Why Ankle Mobility Is Important and What To Do If You Don’t Have It

Let’s talk about the hot topic that keeps popping up on all your newsfeeds. I know some people might find it a little controversial, and it might rub people the wrong way, but I can’t keep silent. I need to tell you about the important role ankle mobility plays in your life.

If I skipped over this critical topic, I couldn’t sleep soundly at night, and I need my beauty sleep.

Ankle mobility is the hand that stirs the coffee stirrer, which evenly disperses the cream through the coffee. If your ankles aren’t right, every movement that involves the ankles will not work right either.

If I don’t have adequate ankle mobility, we are looking at dorsiflexion, and I need to squat. Without ankle mobility, my body will find a way to make a squat work, but in the future, other areas of my body will get pissy with me.

In an ideal world, when you squat, your ankles, knees, and hips flex and allow you to get to the desired position. In a world where the ankle is not doing its job, it looks more like this:

As you squat, your hips, knees, and ankles start to flex. Once you run out of ankle mobility, your body looks for another way for you to get low. Your knees will begin to rotate in towards each other, and the arches of your feet will collapse just a little to allow your knees to track to the inside of your feet. If this is still not enough, you will either start to lift your heels off the ground or push your hips back more and drop your shoulders.

Your body will then say, rather smugly, “If I don’t say so myself, I think we nailed it.” What ends up happening if not addressed is you wondering why your knees hurt or your back feels tight.

I think we can all agree that having enough ankle mobility is the easier route to go.

Watch the video to see how your body compensates, find out how to test your ankle mobility, what you can do to work on your ankle mobility, and what you can do in the meantime to get around it.

Your Fitness Sherpa,

Josh