In the last post, we talked about ankle mobility and presented a test to determine if your ankle had enough mobility. I know my ankle was lacking and could use some more mobility work, so I thought I would share what I did to increase my mobility.
Before starting, do the ankle mobility test to determine the starting point, at the end we will retest to see if what we did actually worked .
The first exercise that I did to help was foam rolling the calf, I like to use the lacrosse ball instead because it is more focal in the treatment area compared to the broader contact of the foam roller. To do this we are going to just roll up and down the calf as it rests on the ball, to get more pressure lay the other leg on top. While rolling, I run my ankle through plantarflexion and dorsiflexion to get a movement component. With this exercise, we are decreasing the neurological tone of the muscle in hopes of changing how the muscle moves with an improved range of motion.
I want to follow rolling the calf with rolling the plantar fascia. The plantar fascia is part of the posterior chain which can hinder ankle mobility. To do this, we will just step onto a lacrosse ball and roll all over the bottom of the foot.
Following the two rolling drills we will follow it up with the wall gastroc-soleus complex stretch. We want to hold these stretches for at least 30 seconds if not more. A sustained hold will work or we can slowly pulse deeper into the stretch. There will be 2 parts to this stretch the first part the leg will be straight and the second will be with the knee slightly bent.
The fourth drill we want to do is a mobility drill working on the ankle joint itself. For this we will need a decently heavy band. The band will go over the part of the ankle that isn’t moving (talar dome) and pulling it posterior and inferior. Once the band is in place go into ankle dorsiflexion and working back and forth in all dorsiflexion positions.
The last exercise we want to do brings in more of a functional movement with the deep squat. Sink all the way down into the hole and work the knees in and out and shifting your weight back and forth. Don’t allow the heels to come off the floor.
Finish off the mobility work with just some deep, slow, weighted goblet squats. Make sure to control the descent with a 4 count and 5 second pause at the bottom with some nice deep belly breaths. This is like hitting the save button on the mobility work.
The last thing I want you to do is retest against your baseline. Try doing this for a week to see how much your ankle mobility can improve.
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Movement Ready 