Aquatic Exercise Enhances Functional Movement and Sensorimotor Performance in Athletes With Chronic Ankle Instability: A Randomized Controlled Trial.

Chronic ankle instability is a common problem in athletes, leaving the ankle prone to giving way and affecting movement quality and balance. Researchers in this randomized controlled trial tested whether aquatic exercise could help restore function better than usual activity alone. Forty young male athletes with chronic ankle instability were split into two groups: one did structured aquatic exercise three times a week for eight weeks, while the other carried on as normal.

The group doing aquatic exercise showed meaningful gains across several measures, including better dynamic balance, improved jumping performance, greater ankle flexibility, and stronger self-reported ankle function. The control group saw no real change over the same period. The findings suggest that water-based rehabilitation may offer a gentler way to rebuild ankle stability and athletic performance, though some aspects like proprioception sensitivity did not improve noticeably.

If you have chronic ankle instability, you know how frustrating it can be to worry about your ankle giving way or not feeling confident in your movements. This study looked at whether exercising in a pool could help restore function and confidence.

Forty athletes with chronic ankle instability either completed eight weeks of aquatic exercise sessions or continued with their normal activity. The athletes who exercised in the pool showed real improvements in how well they could balance, how far and fast they could jump, how much they could bend their ankle, and how they felt their ankle was working overall.

Some improvements were quite substantial, with athletes reporting their ankle function felt up to 47 percent better. The control group did not improve.

While these results are encouraging, the study only looked at young men, so we do not yet know if these benefits extend to other age groups or women.

This is a summary of research, not medical advice. Talk to your own healthcare provider about anything affecting your care.

This randomized controlled trial demonstrates that an eight-week aquatic exercise program targeting balance, proprioception, and strength produced measurable improvements across functional movement, dynamic balance, and dorsiflexion range of motion in a cohort of male athletes with chronic ankle instability. The effect sizes on self-reported function were substantial, reaching 46.9 percent improvement on the FAAM-Sport subscale, and jumping performance metrics showed consistent gains of 8 to 18 percent across different hop tests.

Static balance also improved in the eyes-open condition, though proprioception as directly measured did not change significantly, which somewhat complicates the mechanistic picture the authors proposed. The absence of improvement in the control group strengthens the attribution of change to the intervention rather than natural recovery.

The sample was limited to young men aged 18 to 30, which constrains generalizability to female athletes or older populations, and the eight-week window does not clarify durability of gains or optimal follow-up protocols. These findings do support aquatic therapy as a viable low-impact rehabilitation option, though the mechanism by which water-based loading promotes functional gain remains incompletely explained by the study data.