October 4, 2022
NASM Personal Trainer, NASM Fitness Nutrition Specialist, ACE Sports Conditioning Specialist, NASM Performance Enhancement Specialist
Table of Contents
The mobility of the ankle joint impacts the entire body when you move, making movements like squats, lunges, walking, and running possible. This is one of the primary reasons to add ankle mobility exercises to your workout regimen.
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These drills are isolated and focused on improving ankle joint performance, including flexibility, strength, and mobility.
In this article, we’ll overview:
Mobility is a combination of strength, stability, and flexibility. All of these factors must be present to say mobility is sufficient.
One of the ways that many people increase their chances of poor ankle mobility is by sitting too much. When you don’t move frequently enough, it will be difficult to maintain the mobility that your body is designed to have.
There are two main types of ankle mobility: dorsiflexion (flexion) and plantar flexion (extension).
Dorsiflexion refers to your ability to lift the top of your foot toward your shin bone. Plantar flexion is the exact opposite of dorsiflexion.
Plantar flexion refers to your ability to move your foot away from the shins.
Ankle mobility refers to your ability to move the ankle joint through a full range of motion, dorsiflexing and plantar flexing as far as possible.
There are generally two primary indicators you have restricted ankle mobility. Try to move the knee out over the toes, and pay attention if one or both of the following things happen:
If you have restricted ankle mobility, you’ll find that several exercises will become more of a risk for you than a help to your fitness level.
Movements such as different types of squats require sufficient ankle mobility for proper form. During a deep squat, the knee must translate forward over the toes. The only way to accomplish this is by having adequate ankle mobility.Â
If the tibias (shin bones) are “locked” in a vertical position, the rest of the body will compensate to achieve a deep squat position. The chest will fall forward versus staying upright and tall. In other words, you won’t perform the movement correctly and you will increase your risk for injury.
Ankle injuries are some of the most common ones. Every year, roughly two million people in the United States suffer from an ankle injury. This number might not represent the true number since most folks don’t seek medical attention for the damage.
While tweaking your ankle can seem pretty minor compared to other injuries, there are two key points that most people don’t realize about an ankle injury.
Given that a sprained ankle can set the stage for a lifelong problem, it’s important to evaluate the current condition of your ankles and take action to strengthen them. Even if you’ve already experienced an ankle injury, it’s not too late to do something.
There are active and inactive reasons to improve your ankle mobility:
Active reasons | Inactive reasons |
You want to prevent injury | You have poor posture |
You work out | You had an ankle injury |
You go for long walks | You wear high heels frequently |
You run | You sit a lot |
If you aspire to increase your physical activity or if you are already active, ankle joint performance and functionality are critical.
The foot and ankle interact with the ground during every movement. Building strong, flexible, and resilient ankles will help mitigate injuries and keep you exercising pain-free!
Footwear is a significant contributor to ankle issues. High heels, in particular, place the ankle joint in an unnatural plantar flexed position, often leading to impingement and range of motion issues if worn often enough. The ankle should move freely!
Past ankle injuries can create unstable and wobbly ankle joints, which become noticeable daily. Sitting is also a significant reason to start training your ankles regularly, as the body was designed to move frequently and for much longer durations than modern living allows.
Testing your current ankle mobility is the first step to understanding if you have enough range of motion or need to implement a few of the exercises listed below.
A straightforward way to assess if your ankle mobility is lacking or sufficient is to perform a knee over toes split squat.
You’re in good shape if your knees can move beyond your toes without excruciating pain, impingement, or the heel lifting off the floor.
If your knees cannot move out over the toes or they do but there’s pain involved, it could be a clear sign that your ankle mobility is lacking and deserves some attention.
Another quick way to test your ankle mobility is by performing a bodyweight squat. Set up your phone to film a few repetitions to playback afterward. If you’re struggling to reach the bottom of a squat, especially if your feet are coming off the ground, it could indicate that ankle mobility is lacking.
This section will describe how to improve ankle mobility using a few essential flexibility, mobility, and strengthening ankle mobility exercises.
The exercises are ranked from easiest to most difficult. Some drills are flexibility-based and are incredibly simple to perform anywhere in just a few minutes. Others require simple equipment and a more complex set-up and body position.
Flexibility training includes both passive and active flexibility work. Passive flexibility is stretching where you hold a position for a set time. Active flexibility is when a joint moves into its natural range of motion but there is no outside force helping it get there.
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Here are some of the most commonly asked questions regarding ankle mobility exercises.
Ankle mobility exercises can be performed at any time of day. These foundation-building drills can be completed early in the morning, in the evening before bed, during your warm-up, or in the middle of a workout.
The nice part about ankle mobility training is that it’s not overly intense. It doesn’t require a lot of equipment, and you can accomplish a lot in 10 minutes or less. For this reason, you may consider working ankle mobility drills first in the morning or before bed at night.
Ankle training as part of the workout. You’re not alone if you prefer to perform all body maintenance as part of a regularly scheduled workout. Ankle mobility drills work fantastic as a warm-up before performing exercises like lunges and squats. Another clever way to include ongoing mobility training in the workout is by positioning these drills as recovery from more intense resistance training.
We also recommend including some hip rotations in your mobility routine.
The time it takes to see significant ankle mobility gains will vary from person to person. But, if you implement the mobility drills listed above most days per week, you should start to see noticeable results after 3-to-4 weeks. Remember, the appeal of mobility training is that it’s not overly draining. It doesn’t take tremendous effort to work through these exercises almost daily.
Ankle mobility is critical to establish and maintain, both for performance and for avoiding unnecessary chronic pain and acute injuries.
The good news is that building strong and flexible ankles is quite simple. The benefits of assessing and applying an effective ankle training program will:
Leveraging the exercises shared in this article, you’ll decrease the risk of injury to the bones and ligaments of your ankles while improving performance. Healthy ankles will keep you active for years to come!
This article is intended for general informational purposes only and does not address individual circumstances. It is not a substitute for professional advice or help and should not be relied on to make decisions of any kind. Any action you take upon the information presented in this article is strictly at your own risk and responsibility!