Ankle Mobility
Do you lack ankle mobility?
Are you fresh out of ideas to improve their mobility?
Let us help!
The ankle is a joint made up of 3 bones that come together and are connected by many ligaments. This joint acts as a hinge joint, allowing our foot to move all around in different directions. One specific movement that we’ll be talking about this week is ankle dorsiflexion, aka bringing your foot up towards your shin.
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Many people are lacking dorsiflexion in their ankles and they are well aware of it, and many people are lacking it without even knowing it! If you are unaware of how good (or not good) your ankle mobility is, here’s a quick way to find out. As shown in the video, kneel on the ground with one leg up, and push your knee straight forward. The goal is to be able to have your knee can go past your toes WITHOUT your heel coming off the ground. If it can’t, you need some ankle mobility in your life!
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Some people can become very aware of their poor ankle dorsiflexion when they are in the gym. If you do squats of any kind and your back becomes almost parallel with the ground as you descend, poor ankle dorsiflexion is one of the main reasons why this happens. You may even find that you need to put plates under your heels while squatting just to be able to get lower in your squat. While this helps in the short term, the plates are just making up for your poor ankle dorsiflexion. They are a way to compensate and cheat yourself into better ankle mobility for the time being that you don’t really have!
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We want to solve your ankle mobility issues instead of covering them up - so today we’ll show you multiple ways to improve your ankle dorsiflexion!
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The first exercise is a passive way of improving your ankle dorsiflexion. Get into the same position as the quick test we described above, and starting putting pressure with your hands on your knee to push it forward. We can add more pressure by putting a weight on the knee to push it forward as well. Remember, the most important thing is keeping the heel on the ground.
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Next we can perform standing toe taps. The ankle that is planted on the ground is the one we’re working. Make sure to keep an eye on the knee so it doesn’t excessively dip inwards while performing this exercise. We can also add in a slider under the foot, or if you don’t have that, a towel works just as well!
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Finally, we are going to now put plates under the toes instead of the heels to start improving our ankle mobility in the long-term! As shown in the video, we can have the toes of both feet elevated on a plate and practice descending into a squat. We can do this as well in a split stance with the front toes elevated and practice descending into a lunge.
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It is important to notes that the squat is a complex movement. Poor ankle mobility may only be one piece of the puzzle as to why your squat is not ideal. We’d love to get you in the office for a more in depth assessment so we can get you on the right track to fixing your ankle mobility and improving your squat form!
