hey everybody it's Doctor Jo and Bear, and today we're going to show you some
stretches and exercises for ankle impingement, so let's get started.
so if you haven't subscribed already, make sure and click on the button down here. so
most of these stretches could be for anterior or posterior ankle impingement.
they all are designed for anterior, but again you can use them for a posterior
impingement as well. so to start off, we're just going to kind of stretch out
the ankle. so you can do it with your hand, I'll show you some other ways to
get it a little bit more pressure on it, but the first one is just going to be
going into dorsiflexion. and that's pulling the toes up towards you. so with
the stretch, you're not going to actively do it, you're just gonna pull them with
your hand. so what I like to do is kind of grab my heel with one hand and then
my toes up with the with the top hand, and just pull in towards me. so if you
have that anterior impingement there, that's just getting that spot kind of
stretched out. sometimes there might be a bone spur or something in there, and you
just want to get that movement in there because if it's impinged you want to
kind of loosen everything up in there. so just kind of taking that, pull the heel
downwards this way and then pull the toes up this way. so you're getting a
little bit of mobilization with that as well. you don't have to hold it for a
full 30 seconds, you can do like a 15 to 20 second hold. when you're using your
bodyweight, I'll have you actually do the full 30 second stretch, but when you're
just pulling you can do that 15 - 20 second stretch. so again pulling down
with the heel, and then up with your toes just coming up towards you this way. so
do that about three times really to get that stretch in there.
now you're going to go into a plantar flexion stretch, which is just the
opposite way. so now your toes are coming down. so now we're opening up that space.
so it's kind of just the same now you don't have to worry so much about the
heel, but just taking the toes and now you're just gonna pull them down this
way. so you should feel that stretch right there on the top. if you can make
sure you keep those toes straight forwards
going down this way, versus mine like to try and curl in a little bit, but try and
keep them straight. so it really opens up that spot in there. so again holding out
the stretch 15 to 20 seconds. if your hands get a little bit tired, again I'll show you
another way to do it, but doing that about three times just getting that nice
stretch in there. and then the next one is going to be an eversion stretch, and
that's taking your toes and your ankle and going outward. so it's almost like
it's waving out that way. so going in that position, but really doing all the
movement at your ankle, not your whole leg. so I like to kind of stabilize up
top above the ankle so my whole leg doesn't move with this, and then take
kind of in the toe the ball of the foot area, and pull it outwards like that. so
it's almost like a scooping motion to go out into that eversion.
and really just get a stretch there. you should feel it on the inside top right
there that's where you should feel that stretch. so going out into that
eversion stretch and again 15 to 20 seconds doing that three times. so just
really kind of starting to get that joint moving getting everything loosened
up. so it's not impinged anymore. so if you don't feel like you're getting quite
enough stretch with just your hands for the dorsiflexion, what I like to do is as
long as your body's comfortable kind of getting in this position, make sure your
heel stays down put some pressure through your foot kind of almost in a
close up lunge position, and then lean forward. so I feel that stretch kind of
up and through here. you might feel it in the back some if your achilles is tight,
but you're really just trying to work that that whole joint area in the ankle
right there. so getting that dorsiflexion make sure your heel doesn't come up, keep
that heel down and really just push forward like that. so with this one if
you're comfortable enough in this position you can hold it for 30 seconds
and then do that three times. and then so with the plantar flexion you just come
back and now you want the top of your toes to be on the floor you want the
whole top of the foot be on the floor and then just kind of
up into this position like that. so I'm still using my body weight, but I'm
just kind of leaning back onto the foot. if that's too much, you can just come
back and go like this, but if you want a little bit more body pressure, lift your
body up and then push down so whichever one is kind of more comfortable for you.
it might try and feel like it's cramping up a little bit when you do this, but
that's really going to stretch out the front of that ankle and then even into
your anterior tibialis muscles just to help loosen everything up and to
hopefully get some stuff unimpinged in there. so again this one would be a 30 second
hold doing that three times. so now you want to go into strengthening the ankle.
