Ankle braces are one of the most common pieces of equipment you see someone use with a sprained or weak ankle. I would also include wraps and ankle tape in this category. Okay, so you have a sprained ankle. But, does that mean they are good for your body? The surprising answer is probably not.
Why? We have found through years of experience that although they may seem helpful, in reality ankle braces, wraps and tape actually make your ankle weaker. Their main function is to immobilize the ankle join for protection. That may sound nice, but the ankle joint is actually meant to be extremely mobile. Now, after a sprained ankle, it’s true that you want to protect it in the beginning, but you shouldn’t be playing sports right away anyway. You should be doing gentle, but effective rehab where you don’t need an ankle brace anyway.
Look at it this way. The ankle joint is mobile. Wiggle your ankle around and you’ll quickly see what we mean. Now, in the long run, turning a nice mobile joint immobile is not only bad for your ankles, but also the whole body. So, let’s explore this idea a little more…
A Sprained Ankle and Ankle Braces
When you wrap a sprained ankle with a brace, you do so to reduce swelling and restrict movement. Of course, swelling naturally immobilizes the joint as well. This is a natural and healthy first reaction to an injury, because you do not want to cause any more damage. And in general, while we agree with keeping your ankle safe and using gentle exercises and stretches, we do not agree with keeping it totally immobile. Here’s why…
A) Ankle braces and wraps are not very good at reducing swelling. Through a lot of research and experience, we have found that more proactive healing methods are much more effective for reducing swelling.
B) Immobilizing the ankle joint weakens the ligaments and reduces range of motion. While this may seem to help the ankle in the short run, your ankle will not heal properly or fully. In other words, your ankle will remain weak and inflexible, because it cannot restore it’s natural elasticity and strength. What does this mean for your sprained ankle? Slower healing and lower quality healing. Further, it makes your ankle more susceptible to another sprain.
Compression, in the end, doesn’t do much. Remember, you will have a good amount of damage including scar tissue, swelling, bruising and weakened ligaments. An ankle brace certainly isn’t go to help you there. Plus, it will not allow your ankle to move naturally as it recovers which will keep it weak and inhibit a natural and healthy range of motion.
So, as a general rule, we are typically against people using an ankle brace to help heal a sprained ankle or protect a weak ankle. Instead, we believe that you should incorporate a solid rehab program to naturally strengthen your ankles. This does not mean aggressive exercises that put you in danger. What you should be doing is using gentle rehab techniques that will heal your sprained ankle safely.
The overall benefit of rehab versus an ankle brace will be that your ankle will get stronger instead of weaker. It will become more mobile instead of inflexible. And, you get the added benefit that you will heal a sprained ankle fast, much faster than with ice. And this approach has been shown again and again to be much more effective than the approach of RICE and ankle braces.
Just remember, this approach of rehab does not imply causing more damage. Rest is still important as part of the solution, but doing safe and effective rehab will get you the best results in the short run and long run.
Obviously, we suggest either seeing a great rehab specialist or doing a good quality sprained ankle treatment which has been shown to drastically improve both the speed and quality in the healing of your ankle.
Secret of the Pros
Everything You Need To Heal At Home
So, Why Rehab?
Most people think rest and ice will heal their ankle (even a severe sprain), but they end up with chronic ankle instability… 30% still have pain one year later!
And that causes all kinds of muscle imbalances in the body, which can lead more serious injuries, repeated ankle sprains and chronic ankle pain. It’s a terrible domino effect that can last for life.
That’s Where Rehab Comes In.
A great rehab program significantly improves how a sprained ankle heals. It eliminates pain fast and ensures your ankles are strong and stable with healthy range of motion, which helps prevent future sprains.
Rehab Is The Key To
Healing Ankle Injuries Fast
Recent studies have shown that rehab heals ankle ligaments safely and effectively. It’s the difference between the people that don’t heal a sprained ankle and the ones that do!
Injured Ankle
Without Rehab
Injured Ankle
With Rehab
HEM Ankle Rehab “Rehabs” Your Ankle
HEM is a complete ankle rehab and prehab program for the entire ankle, foot and calf complex. This is a very thorough program that contains so much more than anything else you can find online, but it’s still easy to do.
Scott will coach you through every step, as if you are with him, one on one. Just follow along with the videos to rebuild your ankle from the ground up.
You can expect pain free mobility and strong, stable ankles that are protected from an ankle sprain, without ankle braces!
REAL PEOPLE, REAL RESULTS
-
Wayne Slappy, S.H.O.T.T.S. Basketball Academy ,| -
Steven Kornfeld, CPT, PES, CES, FMS ,| -
Greg Shaible, DPT, Licensed Physical Therapist ,| -
Casey Moriarty, Owner, The Runner's Resource ,|
From Scott Malin, NASM-CPT, CES
Creator, HEM Ankle Rehab
August 02, 2025
Fifteen years ago, I had to give up what I love doing most… playing basketball. I sprained my ankles so many times that I could no longer play. It was devastating.
Like you, I used R.I.C.E. (rest, ice elevation, compression), but my ankles healed so slowly and badly, they eventually got so weak, I would sprain them just walking down the street!
Being a fitness trainer, the only thing I had going for me was a fascination with helping people get out of pain and strengthening their bodies.
So, I decided to research all the cutting edge techniques to heal an ankle sprain much faster and better than R.I.C.E.
