Tips on strengthening ankles

nehaad88
nehaad88 Posts: 159 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
Hi,
I feel I have weak ankles and wrists. When I workout, my ankles are the first to give up. I feel they are the reason I cannot run. Running is on my bucket list.
My wrists typically get better with increasing forearm strength but still need support for heavier weights, especially on my left side.
Any tips for increasing strength of these joints so that I can eventually run, will be greatly appreciated.

Replies

  • jemhh
    jemhh Posts: 14,261 Member
    Gradually work your ankles/wrists more.

    Ankles--start off walking, then do walk/run intervals that increase in length, then move to full running.

    Wrists--gradually lift more and more weight and your grip will increase. In my experience, exercises like farmer's walks or RDLs where you're using more reps than you'd use for conventional DL or hanging from a pullup bar help.
  • Madwife2009
    Madwife2009 Posts: 1,369 Member
    I was given some ankle exercises by a physio when my ankles were suffering with inflammatory arthritis - they may help you but if nothing else it'll strengthen some of the muscles around your ankles:

    1) try to pick up a thin towel with your toes (I started by repeating this 10 times per foot and increased the number over time).

    2) spread out your toes (like you can your fingers) so that there's a wide gap between each toe. This is surprisingly tricky to start with. Again, I started with 10x and increased once I'd mastered it.

    3) push your big toe against the floor and lift the other four toes up off the floor. This is really hard to do until you've trained yourself. I had to start by lifting all of my toes up and then pressing my big toe down with a finger until I'd figured out how to do it. Took a while but I can do it without thinking about it now. It amuses my children as they can't do it. Again, built up from 10 times each foot.

    When my physio gave me these exercises, I thought it was a joke until I started to do them. I then realised how many muscles the exercises were using. Made a huge difference.

    My ankles have calmed down now but I still do the exercises as they only take a few minutes each day.
  • HoneyBadger302
    HoneyBadger302 Posts: 1,970 Member
    To add commentary to Madwife's post, I'm finding that a fair bit of my perceived "ankle" weakness was actually foot weakness (I suffered a pilon fracture nearly 2 years ago and still see improvements to this day).
  • lorrpb
    lorrpb Posts: 11,464 Member
    What do you mean that your ankles give out? What happens, do you fall? Just as building forearm strength helps your wrists, building calf strength will help your ankles and feet.
  • Chieflrg
    Chieflrg Posts: 9,097 Member
    The most optimal way to strengthen a body part specifically for a sport is to weight train with specificity and practice that sport.

    In your case squat & deadlift with doing a running program like C25k as a base.
  • L1zardQueen
    L1zardQueen Posts: 8,754 Member
    I have very strong ankles from all the hiking I do. No kidding. I've walked on some very unstable, rocky terrains and have never sprained an ankle. I used to sprain them a lot. Lots of hiking helps, but inflexible ankles suck when trying to swim. You win some, you lose some.
  • nehaad88
    nehaad88 Posts: 159 Member
    lorrpb wrote: »
    What do you mean that your ankles give out? What happens, do you fall? Just as building forearm strength helps your wrists, building calf strength will help your ankles and feet.

    What i mean by ankles giving out is that when i try to run, i get pain in them so i need to stop, when rest of the body is doing ok
  • AnvilHead
    AnvilHead Posts: 18,344 Member
    edited August 2018
    nehaad88 wrote: »
    lorrpb wrote: »
    What do you mean that your ankles give out? What happens, do you fall? Just as building forearm strength helps your wrists, building calf strength will help your ankles and feet.

    What i mean by ankles giving out is that when i try to run, i get pain in them so i need to stop, when rest of the body is doing ok

    I had the same thing when I started running again. The more I ran, the stronger they got. Start off with walk/run intervals (the Couch to 5K program is very good for that) and gradually work your way into running more. They’ll get stronger.

    And make sure you’re wearing good running shoes - it’s a good idea to get fitted by a store that specializes in running rather than buying them from a big box store.
  • jogetsgains
    jogetsgains Posts: 341 Member
    Balance exercise has helped mine. Depending on your fitness level, balance ranges from standing on one foot for a period of time to doing slow squats and other movements on one foot. There are lots of youtube routines. I also do calf raises with duck feet, straight feet, and pidgeon toes. It strengthens my claves, of course, but gets the feet and ankles too.
  • pondee629
    pondee629 Posts: 2,469 Member
    Do all of your exercises, save for the bench press, standing up. By standing you will exercise many collateral muscles, ankles included.

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