How To Improve Your Ankle Mobility

Feb 25

The ankle is a hinge joint connecting the foot and lower leg that allows our foot to move through a wide range of motion and perform daily activities of walking, squatting, and climbing stairs. Ankle mobility is critical to not only accommodate movement, acceleration, and sudden changes of direction in daily tasks and sports, but also takes stress off of and prevents injury in the knees, legs, and hips. Today, Mangiarelli Rehabilitation physical therapist, Bobby, demonstrates three exercises to improve ankle mobility.

Function of the Ankle

The ankle is a hinge joint where the foot and the lower leg meet with the capacity to move side to side and up and down. The primary actions of the ankle are plantar flexion (the ability to point the foot down) and dorsiflexion (the ability to pull the toes upward). The calf muscles (the gastrocnemius and soleus) allow for plantar flexion, while the muscles located at the front of the leg (tibialis anterior) allow for dorsiflexion.

Why Ankle Mobility Matters

Ankle mobility refers to the amount of motion available at the ankle joint. Ankle mobility is important to complete many of our daily tasks, including squatting, driving, climbing stairs, and walking. It is even more critical for athletes for proper jumping, landing, cutting, and pivoting. Sufficient ankle flexibility allows the tendons, ligaments, and muscles around the ankle to accommodate sudden changes of direction, movement, and acceleration.

Improving your ankle mobility has multiple benefits, including decreasing your risk of injury, improving your ability to squat and your running gait, and ensuring better lateral movement and motor control. Good ankle mobility takes stress off of the knees and helps to prevent injury due to the knee overcompensating when ankle mobility is limited. With proper range of motion in the ankle, you are better able to maintain balance as you squat or move sideways and better able to absorb the shock placed on your body from the force of running.

What Limits Ankle Mobility?

Limited ankle mobility can be the result of previous injuries like a fracture or a sprain, a period of immobilization of the foot, or due to the daily use of our bodies, such as wearing high heels, walking on flat, level surfaces without variation, or engaging in activities that require repetitive dorsiflexion (sports requiring a great deal of running and jumping). It can also be related to tight calf muscles, ankle joint stiffness, limited mobility in the big toe, or overstretched soft tissues around the ankle joint.

Limited ankle mobility can contribute to several lower extremity injuries, including plantar fasciitis, Achilles tendinopathy, calf strains, shin splints, patellofemoral pain syndrome, IT Band syndrome, and even ACL injury. When you have limited range of motion and flexibility in the ankle, this places undue stress on the knee, leg, and hip, causing these structures to compensate and incur injury over time.