Ankles are hurting. Please recommend ankle support ideas

[pinksparkleunicorns]

I've taken up running, up to 10k but my ankles are killing me. I stopped for a couple of weeks and they felt better but the moment I started again they are causing me bother again.

Do I need to stop for a longer stint? Or do I just need to invest in some decent ankle supports? Can you recommend any please?

What trainers are you wearing? Mine ache when I need new ones.

I wore new ones and that's when the pain came. I have just purchased another new set of my old ones because I think the different trainers were a large part of the problem?

Whoa there.... before you get to ankle supports, what shoes are you wearing now, and what shoes were you wearing when you got the pain?

How often/far are you running, and have you stepped up the mileage quickly? 10k isn't far but is more than enough to bring on injury if you've just chucked yourself into it without building up.

Have you ever had ankle problems at all in your life time, as a child maybe ?
What brand of trainers do you have ?
Did you go to a running shop and get advice for your trainers ?

Hi @pinksparkleunicorns

Sorry to hear your ankles are hurting. I am an Injury Rehabilitation Therapist (don't worry, I am not going to sell you anything) and I often see client's coming in with over use injuries from new exercise regimes. There can be many causes, and as pointed out above, your foot wear can definitely contribute to this. However, there are lots of other factors too including (but not limited to) how strong the rest of your body is, how rapidly you have been ramping up your running programme, whether you have been having rest days (or not) etc

I would encourage you to find a rehabilitation therapist (could be a Physio or a Sports Therapist) who can help assess what are the contributing factors and then rehabilitate you back to running so that your body is fully prepared. For me, a key component of any rehabilitation is to include a focused, progressive strengthening programme that is bespoke to the person in front of me. So I would strongly encourage you to find a therapist who will take you through a return to running protocol.

Fortunately, there are plenty of good therapists out there who can help. Good luck with your running journey!

Thanks all for the replies.

I have never had ankle problems before. I started running about 6 months ago.

I am wearing Nike REVOLUTION 4 trainers. I got the pain when I instead started wearing Air Zoom Winflo 6 Shield Women Running Shoe. I switched back to the revolution ones but the pain hadn't gone...

What other exercise are you doing apart from running?

It was my knees that started to hurt when I was building up my distance, I now do some boot camp sessions (now on zoom) where the pt gives me exercises to work on both my core and my lateral muscles/tendons

basically running is working all of you in a forward way, you need to do some side to side exercises to compliment & strengthen.

Rest up to ease the pain and either see a specialist or check out the advice on runnersworld - they have a lot of free to read articles on the complimentary exercises you need to do in addition to just running