You show your shoulders and quads plenty of TLC. Maybe you even treat them to dedicated stretching sessions and treat them with recovery tools like percussive massagers. Your ankles? We’re going to go ahead and guess you often overlook these essential joints when it comes to self-care time.
You should focus more on how much your ankles do for you each and every day. That’s why in the video above Dr. Philip Tam, PT, DPT, a physical therapist at Bespoke Treatments and personal trainer Vaughn Gray, NASM-CPT, take you through a quick flow to get your ankles in tip-top shape.
Try these drills the next time your ankles are feeling stiff or you you feel that you lack some mobility. You’ll move better and find that there are more benefits than just feeling like you checked off a box on your workout schedule.
The 3-Minute Ankle Mobility Routine
“A lot of ankle stiffness is usually due to muscle stiffness or joint stiffness,” Tam says. “Today we’re going to be taking you through four mobility drills to help address both.” All of these movements can help to loosen up your ankles and potentially enhance overall mobility, too.
Foam Rolling
“This is gonna be important because the calves attach to the ankle and a lot of times that stiffness in those muscles can lead to limitations in the ankle complex,” says Tam. For this exercise, Tam recommends going up and down the foam roller 10 times before you switch to the other side.
●Grab a foam roller and sit down on the ground.
●Extend one leg, placing it on foam roller near your ankle. Support yourself on your other foot with your arms behind your torso, palms flat on the floor.
●Roll your lower leg up and down on the foam roller, turning your foot in and out as you go. Make sure to target the inside and outside or your calf muscle.
Ankle Up-and-Overs
Catchy-sounding exercise, huh? “This one’s gonna be key because you really want to control that range of motion that you have,” Tam says, stressing you should be careful not to turn your knees out with this move, which targets your ankle dorsiflexors and evertors. Both of these muscle groups control your full ankle mobility. Do 10 reps before switching to the other side.
●Start in a half-kneeling position.
●Raise the toes of your front foot to the ceiling, keeping your heel on the floor.
●Turn your foot foot out away from you, placing your toes on the floor pointing out away from you, but don’t shift your knee when you do so.
●Raise your toes and turn your foot back to the starting position.
Quad Rock Back
This exercise really stretches out the calves, big toe, and the plantar fascia. Repeat for 10 times.
●Start in a quadruped position (on all-fours), with your weight on your hands and feet, knees elevated off the floor.
●Rock back, shifting your butt to your heels, keeping your hands planted on the ground. Hold for 3 seconds to emphasize the stretch.
3D Mobilization with Band
Grab a thick resistance band for this exercise. “So this one is gonna be good because we’re really mobilizing that [ankle] joint,” Tam says. Be sure to have some tension in the band and hold it right at your ankle joint to get the most out of this pose. Repeat for 10 reps.
●Start in a half-kneeling position.
●Wrap the band around your lower leg, right at the “crease” of the ankle joint. Hold the band behind the leg, held tightly enough to create tension.
●Shift your weight forward to bring the front knee over the center of your toes, creating more tension in the band.
●Hold for 3 seconds, then return to the starting position.
●Shift your weight forward to bring the front knee over the big toe, creating more tension in the band.
●Hold for 3 seconds, then return to the starting position.
●Shift your weight forward to bring the front knee over the pinky toe, creating more tension in the band.
●Hold for 3 seconds, then return to the starting position.
For more advice from physical therapists to help you move and feel better, check out all of our guides in The Fix series.
Perri is a New York City-born-and-based writer; she holds a bachelor’s in psychology from Columbia University and is also a culinary school graduate of the plant-based Natural Gourmet Institute, which is now the Natural Gourmet Center at Institute Of Culinary Education. Her work has appeared in the New York Post, Men’s Journal, Rolling Stone, Oprah Daily, Insider.com, Architectural Digest, Southern Living, and more. She’s probably seen Dave Matthews Band in your hometown, and she’ll never turn down a bloody mary. Learn more at VeganWhenSober.com.