Ankle strengthening exercises with no equipment – In this video, I’m going to show you three exercises you can use to strengthen weak ankles, each of which require no equipment at all. I’ve also got a pair of SKINS compression bottoms to giveaway… so stay tuned.
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Lots of you have asked me to share some exercises to help you strengthen your ankles. It’s an important area for us runners, and an area lots of us will have injured before, with ankle sprains etc… Previous ankle injuries often leave a distinct weakness and instability, and this is certainly something worth working on to help prevent future problems.
There’s definitely a time and a place to make use of wobble boards and other unstable surfaces to provide a balance challenge for your ankles, and help you improve ankle proprioception. Today however, I want to show you three exercises you can perform with no equipment to help develop ankle strength and stability. Let’s get into it!
This first exercise has you balancing on one leg while you use the other leg to create momentum, which you then have to control, to be able to maintain your balance. The instability created by the swinging of the non-weight bearing leg is exactly what the muscles around your standing ankle have to work hard to control!
Keep the swinging straight back and forth to begin with, but you can then progress to side-to-side and rotational movements. Also be sure to keep the standing knee softly bent throughout. I’d suggest aiming for 3 sets of 20 swings on each leg, without losing your balance.
Next-up I’ve got a really simple exercise for you which challenges both strength and stability from the whole foot and ankle region.
Start balancing on one leg, then as you drive your knee forwards and match your arms into this running man position, roll forwards onto the ball of your foot, and lift your heel as high off the ground as you can. Hold this top position for 5 seconds then return back to the start position slowly with control.
The main focus here is to maintain control of the movement as you rise-up onto the balls of your feet, and hold. You should feel the effort in your calf muscles and around your ankles.
Aim for 3 sets of 15 five second holds on each leg.
You might have noticed that in recent videos I’ve been wearing these A400 starlight compression bottoms from SKINS. They sent me a pair to try and I have to say I’m impressed. Super comfortable, and they seem hardwearing!
SKINS are also offering a pair of A400 starlight compression bottoms to one of you guys here on my YouTube channel. All you’ve got to do to be in with a chance of winning is make sure you’re subscribed, like this video and leave a comment below this video telling me who your biggest running inspiration is…
I’ll be drawing the winner on Monday 10th April.
Good luck!
This last exercise adds a little more dynamic movement into the mix, so if you’re recovering from an ankle injury be sure to go easy and only introduce this once the ankle is ready.
Start balanced on one leg, then imagine you’re standing in the middle of an eight pointed star. From your start point in the middle, I want you to hop to each point of that star, and back to the middle each time, sticking each landing like a gymnast… soft kneed and under control.
Aim for 3 sets of 5 rotations around the star on each leg.
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ABOUT ME: I’m a runner, sports rehabilitation specialist and coach based in the UK (Norwich and London).
Since 2007 I’ve been working with athletes focusing specifically on helping distance runners and triathletes overcome injury and improve performance through developing their individual running technique.
Running biomechanics has become a geeky little passion of mine!
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