I sprained my ankle, is this a common cause?

I sprained my ankle a few days ago, and I think I’m lucky no bones were broken. I just slipped down the stairs and I wasn’t running down or doing anything out of the ordinary.

My question is: I had just worked out about 2 hours prior to the accident. Were my muscles weaker, causing me to lose balance when normally I would have been fine? If so, are weakened muscles a common cause of injury for professional athletes, dancers, etc.?

Or was I just unlucky? I’m suddenly wondering how careful I need to be after working out.

Unless your workout really beat the shit out of you, I’d say you were just unlucky.

It did. And I worked out my legs pretty hard, if that makes any difference… But I certainly wasn’t exhausted or feeling any muscle pain before I slipped.

Sounds like bad luck.

I once broke my ankle falling down about 4 stairs. No recent brisk workouts, but I did always have problems with that ankle due to an untreated injury as a kid. Still, I had worse falls, I just landed wrong.