Originally Posted by miaou
There are literally countless studies documenting how an ankle sprain will predispose you for future ankle sprains (the risk will double or more) and how proprioceptive training can reduce the risk of future ankle sprains (even more so for people with a previous sprain).
Basically, what happens is that, after a sprain, certain muscles get inhibited and your overall neuromuscular coordination shuts off. More severe and/or recurring sprains can lead to more permanent damage (scar tissue on the ligaments and so on). Protecting your ankle by excessive taping and bracing might temporarily reduce the risk of injuries but will also prolong the inhibition. What you need to do is get all the muscles to fire properly and build their inter-muscular coordination.
For muscle activation, spend some time with simple resistance exercises (depending on your current condition, you might not need more than a week of two). Use resistance bands and work on inversion, eversion and dorsiflexion exercises (eversion is the most important to work on, make sure you isolate the ankle and the entire ROM comes from there).
For the neuromuscular coordination, you need to do simple proprioceptive training. You could use funny gadgets like balance boards, bosu balls and other weird shit, but you can easily get the same training effect with zero costs:
Start with balancing on one foot on the floor.
If/once you have that down (i.e. more than 20 seconds without losing your balance), repeat the same thing with your eyes closed.
Once you have that down, repeat the same thing, but this time look at the ceiling (tilt your head up as much as possible) and close your eyes (keep your head tilted).
Once you can do those, work the same progression, but this time balance on your bed mattress instead of on the floor.
It's a quick learning curve, as long as you spend a few minutes every day the whole process won't take more than a month or two. Once you do that, then the best thing you can do is do some agility drills (jumps, changes of direction, and so on), and avoid using restrictive footwear (vibrams are great for neuromuscular coordination).
