What is Ankle Mobility?
Ankle joints are indeed our standing foundation. And their mobility denotes the elasticity of the ankle joints, their surrounding ligaments, tendons, and muscles. The flexibility and elasticity of the ankle joints and its surrounding muscles help us to complete our daily locomotive tasks easily.
Apart from daily life activities and movements, ankle mobility plays a crucial role in sport’s activities as well. So, if you want to strengthen your ankle muscles to boost your athletic performance in sports, FitnessWho has sorted some of the best and highly effective exercises for ankle muscle flexibility and strengthening of the ankle joints.
By adding these simple exercises and stretches, your ankle joint will become more flexible and, ankle muscles, ligaments, and tendons will get stronger and more elastic. One more perk of doing these stretches and exercises is strong knee muscles and hip muscles.
But, before diving in, we will do a simple ankle mobility test to find out how good is our ankle joints mobility? It is a simple test and anyone can perform it at home.
Step by Step Guide for Ankle Mobility Examination
Keep your heal on the floor when you perform this ankle test.
Here is a simple step by step guide for ankle mobility inspection. Just follow this guide and find out how flexible your ankle is?
1. Stand in an upright position in a way that your face is in the direction of the wall. Align your foot on the floor at the distance of a hand (approximately 4 inches) away from the wall.
2. Half-kneel down while the front-facing the wall. Your toe should be away from the wall at the length of your hand (approximately 4 inches).
3. Bend the knee in the front position facing towards the wall. Set the heel in a flat position and do not elevate it from the ground.
What should you observe to pass this ankle mobility exam?
To clear this half-knee bent test, one must be:
• Able to touch the wall with the half-kneel knee.
• In this position, the heel should be positioned flat on the ground.
• Bend knee should be in the line of the ankle.
• In the half-kneeling posture, while your half-bent knee will touch the wall and heel flat on the floor, you should not feel any pain.
What is failure when doing the ankle flex test?
During the half-kneeling test, if you observe the following things, it will show that you did not pass the test. And your ankle joint and muscles are weak. But do not worry. Various exercises are there that can not only ankle muscles and tendons but also fortify your ankle mobility.
• When touching the wall with a half-bend knee, you feel discomfort.
• Your heel raised above the floor.
• Bend knee collapsed in the inward direction.
• You feel the pain to maintain the whole posture.
5 Best and Effective Stretches and Exercises to Increase Ankle Mobility
Ankle Circles
Ankle circling is one of the best stretches. A simple workout can be done while sitting. For the sitting position, place a folded towel below your ankle. Now slowly make circles from the ankle in the clockwise direction for 20 seconds. Then, do the same but in an anti-clockwise direction for 20 seconds. Repeat the same for the other ankle.
Banded Ankle Dorsiflexion
For this exercise, you need a resistance band. To start the exercise, anchor the band at the height of the ankle to the firm support. Sit on the exercise mat and straighten your legs on the floor.
Make a resistance band loop around the toe of the one foot of the straight leg. Stretch yourself in the backward direction until you feel stress in the resistance band. Curve the knee of the other leg. You can use hands for body support. Repeat the whole procedure 5 times.
Standing Toe Raises
Stand straight with feet apart at the width of the hip. Take arms out of the sides of the hip. Place all your weight on your toes slowly and restore the original position after a few seconds. Repeat the standing toe raises at least 10 times.
Lunges
The effective way to fortify the ankle muscles and enhance the ankle’s mobility is Lunges. It is a perfect exercise that improves the overall balance as well. Do lunges in three sets of 8 on each leg.
Walking Lunges
If you are perfect in simple lunges, walking lunges is another level up to test the stability and balance of the ankle muscles. You can perform walking lunges with alternate legs while walking forward.
Jumping
Jumping is another simple way to enhance ankle mobility. You can do frog jumps with the support of your hands. Do four sets of five reps.
Although there are many ways to improve ankle mobility, daily stretching and strengthening routine is the best and most effective way to upsurge your ankle flex.
Walk on,
Frank S. Ring
Author: Walking for Health and Fitness, Fitness Walking and Bodyweight Exercises, and Walking Inspiration, & Easily Walk Away from Back Pain.
PS For a complete overview of Walking for Health and Fitness, read my first blog post!
