What are some exercises to strengthen your ankle and reduce the risk of injury?

ABC's: Pretend your big toe is your pencil point. Sit in chair without letting your foot touch. Now "write" your abc's- small or caps. While brushing your teeth balance on one foot for 1-1/2 min (spit), balance on other foot for 1-1/2 min. When this gets easy, close your eyes. Do these 2x a day. It helps range of motion and propioception ( balance).

Balance on toes: A good exercise to strengthen the muscles around the ankle is to close your eyes and go up on the toes of both feet and then switch to balancing, with your eyes closed on 1 foot. Hold for as long as you can. Then switch to the other foot. It is harder than it looks; however, once you can master this, your balance and muscle strenth around the ankle will greatly improve.

Ankle Exercises: The problem with most ankle problems is not a lack of strength but instead is a lack or coordinated activation of muscles. This is especially prevalent after a sprain. Ankle proprioception exercises should be utilized first on a solid surface, next on an unbalanced surface and finally unbalanced with eyes closed to optimize the firing of the muscles in an appropriate fashion for maximal control.