Ankle Strengthening Exercises
If you’re someone who frequently experiences ankle pain, then you know how important it is to strengthen your ankles. Not only can doing ankle exercises help alleviate pain, but they can also help improve your balance and stability.
There are several ways your ankles can become weakened or painful, especially by arthritis, traumatic injuries, and the effects of ordinary aging. For anyone who is experiencing ankle pain or has weak ankles, there are various ankle stretches and ankle exercises that your physician may recommend to avoid further ankle weakness.
Ankle mobility exercises
To retain maximum ankle mobility, you should regularly engage in the following ankle strengthening exercises, as long as your physician approves, and make them part of your regular daily activities. Because ankles support the entire weight of your body, it is crucial that you do everything possible to keep your ankles strong and healthy.1
Calf raises - Start by standing on a raised surface like a stairway. Then elevate yourself by pushing downward with your toes, so your heels rise above the step. Then allow your heels to come back down to ground level and repeat the exercise 10 times.
Towel stretches - Wrap a towel around the top of your foot and hold both ends of the towel. Then gently pull the toes toward you and hold the position for 30 seconds. Then release for 30 seconds and repeat the exercise.
Toe pulls - Sit in a chair and raise one leg off the floor. Then point the toes back toward the body and hold for 10 seconds. Relax the toes, lower the leg, and repeat the exercise 10 times.
Ankle alphabet- Sit with one leg extended on the floor, and a pillow under the calf. Then use your big toes to draw the letters of the alphabet in the air. After you've gone through the entire alphabet, rest for a few minutes and repeat the exercise.
Towel curls - Sit on a chair and place both feet on a towel. Then use the toes of one foot to grip the towel and lift it in the air. Hold this position for 30 seconds, then release the towel and do the same thing with your other foot.
If you have weak ankles2, it becomes much more likely that you will sustain ankle sprains and strains or sustain a fall. While many people suffer major injuries to their ankles, other individuals are simply born with weak ankles.
It's also possible to have your ankles simply give out while walking or running, and to experience another sprain or strain that further weakens them. That's why it's so important to do anything you can to counteract the effects of weak ankles and doing the exercises can go a long way toward building in added strength to weak ankles.