Limited ankle dorsiflexion? Do these 3 exercises.

My dorsiflexion used to suck. I sprained both my ankles more times than I can count playing basketball in my teenage years.

Years later and after about 10 ankle sprains, my body is still compensating.

It’s safe to say I have an intimate understanding of what stiff ankles feel like. After a decade of trial and error, I also know what actually helps increase range in ankle dorsiflexion.

The advice I will share with you in this article will be different from what you likely came across on the internet already.

I tried all the popular strategies out there and they don’t work. It’s not that those exercises are bad. Rather, there is no mention of intention.

Intention is everything with movement. If you don’t know why you’re doing what you’re doing, you’re not going to see progress.

What is dorsiflexion of the ankle?

Dorsiflexion of the ankle occurs when your foot flexes upwards toward the sky. This is in direct contrast to plantarflexion which is the opposite movement, where you point your toes down.

Dorsiflexion is a key element in any movement pattern that requires your heel to absorb load. Think of walking, squatting and jumping as examples. 

There is a key difference in dorsiflexion when your foot is in the air as opposed to when your heel is fixed to the ground.

Dorsiflexing your ankles in free space is relatively easy. Absorbing tension in your ankles when your heel is planted on the ground is a different matter entirely.

The latter will be the focus of this article.

What are the dorsiflexion muscles?

The prime mover of dorsiflexion is the tibalis anterior which is located in your shin. Although this is the main muscle group involved, it is not the only one.

The foot and ankle have 28 bones, 33 joints, 112 ligaments, 13 extrinsic and 21 intrinsic muscles. [Physiopedia].

This means that a lot of complicated things have to happen for this part of your body to function well. But all of this happens underneath your conscious awareness.

A mistake I made and I see many others make is isolating the anterior tibalis with the hopes of improving ankle dorsiflexion. This approach misses the forest for the trees.

Comfortable and effortless movement results from an intuitive understanding of how things feel. Cranking out exercises to strengthen the anterior tibalis will not accomplish this.

If this area of your body is super weak then sure, maybe there is some value in spending some time here.

But in my experience after working on this for years, the emphasis should be on better dorsiflexion, not a stronger anterior tibialis.

The only dorsiflexion exercises you need

After I sprained my ankle for the fifth time, I remember a doctor recommending I do some ankle circles. This was over 15 years ago but I still remember how little confidence the doctor had that I was actually going to do the exercise.

He probably saw many young guys like me sprain their ankles playing basketball. The ankle blows up for a few weeks but then it heals and back on the court we went. 

As my doctor knew back then and I now understand, the body makes adaptations after an injury.  Compensations happen in the ankle but also in other areas of the body. 

This is especially true when you don’t rehab the joint and give the body enough time to heal. This is why ankle circles are the first exercise I recommend you perform. It brings basic function back to the ankles.

Once you mobilize your ankles, you can practice isolated dorsiflexion. You may have seen this position before but the intention behind this exercise will be different than other versions.

Don’t worry about how much your knee travels past your toes. Instead, focus on sitting your thigh onto your calf with control. Gently contract your foot and ankle by trying to flex your toes up into the air.

This cue is only happening in your mind. Keep your feet on the ground but imagine this image in your mind. It will help contract all those muscles responsible for ankle dorsiflexion.

Once that sensation becomes clear for you, integrate it into your squat. This is the ultimate way to build better ankle dorsiflexion.

The more you can use ankle dorsiflexion in full body dynamic movements, the more it becomes ingrained in your movement vocabulary.

Programming and Closing Thoughts

I do some version of the above sequence just about everyday. This is one of the areas of my body that I’ve identified as low hanging fruit.

Everything operates better for me when my ankles are functioning well. This might be the same for you or maybe it’s not.

The only way to know is to experiment. Do these exercises before some activity you enjoy and see how your body feels after.

You might be surprised to see how much better your body moves once your ankles are unlocked.