

While we would love to share with you a long list of proven ways to prevent ankle injuries, the truth is that bracing the ankle joint is the most effective treatment method available. Once a rehab program is complete what is to stop a volleyball player from landing on another person’s shoe during a jump? A football player from being tackled and falling at the wrong angle? A basketball player from grabbing a rebound and landing on another player? It’s a split second movement that no amount of ankle strengthening can prevent.

With the goal of preventing another ankle injury in mind, the best treatment method for managing mild/moderate ankle instability is to brace the ankle. Bracing is going to provide more support than tape and for a longer period of time. Since we are not focusing on chronic ankle instability, the brace need not be super rigid and restrictive but instead be a lightweight, low-profile ankle brace that is comfortable to wear over long periods of time. A comfortable, long-lasting ankle brace would be the most effective method of treating mild/moderate ankle instability without restricting athletic performance.

If you’ve worked with athletes with mild/moderate ankle instability in the past, what are some of your go-to treatment and rehabilitation options? What methods do you feel have worked best and why? Let us know on our Facebook page, share with us on Twitter, or send us a message on our website.

Ultra Zoom

Help prevent ankle injuries all season long.

Ultra High-5

Reinforce the ankle after a history of multiple ankle injuries

Ultra CTS

Maximize stabilization to treat acute ankle injuries

Here’s the scenario: a player goes down with an ankle injury. The athletic trainer brings the player back to the sidelines, takes off his or her shoe and sock and begins to tape the injured ankle.  After a roll of tape the player hops off the taping table to give it a try but is still hobbling around, unable to tolerate the pain.  Why? You just put the best tape job of your life on that ankle, it should be stable. Here’s the thing, it’s not the ankle instability that is causing the pain, it’s the impact. Tape alone cannot reduce weight-bearing impact. So what options do have to reduce impact – and the pain associated with it, thus allowing the player to return quickly, safely and relatively pain free to competition?

Reducing painful weight-bearing impact from acute ankle injury is the key to a quick return to activity. Tape can’t reduce ankle impact, lace-ups can’t reduce impact, any ankle brace that has a soft bottom or open heel section can’t reduce impact. You must use an ankle brace that “unloads” the ankle to reduce painful weight-bearing impact. Unloading means the ankle brace is absorbing the impact or energy, not the sore ankle.

To achieve maximum ankle unloading, the ankle brace must be made with a semi-rigid resin having a hinged cuff U-shaped design. The hinge is important because it allows the ankle brace to move with the ankle, staying securely in place maintaining long-lasting support. The cuff which wraps around the posterior lower leg is extremely important because it absorbs the impact and transfers that impact/energy to the lower leg. This technology is efficient in ankle unloading because it creates significant stabilization and support due to the U-shape semi-rigid design in both the vertical and horizontal planes.

At Ultra Ankle® we have developed two ankle bracing technologies that will unload the ankle. The Ultra High-5® is a hinged-cuff design that is recommended for chronic ankle instability and reoccurring joint pain. The Ultra CTS® is a hinged-cuff detachable shell design that is recommended for acute ankle injury treatment and rehabilitation. The Ultra CTS® provides maximum lower leg compression and stabilization with significant ankle unloading to reduce weight bearing pain. The Ultra CTS® is the ankle brace every athletic trainer should have available on game day.

Ultra Zoom

Help prevent ankle injuries all season long.

Ultra High-5

Reinforce the ankle after a history of multiple ankle injuries

Ultra CTS

Maximize stabilization to treat acute ankle injuries