After months of research, I discovered that icing an injury can have a negative affect on the body’s healing process. Studies show that ice can actually slow down healing and too much rest left the ankles weak and unstable. This was shocking, but only part of the story…
New research was suggesting a much more proactive approach to healing that involved much better rehab techniques proven to dramatically speed up the speed and quality of the healing process.
Instead of months, healing took only days. And, if you had a chronically weak ankle that was in pain, these techniques would quickly strengthen and stabilize the ankles.
I kept improving on these techniques, drawing from many different disciplines and simplified them.
Eventually, after many more months of trial and error, I created a simple at-home healing system with very reliable results.
Since I was a fitness trainer, I was able to help all my clients (celebrities and athletes) whenever they got injured. I was even on the news a few times.
The response from my clients and friends was so overwhelming that a few of them eventually convinced me to share it with everyone.
Today, I am humbled that over 100,000 people have healed fully and fast with my program.
So, if you have any kind of ankle injury (new or old), just follow along with me in the videos and I’ll show you exactly what to do until you are completely pain free.
My message is simple… you do not have to give up what you love. And you do not have to live with chronic pain from old injuries. Life is too short and there is a better way!
I truly hope you will start using my program so you can get your life back and do what you love, pain free (and yes, I still play basketball every week and LOVE it!)
Thank you!
Scott
Heal Your Ankle FAST ⇣
30 day money back guarantee
15 YEARS. 100K HEALED.
Secret of the Pros
Everything You Need To Heal At Home
REAL PEOPLE,
REAL RESULTS
So, Why Rehab?
Most people think rest and ice will heal their ankle (even a severe sprain), but they end up with chronic ankle instability… 30% still have pain one year later!
And that causes all kinds of muscle imbalances in the body, which can lead more serious injuries, repeated ankle sprains and chronic ankle pain. It’s a terrible domino effect that can last for life.
That’s Where Rehab Comes In.
A great rehab program significantly improves how a sprained ankle heals. It eliminates pain fast and ensures your ankles are strong and stable with healthy range of motion, which helps prevent future sprains.
Rehab Is The Key To
Healing Ankle Injuries Fast
Recent studies have shown that rehab heals ankle ligaments safely and effectively. It’s the difference between the people that don’t heal a sprained ankle and the ones that do!
Injured Ankle
Without Rehab
Injured Ankle
With Rehab
HEM Ankle Rehab
“Rehabs” Your Ankle
HEM is a complete ankle rehab and prehab program for the entire ankle, foot and calf complex. This is a very thorough program that contains so much more than anything else you can find online, but it’s still easy to do.
Scott will coach you through every step, as if you are with him, one on one. Just follow along with the videos to rebuild your ankle from the ground up.
You can expect pain free mobility and strong, stable ankles that are protected from an ankle sprain, without ankle braces!
100,000 PEOPLE HEALED-
-
-
-
Casey Moriarty,
Owner, The Runner's Resource
,
|
-
-
-
-
Steven Kornfeld,
CPT, PES, CES, FMS
,
|
-
-
-
Wayne Slappy,
S.H.O.T.T.S. Basketball Academy
,
|
-
-
-
Greg Shaible, DPT,
Licensed Physical Therapist
,
|
-
-
-
-
-
Casey Moriarty, Owner, The Runner's Resource ,|
-
Steven Kornfeld, CPT, PES, CES, FMS ,|
-
Wayne Slappy, S.H.O.T.T.S. Basketball Academy ,|
-
Greg Shaible, DPT, Licensed Physical Therapist ,|
From Scott Malin, NASM-CPT, CES
Creator, HEM Ankle Rehab
August 02, 2025
Fifteen years ago, I had to give up what I love doing most… playing basketball. I sprained my ankles so many times that I could no longer play. It was devastating.
Like you, I used R.I.C.E. (rest, ice elevation, compression), but my ankles healed so slowly and badly, they eventually got so weak, I would sprain them just walking down the street!
Being a fitness trainer, the only thing I had going for me was a fascination with helping people get out of pain and strengthening their bodies.
So, I decided to research all the cutting edge techniques to heal an ankle sprain much faster and better than R.I.C.E.
After months of research, I discovered that icing an injury can have a negative affect on the body’s healing process. Studies show that ice can actually slow down healing and too much rest left the ankles weak and unstable. This was shocking, but only part of the story…
New research was suggesting a much more proactive approach to healing that involved much better rehab techniques proven to dramatically speed up the speed and quality of the healing process.
Instead of months, healing took only days. And, if you had a chronically weak ankle that was in pain, these techniques would quickly strengthen and stabilize the ankles.
I kept improving on these techniques, drawing from many different disciplines and simplified them.
Eventually, after many more months of trial and error, I created a simple at-home healing system with very reliable results.
Since I was a fitness trainer, I was able to help all my clients (celebrities and athletes) whenever they got injured. I was even on the news a few times.
The response from my clients and friends was so overwhelming that a few of them eventually convinced me to share it with everyone.
Today, I am humbled that over 100,000 people have healed fully and fast with my program.
So, if you have any kind of ankle injury (new or old), just follow along with me in the videos and I’ll show you exactly what to do until you are completely pain free.
My message is simple… you do not have to give up what you love. And you do not have to live with chronic pain from old injuries. Life is too short and there is a better way!
I truly hope you will start using my program so you can get your life back and do what you love, pain free (and yes, I still play basketball every week and LOVE it!)
Thank you!
Scott
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