The Importance of Ankle Mobility
Are your hips hurting? Knees feeling sore. Back pain. Well, your ankles could be the problem.
The body works as a whole unit and if one area does not function at 100% it can affect other body parts. The ankle is an important joint as it helps to prevent knee and hip muscles from weakening which can result in injury. Poor ankle mobility can even cause poor posture and back pain. When someone has good ankle mobility, they are able to move their ankle through its full range of motion.
Importance of ankle mobility
Ankle mobility is important for performance and injury prevention. A squat is a primary movement that is used daily by everyone that requires good ankle mobility. That could simply be standing up from a chair or sofa, or in the gym and jumping. As a result poor ankle mobility can affect how we perform this movement.
Having good range of movement through the ankle improves our walking and running form. It allows the ankle to move more freely and through its normal range, which helps decrease the risk of injury occurring.
In sport you need to be able to change direction quickly. This is achieved by keeping the foot in contact with the ground firmly however, this is difficult if you have poor ankle mobility. For example when playing netball a lot of change of direction is involved. This relies on the ankles being strong to support this movement and to prevent injuries for happen. A common injury in netball is an ankle sprain, this is caused by lack of mobility and strength in the ankle and commonly happens in a change of direction movement.
What can cause poor ankle mobility?
- Sitting down a lot.
- Footwear choice
- Injury or surgery
- Reduced flexibility in the calf muscles
- Poor posture
- Biomechanical dysfunction- muscle imbalances.
- Reduced strength in the muscles
How do I know if I have poor ankle mobility?
A simple test for ankle mobility is the Knee to Wall Test. This test your ankle Dorsiflexion. The average person should be able to reach the door with their foot 12cm away from the door.
Give it a try:
The test must be completed against a flat wall and a measuring tape will be required.
Place the measuring tape flat on the floor staring at the wall, then align your big toe and heel along-side the tape measure. You other leg should be place slightly behind the front foot ensuring your foot is facing forwards.
Lunge forward until your knee touches the wall. The heel must remain in contact with the floor at all times. Slowly move your foot away from the wall to the point where the knee only makes slight contact with the wall, while both heels remain in contact with the floor. Record your measurement then test the other ankle.
The photo below shows the heel lifting and this would be a negative result.
How can I improve it?
Sports massage
Sports massage can help by relieving tension that has built up in the calfs over time. It helps to break down adhesions, remove waste products and encourage blood flow. Commonly after a sports massage you will notice an improvement in your ankle mobility.
Stretching
Sometimes poor ankle mobility can be because we have tightness in our calfs or they are weak. A great way to simply stretch out your calfs using a step.
Stand on a step, holding onto the banister for support, with your heels, off the end of the step.
Slowly lower your heels below the step and you should feel a stretch in the back of your lower leg. Repeat 10-15 times per leg. If you find that becomes too easy progress to single leg.
Loading new ranges
It is important to load the ankle through different ranges. The Star Excursion exercise is a great way to improve ankle mobility. It requires strength, flexibility and proprioception. This may be more challenging than you think. It is a great exercise to use to identify individual’s who have deficits in dynamic posture control due to musculoskeletal injuries.
This exercise has many different progressions. If you are finding this easier but still noticing some instability please book in an appointment and we can discuss this further or send me an email if you have any further questions.
