Unlock Ankle Mobility (3 guided exercises)

Tight ankles can limit your squat range, make it challenging to get up-and-down from the ground without straining your knees or lower back; and most importantly, limited ankle range can affect your walking and running gait.

Sedentary lifestyles and modern footwear are largely to blame, and like most joints, ankle mobility is usually limited by the 11+ muscles of your lower leg. Like all muscles, these can be stretched, but they require intensity and patience to change.

Your feet and ankles form the foundations of your body’s posture, so deep stretching can have a big impact upstream and throughout your body. With that in mind, take a measured and consistent approach to training.

VIDEO CONTENTS
00:00 Tight Ankles
00:02 Test Your Ankles
02:17 Ankle Anatomy
06:02 Ankle Mobility Exercises
06:23 Lower Leg Muscle Activation
08:20 Runner’s Lunge – Straight Leg
09:49 Runner’s Lunge – Bent Leg
13:16 Lightning Bolt Pose

DISCLAIMER – please do not use this video to diagnose or treat a severe injury. If you’re suffering from ankle pain, you should see a doctor. Deep stretches should be done AFTER not before intense exercises, running, or plyometrics still movements.

ANATOMY
Your ankle joint is an engineering marvel. It has a huge, complex range-of-motion and yet is stable and strong enough to bear many times the weight of your body during movement.

DORSIFLEXION (big toe toward knee)
This range is mostly limited by the muscles on the back of your lower leg such as: soleus, gastrocnemius, plantaris, and posterior tibialis. These muscles are extremely strong and require intense stretches to change. You also need to be mindful not to overload the Achilles tendon and plantar fascia in the process.

PLANTARFLEXION (pointed toe)

This range is largely determined by the length of the muscles on the front of your lower leg such as: anterior tibialis, extensor digitorum longus, extensor hallucis longus, and the peroneus tertius. These muscles are small and produce very intense sensations when stretched.

3 EXERCISES WE’LL LEARN
1) Lower Leg Muscle Activation
2) Runner’s Lunge
3) Lightning Bolt Pose

WANT MORE?

Got a question? Please post down below.

#AnkleMobility #CalfStretches

[deegoodwin]

Love this guy. Quick PSA. His hip opening course is well worth it. He makes things feel easy. I'm in my late 30s. Work from home. Low back became real stuff during pandemic to the point I pulled it few times. I chalked it up to age. Doing his 21 day not so challenging challenges has me not afraid to pick things up off the ground!

[shawnjbray]

I’m young, but I’ve got ankle drop from a severe incident. This video has given me the best advise to help fix it, I’ve ever gotten. I can’t thank you enough

[dermotthompson]

I’ve been training in karate for 29 years and doing weightlifting, yoga, and Pilates for about 13-14 years. At 61, I have good range of motion and no ankle, knee, or hip problems. I put that down to range of motion stretching and strengthening exercises like those discussed here.
Great video, well presented, and very useful.
Also: been working from home 4 years, wearing no shoes unless going out. I’m sure that’s helped.

[higherresolution]

A better coach and teacher (on any subject or skill) you'll never find anywhere. This particular video seems to have been made exclusively for me, the problem child of dorsiflexion. I'm happy to have shared my birthday present with so many others!

[krystal]

You won my heart. You speak my language. You are truly a passionate practitioner who knows what he's doing.

[KickingwithKara]

And I really love how you invite the parasympathetic nervous to join the party with the double length exhale 🙌🏻

[yovanilla]

I am a soccer player in my 40's and often struggle with ankle mobility. I notice it more when I play first thing in the morning. I was able to do the first two exercises with ease, didn't need a chair to balance. The third was more difficult; when I sit on my feet like that usually my arches cramp although today I just felt tightness in my front lower leg muscles until they relaxed about halfway through. Great information, I will add this to my regimen!

[laurieloomis]

This video is awesome. I've been trying to make progress in lightning bolt for over a year now to no avail. A month in of doing this sequence daily and my butt is almost to the floor! Thanks for posting!

[cy]

Your statement on our ankles health being the foundation to all of our movement is stunningly true. I had to find out the hard way by slowly busting my left ankle playing padel on a high level without much preparation or a pre workout. I am only 33 and a light weight but I really have to rehab for a few weeks now. Great video.

[CalebAlucardtheHagan]

This is one of the biggest weak links I'm working on currently, so I'm THRILLED to see YogaBody tackling it once again!

[SashaCagen]

Thanks so much! This is a fantastic teaching video. I greatly appreciate it.

[deborahbarry]

(Around 3:00… your left hand is covering our view of what you are pointing out. Otherwise your anatomy and your physiology teaching is spot on! Especially that selfie idea!)

[ReginoBruce]

Thanks bud, excellent advice. I've had knee surgery on each knee & have not been able to do squats all the way down as before. This sure looks like this will work for me.

[ritac]

This is the most useful video on ankle mobility I've watched! The ankle is my greatest weakness amd keeps me from running and most yoga moves! Looking forward to starting this routine! I do have an extremely tight right quad that keeps me from staying in that last position no longer than 30 seconds. Thanks again!

[irinaweber]

This is the best channel ever. Thank you Sir.

[natacha]

Thanks for this video. I have had problems with my Achilles tendons for 3 years now and haven't been able to get back to what it used to be even with the physiotherapist. Will try these. Thanks again

[andreleblanc]

This has really helped with my deep squats, thanks.

[jmas]

Thank you so much for this detailed description of how to stretch ankles. I’m working with my grandson who was born with bi-lateral club foot. His feet and ankles are very stiff. It is super helpful to understand the muscles because the therapy he’s getting is less than ideal.

[retrotoastie]

Wow the activation exercise by itself seems to instantly improve my range of motion. I’ve always struggled to feel the stretch during dorsiflexion stretches, I’d describe it as a dead sensation, literally nothing at all, similar to how you can’t usually feel all of your toe muscles. So hopefully the activation continues to help! On day 2 of doing it now!

[NottzTaz]

Hi there, I’m 28 and had a MRI scan a few months ago to confirm I have “minimal arthritic change to the first MTP” (my big toe joint). It’s a stiffness I’ve had for the last year and a half or so, which can flare up when I play football(soccer), if I hyperextend on the tip of my toes it can really aggravate and cause me pain for some days (also a barber stood on my feet). I initially ran through the pain when I first felt it and played football through it as well, however over the last 12 months I’ve had to be very stop/start due to aggravating it at times, I have tried different footwear, different Physios and altered many of my work outs to try and take the load off and strengthen/condition all my lower leg muscles including mobility workouts… I know I have gone on a bit… but what I’m trying to get at is, that in recent months it has occurred to me just how stiff my ankle is in the same foot, and I sprained that ankle about 3 months ago playing football, (I know, football again) but it is stil even swollen a bit now, and my right ankle is still stiff. I don’t know, I should probably try new boots… I’ve changed daily footwear and running trainers, but not boots… anyway my right ankle mobility doesn’t seem terrible when I do knee over toe test but it stil seems really stiff and can stiffen up after days of work, I don’t know if the ankle caused the toe problem, or vice versa, or if there’s a problem that caused it elsewhere; or maybe it was a injury I didn’t let heal… anyway, I have battled it for so long and I would love to sort it out so I can play consistent football and/or run.