Ankle dorsiflexion is an important movement for function in both day to day and during performance. This blog will outline what ankle dorsiflexion is, why it’s important, and how to improve it.

What is ankle dorsiflexion?

Ankle dorsiflexion is a movement that happens between the shin bones and the top ankle bone called the talus. It’s the movement that allows for the forward lean of the shin seen in deep squats, knee over toe lunges, descending stairs, absorbing landings from a jump, and many more movements that we do on a daily basis. It’s an area that we commonly see being restricted in our clients that can lead to force transfer upstream to the hip and knee or downstream to the foot and plantar fascia.

Why is it important?

When people have limited ankle dorsiflexion, we often see is difficulty with the above activities or even a change in squat mechanics (increased turnout). It’s important to note that squatting with a bit of turnout isn’t the end of the world and in some cases may be preferred depending on your goals and body type. However, working on your ankle dorsiflexion may help improve your abilities with certain performance based tasks such as the catch in a snatch or clean, squat depth,

and can give you more movement options in your day to day life.

How can you test your ankle dorsiflexion?

A quick way to check if your ankle mobility is impacting your function is by putting a lift under your heels. If this allows you to squat deeper and/or with straighter feet, then you can be pretty certain that your ankle mobility is playing a role and it’s worth diving into that. Another way to assess your ankle dorsiflexion is through the knee to wall assessment. This allows you to track your ankle dorsiflexion over time. It’s a useful assessment, however; from a functional standpoint improvements in your squat depth and knee over toe ability in a lunge are simple ways to evaluate meaningful improvement over time.

How can you work on your ankle dorsiflexion?

When we work on mobility with our clients we like to think of a three pronged approach: passive, active and loaded mobility. Any one of these pieces can be beneficial but we find taking a comprehensive approach to be most effective. Below are examples of each type of approach:

Passive: Half Kneeling Ankle Dorsiflexion

Active: Tibialis Anterior - Wall Lean

Loaded Mobility: Lunge - Forward Barbell

If you are interested in taking a deeper dive into your ankle health and how to improve your ankle dorsiflexion. You can get access to a free video recording further expanding on this topic. Check out the link below.