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Health & Fitness

Any Patriots fans wondering why Hernandez is still troubled by a High Ankle Sprain?

Learn about High Ankle Sprains and why it's so tough to recover. The Patriots have lost both their tight ends to high ankle sprains in the past couple years. This post tried to explain why.

Last night I had the pleasure of sitting in the 2nd row at the Celtics game.  Which, for anyone who's never been that close to a professional athlete, is quite impressive.  The size and speed of these athletes is incredible.  They bounce off the floor with breathtaking speed and agility.  They effortlessly jump higher than most of us could ever think of jumping and seem to not even be trying.  Kicking and twirling all over the place.  And yes, if you hadn't figured it out already, I am talking about the Celtics Cheerleaders! Now this post isn't about me, and most the other guys in the stadium(you know who you are) watching the cheerleaders, well I don't think it is... we'll have to see where this blog ends up :) 

But in all seriousness, I was really impressed by what these very small, but very strong, women could do.  Now on the other end of the spectrum are the gigantic basketball players.  These guys also showed some incredible speed, agility, and jumping power.  The human body is remarkable and to see professional athletes perform certainly puts the human body on display.  Now to be clear, this is not about me just going gaga for professional athletes, because I think what professional athletes do should be appreciated, not idolized or deified.  Lets all remember what Charles Barkley had to say about professional athletes (his famous commercial "I am not a role model" for those of you who've forgotten).   

Now I know when I started this blog I had a point... now what was it?  We've really gotten off track here.  Professional athletes, cheerleaders, Charles Barkley... Oh yeah... Ankles!

As I watched the game I noticed the extensive wrapping on many players ankles, clearly to provide more support.  One guy seemed like he was actually playing with pants on because he was so heavily taped.  It seemed nobody had bare ankles.  But why would everyone tape an area of the body that is already so strong and stable?  What happens to the ankle that is so bad?  It turns out that the ankle joint isn't quite as stable as we'd like, especially when pushed to extremes, and some very painful injuries occur when things go wrong.  So the next few posts will be all about the foot and ankle!  Who's excited?  We'll discuss ankle sprains, plantar fasciitis, turf toe, fractures, cuboid syndrome and who knows what else?!!  But today we'll start with what is called a High Ankle Sprain.

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