Brandon Curry is currently dealing with mobility issues stemming from an ankle injury but that doesn’t stop the 2019 Mr. Olympia champion from hitting his quads as he chases success on the Olympia stage once again.
“I had a high ankle sprain recently,” explains “The Prodigy” in an Instagram post on June 12, 2024, explaining that rather than stay at home, he is still in the gym, and working around his limitations in order to stay on track with his epic muscle-building regimen.
Brandon Curry’s Top 4 Exercises To Train With An Ankle Injury
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Leg Extensions
“As you see, in this leg extension, trying to get a good, good, stretch,” says Curry. “My knees are shifted forward, my butt is shifted more forward, and I’m finishing with partial reps at the bottom of the movement.”
The aim here is for the bodybuilder to put less over all strain on his ankle. To that end, he also adjusts his position by shifting the seat back. “Still knees shifted forward and leaning back more,” he demonstrates. “I find that this hits the upper-quad, up to the hip a little bit more.” Curry finishes his leg extensions by doing partial reps at the bottom of the movement, as this is closer to the ankle and the partials won’t stretch it out so much, allowing him to work towards failure without further aggravating his sprain.
Single Leg Reverse Nordic Curl
Crediting Coach Kassem for the inspiration, the 41-year-old executes a reverse Nordic curl/reverse glute ham raise or “whatever you want to call it,” movement that can be seen in the video, as demonstrated by ‘The Prodigy’ . “It worked out perfectly,” he says. “It’s gonna hit you in the (quad-hamstring) stretch range, really, really, hard.” Curry says that each exercise in this workout it designed to stretch the upper legs rather than put too much pressure on his rolled ankle.
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Squats
Returning to squats for the first time since picking up the injury, Curry makes a cautious comeback on the smith machine and places his feet further forward, he stresses, “because ankle flection is where I’m limited.” He adds, “This caused me a little bit of discomfort but not too much, so I decided not to go too heavy and load that ankle too much, but I walked those feet out so I wouldn’t have too much knee-over-toe action, because that’s where I’m still limited, and I feel the tendons and everything get angry, but I was able to get some good sets here and not push the weight too much.”
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Leg Press
To complete the workout, Curry donned the Blood Flow Restriction cuffs to round out his session with the leg press. “As you see, I’ve got my feet high on the platform due to the lack of ankle mobility,” explains Curry, noting that his usual stance would be lower. “I decided to do BFR because I know the heavier the load gets, the more angry the ankle starts to feel. So, I didn’t want to push too much.” The champion bodybuilder says that he was able to get effective reps form the leg press by utilizing the cuffs. “Blood flow restriction is tough, so you see in between sets that I’m still uncomfortable, with these cuffs on, but I’m able to pump out these reps and just get it done.”
Of course, if you are dealing with an injury you should seek medical advice before undergoing any type of intense training and you should work to a set and rep range that works for your individual circumstances so that you don’t exacerbate any injuries, but for warriors like ‘The Prodigy,’ it is good to know that there are ways of working around an issue with smart workouts. “If you have limited ankle mobility for any reason, this may be a good workout to try,” says Curry. “This was a good, effective workout for me.”
Follow Brandon Curry’s progress at on Instagram!