Ankle instability

[James Hall]

Guys, I need to work on my ankle stability for one legged balance- it's limiting my f1 progression. Anyone know some exercises to bring my ankle strength and mobility up to scratch?

[Mikkel Ravn]

How did you reach the conclusion that your ankles are not up to scratch?

 

Anyway, here's a few ideas.

Double/single leg calf raises done on a step, so you can stretch out the calf between each rep.

 

Rope skipping - There's many variations.

 

Many of the F1 pe's and im's come to mind, such as cossack squats or twisting squats.

 

Lunge jumps, or any kind of jumps, really.

 

Sitting in squats where you alternate between having the heels and the balls of your feettouching the floor.

[James Hall]

Multiple strains and sprains :/ just at the end of rehab after a grade 1 ATF sprain after missing a step. Funnily enough I spent ages on twisting squats. At any rate Balance is limiting my ROM my progress in later PEs

[Mikkel Ravn]

Many people use bosu-balls or other types of instability boards. Don't know about their real merit though.

 

Come to think about it, I have had a fair number of ankle sprains as well, but I guess that a combination of slacklining, climbing, SLS, GST, kettlebell lifting, barefoot running and choosing zero-drop footwear has eliminated my weaknesses. I haven't had ankle problems for many years, knock on wood.

 

Good luck mate!

[James Hall]

Thank you mate

[Guest]

Look up Dogen's ankle tutorial.

 

I also stand on one leg for 5 minutes each side, with my leg bent and as high up as I can get it.

[Karl Kallio]

Make sure your calf and bottom of foot are properly and equally flexible.  Maybe look at the flat feet thread, there's some good stuff there.

 

Do all the calf raisy, squatty lungy stuff that other people have suggested in this or other threads.

 

Try doing the yoga thing of spreading the toes out a bit and trying to touch the four corners of the foot to the floor, then feeling your line of balance extending up from there, first standing then in all sorts of positions.  Every time they talk about flows of energy or your breath or roots they are actually giving you alignment cues.

 

Investigate the idea that it could be something in your posture, foot strike etc that puts your ankle in a bad situation.

 

Try doing the ballet thing of doing stuff looking in the mirror to ensure proper foot placement/body allignment.

 

Lots of gyms have wobble boards, bosu boards etc, but for ankle stability you can just use any old unstable thing.  So you could do stuff like stick a small rock under a plank, or stand on the sofa then do your calf raises, squats etc.  I remember hearing one physiotherapist telling a softball pitcher to keep doing his exercises until he could stand on one foot on a minitramp and throw a tennis ball against the wall ten times without wobbling.

[Douglas Wadle]

Also want to add that sometimes what appears to be ankle instability is actually lack of glute activation.  Standing up on 1 or 2 feet, barefoot, consciously activate your glutes.  You will see that it instantly rotates your ankles up into neutral, stable position.  If your ankle stability issue is a collapsing inward, working on the glute activation will help a lot. Kit's flat foot stuff that synchrogenized mentioned is really good as well.  

[James Hall]

Cheers boys