According Randell Wexler, there are approximately one million ankle sprains in the United States of America per year, and most of these sprains are from inversion injuries. An inversion injury is when the ankle is turned inward beyond the ligament stretching ability (Bays). Ankle sprains can happen many different ways, some include; running on uneven surfaces, landing incorrectly from a jump, and slipping off a curb. As with many injuries, there are different levels of severity-- for ankle sprains these levels are called grades (“Torn Ligaments of the Ankle”). The seriousness of the ankle sprain increases from least severe to most severe in a range of one to three. It is important to understand that while grade one is less severe than grade three, a grade one ankle sprain …show more content…
In the human body, there are a variety of important leg muscles. Major muscles are; quadriceps, gluteus maximus, hamstrings, gastrocnemius and soleus, tibialis anterior, and the extensor digitorum longus. All of these muscles have individual roles and purposes; however, one similarity between all of these muscles is to maintain the body’s balance. Even though this is a similarity, the most important muscles are the gastrocnemius and soleus because they work to stabilize the ankle (Taylor). One of the main roles of the human ankle is to ensure that humans stay upright-- balance and if the ankle is too weak or is having to compensate for other leg muscles not pulling their weight, the risk of ankle sprain is increased because of all of the strain and pressure that is being applied to the ankle. For this reason, NATA proposed that trainers and clinicians work with athletes to improve muscle strength all throughout the leg to relieve the ankle of the excess strain and pressure. With this ankle sprain prevention plan from NATA, the number of ankle sprains that athletes sustain should begin to