Ankle mobility drills are important for all sorts of activities.
Ankle mobility drills are mind numbing. But they don't have to be and they can be done quickly as part of a full body warm up. The following movements are a combination of various movements inspired from yoga, natural movement and just playing around on all fours. You can easily add repetitions to one movement or another to increase the difficulty or spend more time mobilizing your ankles. Follow up with some body weight squats, lunges, push ups, or other full body calisthenics and you've gotta decent warm up in under 10 minutes.
Never mind the bad techno track and find more info about the movements below the video.
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Quadruped Knee Circles
From all fours lift your knees an inch off the ground. Move your whole body in circles, pivoting from the ankles, so that your knees move in circles just above the ground. Perform 5-10 repetitions in each direction creating larger and larger circles.
External Rotation From Seated Kneeling
Kneel on both legs with the legs apart and sit your hips back toward the ankles. Your toes should be pointed back. From this position shift your weight to one side and rotate the opposite knee up and out lifting it from the ground. As you lift the knee up and out pivot around the inside or big toe of the foot. Return the leg and knee to the ground and switch sides.
Kneel to Squat
From the seated kneeling position curl your toes under. Shift your weight back rocking onto your whole foot and into the bottom squat position. Use the hands and arms to maintain balance. From the squat position shift your weight forward rocking onto the balls of your feet and toes, returning the knees to the ground gently with control.
Down Dog with Heel Lift and Depression
Position yourself into a downward dog position. It should be like a push up with the hips pressed up high and the head between the arms, while stretching the calves and hamstrings. Lift on foot placing more body weight to the supporting foot. With the supporting foot flex the calf and lift the heel then relax the calf and lower the heel using your body weight to press it toward the floor. Switch sides and repeat for a given number of repetitions.
Kneeling to Lunge with Forward Reach
From the seated kneeling position extend the hips up into a tall kneeling position and take a moderate lunge step forward. Lean forward and reach inside the instep and beyond the foot while trying to maintain heel contact with the floor. Walk your hands back and return to the seated kneeling position to switch sides and repeat as needed.
Try this circuit or just a few of the movements to begin mobilizing your ankles while still getting yourself moving and warmed up before workouts. There are many other ankle mobility drills you could include, but many of them add a lot of time to your warm up routine, without much warming or moving.
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