This week, we are focusing on the ankle. A lot of the problems that show up in our feet and our knees, are usually due to the fact that our ankles don’t move correctly. The moves below work on both dorsiflexion (toes towards the shin) and plantar flexion (toes pointed away from shin).
I threw in a bonus exercise for those of you that need some mobility laterally with your ankle movement.
Bonus Exercise!
All month long we have been giving you exercises and stretches to help you jump. In this final week, grab your jumprope (or use an imaginary one) and follow along as we get jumping and release your tired calves with this easy mobilization.
This week, we are taking care of our ankles with a dynamic ankle stretch and then we are going to put those side-to-side swings we did last week to some use with some lateral hopping.
We are closing out the month with one of my favorite stretches and one of my least favorite exercises. Try both to help improve the range of motion in your ankles, lengthen the whole back line from the calves to the glutes, and strengthen your overall ankle motion.
We are focusing on the ankles this week. In this first stretch, we are trying to gain ankle mobility in combination with hip mobility, since both are needed for proper gait. The second exercise is a little twist on a calf raise to help you integrate the calf strength with the rest of the posterior chain.
We are bringing things back to center this week. A lot of us have a tendency to roll towards our pinky toes as we walk or push off the ball of the foot. The first video shows you how to release the outside (lateral side) of the hip and shin that can get tight from the foot rolling out and the second video uses a ball to help track the foot back into a more neutral position during push off.
For the month of March we are working on our feet and ankles. Making sure we have the mobility and strength to keep our joints from toe to head working well.
Brenna Backe 