The ankle is a complex and wondrous creation of mechanical ingenuity. A million times more fine tuned than a Swiss watch. Bottom line though, it is mechanical with rubber bands, levers, pulleys, fulcrum, shocks and structural arches with the ability to move in hundreds of directions.
All the bones are held together with ligaments and the major movements are controlled by tendons whose muscles are in our legs. Like the fingers, most of the movement comes from the muscles in the arm. When we develop “use” injuries, it is often because we are misusing those muscles.
Regularly misusing your movements will load pressure and tension on the underside of the foot, the calves and knees which can even result in sore hips as they may no longer be in alignment.
We owe our ankles a lot of thanks for what they put up with from us on the daily. Think about it for a moment - Your ankles are involved with every step you take, when you reach up for something - it is your ankles that are allowing that extra height, turning around is using the ankles, bending down, sitting down... They do ALOT and we hardly ever give it any thanks or reward them with a lovely stretch.
Look after yourself by looking after your ankles!
Practice these exercises that focus on feet, ankles and calves. Even if you don't feel tightness it is important to do them all anyway. You may not necessarily feel like you have calf pain BUT your ankle and foot pain may be caused by tight calves and since they are all so interlinked it is definitely best to treat all the areas.
I am using a pulsing foamroller in this video and an exercise band - if you don't have these, a bottle of frozen water and a towel are excellent substitutes.
Full Length Explanation and Demonstration
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Thank you for reading/watching - if you found this useful, make a promise that you will make the effort to do this 3 times weekly, then come back and tell me how good you feel for it!