What size compression socks should I get after a bad ankle sprain? Well, that is a great question and that is what we’re talking about today on the Doc On The Run Podcast.
If you sprain your ankle, you know that you need to protect it. The old thing used to be rest, ice, compression and elevation or R I C E and now the thing you are supposed to do is P R I C E, which is protection, rest, ice, compression and elevation.
Well, either way you look at it, compression is one of the main things you need to do when you get an ankle sprain, because when you sprain the ankle, it swells a lot and it’s not going to get better, and you are not going to get back to running until sometime after that swelling goes away.
There’s lots of ways to do that. You can elevate your feet. You can provide compression with a multi-layered wrap that I would put on if I saw you in person, but you cannot do those things if you are not a doctor. But what you can do is compression socks. Lots of athletes have these. These are compression socks that are specifically made for athletes and runners.
What they do is they have what we call graduated compression. They squeeze more at the toes than they do up here. So basically, they’re sewn in a way that it pushes the fluid up and out of your swollen ankle. And you have to have the socks. Do not get the sleeves that have the foot part cut off. The sleeves are not going to help you near as much. They’ll take the swelling in your ankle, and they’ll squish it down into your foot and then your foot will swell up like a balloon. So, make sure you have full length compression socks.
The point of this episode though is about sizing. If you go on a website where you are going to purchase them online, and if you go to a drugstore, the ones that you’ll get will look more like this similar, they’re not as cool as the athletic ones. They’re not as strong. They’re not as durable, but they do the same basic thing and if you don’t need them forever and you don’t need the fancy ones, you can get inexpensive ones and it’s still going to help more than nothing so definitely want to do something.
But the approach with this is really simple. When you have compression socks and your ankle is swollen and it swells up like a pumpkin, you need the right size. The problem is, is that when you look on there, the main thing it tells you to measure on most of them is the circumference of your calf. Now, if you are somebody who really trains a lot, lifts weights a lot, does lots of calf raises, you might have really big calf muscles. And so, the compression that you have at the calf will be appropriate if you get the ones that are that size. But if your ankle right above your foot is a lot skinnier, you don’t have much compression there.
You are going to have to kind of guess on which ones you need. But the short story is this, if you have sprained your ankle and you look at it and it’s really swollen compared to the other ankle, you know for sure that if you got this pair of socks and you put the right sock on your right foot and the left sock on your left foot and the left foot was swollen more than the right, well, what’s going to happen? It’s going to squeeze a whole lot more because it’s really, really swollen.
What I generally tell people to do is really simple, get the size that you think you are going to need and order the next size up. As soon as you get the compression socks, start with the bigger one. You just need to start getting some of that fluid out. If you put on the ones that are appropriate for you, once the swelling is gone and your ankle is down to normal size, it’s probably going to be painful, it’s probably going to make it difficult to sleep and you don’t need that much compression initially.
So, I would start with ones that are a little bigger than what you think. And if you are going to do that, of course, I would get ones that are not real expensive as opposed to getting the ones that are very expensive that you intend to use for many years. I’ve had these for many years. They still work pretty well, believe it or not, but they’re very, very high quality ones. And you don’t necessarily need that when you are just using this for a first aid agent to reduce the compression and the swelling right after you’ve had an ankle sprained.
Get the size you think is going to be right for you and get at least one size up so that it’s not so tight when you start out. So, you do that, you sleep in them, then the next day you can probably put on the next size down. Some people even get three sizes. They’ll get the ones they think they need, the next size up, and the biggest one beyond that, because that might be enough to provide compression around that swollen area right off the bat.
If you like this episode, please like it, please subscribe. If you want to learn more about what to do after an ankle sprain, come check out the Ankle Pain Masterclass, where I go into a deep dive about all the things that you have to do if you still have pain after an ankle sprain and you are trying to get back to running. It’s free and you can get it at www.docontherun.com/anklepainmasterclass. So, go sign up and I’ll see you in the training.
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