grade 1 ankle sprain

Grade 1 Ankle Sprain Symptoms

A grade 1 ankle sprain is the least severe of the three grades of injury. Grade 1 usually means NO tearing of the ligaments in the ankle. Instead, you should have some over-stretching of the ligaments.

There is usually some mild pain, swelling and tenderness, but minimal to no bruising.

Even with a mild sprained ankle, like a grade 1 ankle sprain, you should still get an x-ray to rule out a fracture. It’s extremely unlikely, but it’s always best to know for sure, because a fracture would have to be immobile until it heals.

Once, you find out if there is a fracture or not, you will be ready to know what to do next… If there is NO fracture, then a rehab program for your ankle should begin immediately in order to fully recover your strength and mobility as fast as possible.

Remember, even with a mild grade 1 ankle sprain, there is still enough damage to cause problems down the road if it stays weak and unstable. If it is not properly healed, strengthened and mobilized, then you will be at a significantly increased risk for a future ankle injury, and next time it will probably be a grade 2 or 3, which is much more serious.

So, let’s cover the main symptoms you can expect with a grade 1 ankle sprain:

  1. Over-stretching of ankle ligaments, but no tearing
  2. Ankle is mildly unstable
  3. Minimal amount of pain and swelling, but very little bruising
  4. In the first few days, walking should be possible with minimal pain, but running and/or jumping is probably painful
  5. You should be able to move the ankle in most directions, but you can expect some pain, especially at certain angles

Grade 1 Ankle Sprain Treatment

It is important to remember that even though a grade 1 ankle sprain is a mild injury, it cannot heal itself. In other words, the standard treatment of rest and ice will not heal the damage in your ankle.

Why? Well, if you do nothing, but rest and wait, your ankle will not get stronger. It will not become more mobile. It will not become more stable. In other words, it will stay somewhat weak and unstable for a very long time and the next time you’re walking, running, jumping or playing sports, it will be much easier to sprain that ankle again. And the next time, the injury will be worse, since the ligaments are already weakened.

Even though it is mild, there is still enough damage in the ankle that it must be properly healed. That means rehab techniques that strengthen and stabilize the injured ankle. Remember, every movement you make in the lower body begins with the foot, ankle and calf. It is the base of your body. You don’t want any dynamic movement changes in the ankle, because of an injury that never healed properly.

It will change how you walk, run and move in general. And that not only will weaken your ability to move with power, it can also affect all the joints above the ankle (especially the knees and hips).

For example, we have seen a lot of people get a grade 1 ankle sprain and then start experiencing “mysterious” knee pain. It may seem random and unconnected, but it you change how you walk (even if you don’t notice it), it could very easily put strain on the knee. So, we strongly recommend making sure the ankle heals properly, so you can move properly and protect the ankle and all your other joints.

And prolonged rest isn’t the only problem… rest is an even bigger issue.

We know that ice works very as a short term pain reliever, because it numbs the area and stops the communication between nerve and muscle. That’s what ice does well… But, it also creates serious healing issues that you should know.

For example, recent research shows that ice actually stops the flow of Macrophages, which are powerful immune cells. Since Macrophages are responsible for muscle regeneration and repair, it is ineffective and potentially sabotaging to your healing potential to stop the natural flow of immune cells into an injured area. There are other issues with ice, including complications with lymphatic drainage, etc, so if you’d like to learn more about it, please click here.

The SECRET to Healing Fast: Ankle Rehab

Instead of relying on rest ice as the method of treatment, we strongly recommend doing an excellent rehab program. It will ensure you will heal a grade 1 ankle sprain fully and quickly.

Here’s a quick overview of all the things a good ankle rehab program will do for you:

  1. Remove swelling and debris from the ankle quickly
  2. Reduce pain very quickly (1-3 days)
  3. Improve ankle stability, mobility and strength significantly
  4. Improve balance, coordination and agility
  5. Decrease the risk of re-injury significantly

How To Heal Grade 1 Ankle Sprains Fast


HEM Ankle Rehab is a complete ankle healing system, which will show you how to heal a grade 1 ankle sprain fully and fast at home. We designed it to ensure it is safe, all natural and extremely easy to do.

HEM dramatically improves the quality and speed of the healing process by supporting and improving the body’s natural response to an injury. You can expect a significant improvement in healthy range of motion in the ankles, feet and calves… you can expect much more strength and stability in the ankles… and you can expect improved overall movement (balance, agility, speed, jumping, etc.).

The HEM Ankle Rehab program gets people walking normally again, pain free in 5-10 days and significantly lowers the risk of re-injury. That means you will not need ankle braces, tape or wraps. You will be walking, running and jumping pain free and with full power without the fear of spraining your ankles again.

We made it very easy to do… you can do the entire system at home, without any equipment. Just follow along with the easy step by step videos or ebook (you get both) on any device.

Heal Your Ankle FAST

30 day money back guarantee

15 YEARS.  100K HEALED.

Secret of the Pros

Everything You Need To Heal At Home

  • A COMPLETE REHAB program to fully heal any new or old ankle sprain, achilles, foot or calf injury.

  • EASY to follow, short videos. Anyone can do it at home.
  • ELIMINATE CHRONIC ANKLE PAIN fully and fast.

  • BUILD strong and stable ankles that protect against injury without ankle braces.

  • INSTANT access on any device. Never expires.

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

  • Ankle pain can last for life

  • Ankle never fully heals

  • Ankles are weak & unstable

  • HIGH risk of sprained ankles

Injured Ankle
With Rehab

  • Eliminate ankle pain fast

  • Fully heal your ankle

  • Ankles are strong & stable

  • LOW risk of sprained ankles

HEM Ankle Rehab “Rehabs” Your Ankle

HEM Ankle Rehab - Heal a sprained ankle fast

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

Play
Play
Play

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

Hurry, sale ends soon!

30 day money back guarantee

Heal Your Ankle FAST

30 day money back guarantee

15 YEARS.  100K HEALED.

Secret of the Pros

Everything You Need To Heal At Home

  • A COMPLETE ANKLE REHAB program to fully heal any new or old ankle sprain, achilles, foot or calf injury.

  • EASY to follow, short videos. Anyone can do it in 3 easy steps at home.
  • ELIMINATE ANKLE PAIN fully and fast.

  • BUILD strong and stable ankles that protect against injury without ankle braces.

  • INSTANT access on any device. Never expires.

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

  • Ankle pain can last for life

  • Ankle never fully heals

  • Ankles are weak & unstable

  • HIGH risk of sprained ankles

Injured Ankle
With Rehab

  • Eliminate ankle pain fast

  • Fully heal your ankle

  • Ankles are strong & stable

  • LOW risk of sprained ankles

HEM Ankle Rehab
“Rehabs” Your Ankle

HEM Ankle Rehab - Heal a sprained ankle fast

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

Play
Play
Play

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

Hurry, sale ends soon!

30 day money back guarantee