High Sierra Topix

Greetings:

My story is a lesson in the need to do your stretches.

There's a hill in the back of my house that I use for excercise. I go up and down for 30 minutes with weights, every so often running up the hill. A few months ago I wanted a little extra work-out, so went for an hour and pushed it more than usual. Shortly afterwards, I had ankle pain. I took it easy for a few days, and the pain lessened, but then came back the next time I exercised. This has been the pattern since then.

It seems like I read something in Backpacker a few years ago regarding tearing something in your ankle if you don't stretch (shows how seriously I took the advice ).

Anybody else had this happen/have any suggestions? (I really loath going to the Dr.) Thanks all.

sierranomad wrote:It seems like I read something in Backpacker a few years ago regarding tearing something in your ankle if you don't stretch (shows how seriously I took the advice ).

I'd be really surprised if you actually tore something, given that it feels fine until you push it a little. Sounds more like tendonitis to me -- one of those damn things that just seems to come and go. Mine (I get it in many different places at different times) usually goes away fastest if I exercise just to the point of its beginning to hurt and absolutely no farther. For me, prevention seems to be mostly a case of increasing my workouts by slow degrees -- I'm especially likely to get it, for example, if I've laid off for a few weeks and then take a really long run (or climb, or bicycle ride, or whatever) because I feel like I need to get back in shape quickly. NSAIDs often work very well for some people -- in the past I've had good results from naproxin ("Aleve" for example) -- but they do tend to tear up one's stomach (I can't take them any more).

Thanks for the tip, bsquared, I'll try your advice and see how it goes.