Without a doubt almost all of us will have sprained our ankle at least once in our lifetimes by the time we reach adulthood. We know that this can be a particularly painful thing to have done to this joint and probably spent a good deal of time trying to stay off it and allow it to recover. Should you sprain your ankle as an adult, the chances of bouncing back as fast as you may have done in your youth are not as high simply because the ankle has aged and with it so has the joints and tendons that support it.

So what actually happens when we sprain and ankle? It is a common enough condition but have you ever stopped to think about the actual injury itself and how it has occurred? The most common of all ankle sprains happens when the foot is twisted or turned inwards to face the inside of the opposite leg. When this happens the ankle is pushed outwards and at that point the body weight is distributed onto the ankle joint completely. Many of us have done it by tripping, or slipping off a step or even when playing a sports game when landing off balance. It can also be described as turning over the ankle.

You are at greater risk of an ankle sprain if you fail to warm up before exercise or if you are particularly unfit. Should you sprain your ankle today you are more likely to do so again in future!

When the elastic band type of tendon that holds the ankle joint to the back leg bone is strained this is when the sprained ankle can occur. The ankle bone is called the talus and the back leg bone is the fibula. Whilst there are a great number of different ligaments that reside in the ankle area this is indeed the most likely one to suffer a sprain.