Name: Playbook - TrickStrong RX - Ankle Mobility
Uploaded: 2025-04-08T19:59:01.432Z
Duration: 45 min
Description: Ankle Mobility

James

paolo

Chrisby

This is an ankle mobility routine complete with a warmup, stability, control exercises, soft tissue work, joint work and static stretching. Do this a few times per week if you are feeling limited in your movement due to foot or ankle stiffness!

Ankle ABCs are a great mobility exercise for the foot and ankle. 

1 set = the full alphabet (A-Z). If doing 2 or more sets, try lower case letters for another challenge (a-z).

Be sure to explore the corners of your pain-free mobility on each letter. Each set (A-Z) takes me about 2 full minutes. Really fight for more range and control in each rep - you will never outgrow this exercise. 

Traditionally these are done early in the rehab process to restore normal ROM after injury, but there's no reason to stop using ABCs to continue improving mobility, joint health and lines in your movement.

Ankle ABCs

Walk in each direction until moderate fatigue (to around 70% of effort)

This drill helps to improve dynamic stability of the entire lower extremity and trunk, with emphasis on the foot & ankle. 

Be sure to stay as high up on your toes as possible to improve ankle range of motion, strength and control.

4 Way Toe Walking - Forwards

4 Way Toe Walking - Backwards

4 Way Toe Walking - Lateral

4 Way Toe Walking

The anterior tibialis muscle is important for foot and ankle stability. It has a massive role in decelerating us so we can convert our momentum from a horizontal run to a jump. We do this a lot in tricking during pivots. 

When contacting heel first, the anterior tibialis must slow the foot down so it can hit the floor with control. If its weak, we have "no brakes" and tend to get excess stress on the knees and hips to control that momentum.

For this exercise, try to raise your toes as high as possible and actively squeeze your shin muscles at the top of each rep. Lower with control.

Anterior Tibialis Raises - Wall Support

Knee To Wall Taps are great for ankle mobility. They help us to create stability and control within our movement.

This is where flexibility and mobility differ. The former is just a position you can get to, while the latter is a movement you OWN. 

Notice the direction of the toes here. They are pointing forward, which encourages us to move through our ankle joint rather than our foot.

Shifting your weight to the front leg loads your foot and ankle more and enhances the benefits if you can tolerate it. If this is too much, you can start by shifting your weight more towards the back leg or by doing this same motion from a kneeling lunge position.

The wall gives us a goal to reach that can be measured over time and can guide us in going just far enough. We want to avoid letting the heel come up off of the ground.

Knee to Wall Taps

The goblet squat is an awesome lower body exercise used to improve strength and power. The goblet hold creates a more vertical position which emphasizes the quads. Goblet squats are a great exercise to improve your vertical leap. 

It is also helpful in mobility training, as the weight helps push us into more ankle dorsiflexion and opens our hips.

Goblet Squat - KB

If you haven't been doing single leg calf raises, you will feel the difference not only in your calf, but in your foot and hip muscles as well. This is excellent for functional carryover to athletics as we are often pushing off on one leg.

Lower slowly (5 sec) in the eccentric calf raise. 

Stress the negative by lowering slowly and past neutral by using a step, stair or slant board. 

This is great for injury prevention because it begins to mimic controlling landings and decelerating from cuts and pivots. 

Research shows eccentric exercises are extremely beneficial for tendon issues. This can be a great exercise for those with achilles tendon pain provided it is progressed appropriately.

Early on, using the minimum necessary hand assistance is a good way to build up to doing it without support.

Single Leg Calf Raise - Eccentric, KB, Slant Board

This is a great mobility drill to improve ankle plantarflexion (toe point) range of motion as well as glute activation.

Simply sit back on your heels from a kneeling position for reps. Use your feet to help you up by pushing the tops of them into the ground. Your glutes should help your thrust your hips forward to a tall kneeling position. 

You should feel a stretch on the top of your foot when doing this. 

If your full body weight is too much to start with, reduce your range of motion so that you are not fully sitting on your heels. Progress as tolerated.

Seiza Raises

This is an amazing self-massage technique to improve foot and ankle mobility and soft-tissue quality.

We are often tight, restricted and have poor blood flow in our feet due to constricting foot wear. Most shoes don't allow for natural foot movement. This fits perfectly before and after getting out of shoes. 

You'll likely feel improved ankle mobility after this technique as the tight muscles and fascia on the bottom of our feet become unrestricted. Be sure to get all the edges of your foot and to allow your foot to "melt" around the ball.

Optional: Foot Rolling

This drill is helpful in improving ankle joint mobility - especially in improving dorsiflexion ROM. 

The belt or band is placed at the ankle crease right at the top of your foot (not on your shin)! 

If your setup allows for it, try to have the band angle downwards by putting your foot on an elevated surface. If not, parallel to the floor will still have plenty of benefit.

The band helps mobilize the ankle joint by allowing your tibia (shin) to translate forward on your fixed talus (ankle bone). 

Notice the direction of the toes here. They are pointing forward, which encourages us to move through our ankle joint rather than our foot.

Shifting your weight to the front leg loads your foot and ankle more and enhances the benefits if you can tolerate it.

Be sure that your knee is tracking over your second toe and not going too far inwards or outwards. 

You should feel no pinching or pain during this!

Optional: Banded Ankle Mobilization

Calf stretching is useful in improving ankle dorsiflexion ROM if your restriction is coming from the gastrocnemius or soleus muscles. 

If you have a joint restriction, or pinching in front of ankle, I recommend you watch our banded ankle mobilization video to target joint restrictions.

For effective calf stretching, we need to target both muscles, the gastrocnemius and the soleus as either of them can be restricted.

They are both plantarflexors, but since the bigger gastrocnemius crosses the knee, that is the primary muscle you will be stretching with your knee straight.

The soleus is best stretched from a bent knee position.

Slant boards are really useful in stretching the calf as we can get more of our body weight over our foot. Lean into the wall for best results!

Calf Stretching - Gastrocnemius, Slant Board, Single Leg

Calf Stretching - Soleus, Slant Board

This is a great stretch to improve ankle plantarflexion (toe point) range of motion.

Simply sit back on your heels from a kneeling position. You should feel a stretch on the top of your foot when doing this. 

If your full body weight is too much to start with, put a soft pillow or cushion between your butt and heels to reduce the pressure.

Ankle Mobility

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