when you strengthen the ankle, that helps get those muscles strong again because a
lot of times that impingement happens because something's not doing what it's
supposed to or there some weakness, and then
something gets impinged, which is compressed, and then you get a lot of
pain in that ankle area. so when I am working on my ankle I use something it
can be a soup can you can just put it off the edge of your bed or something,
but you want your heel to be able to move freely because taking a band, make
sure you know what kind of bands you have, these are thera bands, because the
different colors are different strengths. the yellow for the thera-band there's
lightest and then the reds the next one. so if you're just starting out, you
probably really want to start off with the lightest one, but if you have a
different brand of bands like Pilate bands just make sure that you're
checking out the colors because they might be different types of resistance.
so I like to make a loop on mine, it just makes it a little bit easier and just
make sure that the band is pretty much at the ball of your foot and that it
doesn't slip off. so sometimes shoes with this helps a little bit just because you
don't want this coming back and smacking you in the face, so if you need to kind
of spread the band out a little bit so it has a little more grip you can do
that as well. and just pull to have as much tension as you need and when you're
going down this is just pushing down into plantar flexion, and then
coming back up. you don't want your ankle to be wiggling like that because that
mean it doesn't have enough control and that you're you're having too much
resistanc.e so if you have a lot of resistance and you're having a hard time
controlling it down and back up, then either let go of the band a little bit
so there's not as much tension, or go back down to the lesser strength band
because you want to be able to control that ankle as well as you can. so nice
and control going down, nice and controlled coming back up. don't just pop
it up and down because then you're not really getting anything out of it. so
really kind of control that I would say just start off with about 10 you can try
2 sets of 10 but I wouldn't do a whole lot the first time because you just
really don't know how it's going to feel, and you don't want to overdo it. so then
the next one is going to be going into eversion going outwards. so now you're
just going to turn where the knot is on the inside and then just kind of anchor
it on your other foot. the biggest part of this is to make sure you're just
moving at your ankle. so you're not moving your whole leg out, but the top
part of your leg is really staying in one spot, and you're just pulling kind of
outwards and up to get that eversion motion. so again if it's really tight, and
you can't control that band, then relax a little bit or go back down because you
want to be able to control it. you want to get to 10 to 15 and it'd be tough but
doable. so you can just take it up or down whatever works best for that. so to
give then get an inversion, I usually then just cross it over this way and now
the knots going on the outside towards the other foot, and then your anchors
there. get it up around the ball of your foot now you're pulling in. so again it's
not the whole leg going out and in, it's really just at that ankle going out
and in and really trying to make it controlled and smooth without a whole
lot of wiggle in the ankle. and then for the dorsiflexion coming
back up, if you don't have anybody to hold it the other way you can do a
couple things. you can anchor it on to something solid like a table leg or you
can just take your other foot and just kind of push it down a little bit
further like that. so now I'm going upwards and then nice and slow back down.
so again just enough where your have to work pretty hard to get there, but you're
able to control that band the whole time. so the last exercise is really going to
be immobilization so this would be if you didn't have somebody to do the
manual work on you to help actually move the joint. so you want to use a strap
this is something solid so this is not like the bands you don't want it to give.
and if it's something that has a loop that works really really well. so you're
gonna put it around your ankle. I'm a roll my pant leg up a little bit so
you can see it, and you want it to be about right here. and what this is gonna
do is it's gonna stabilize that tibia bone so once you start doing the
movement it mobilizes the the joint down at the ankle, so if you don't have
anybody there to help like hold on to the strap you can really just step on it
with your other foot. so give yourself a little bit up here, and then you have to
have some good balance but make sure that strap is tight and then get your
foot in this position. make sure it's nice and tight right there at that tibia
bone and then go forward into that dorsiflexion movement. so what this is
doing is when I'm moving it's holding that bone there so I'm actually
mobilizing that joint. so it's really just kind of helping it opening up that
space. so you don't want to do a whole lot of these you just want to do maybe
five or ten, really just to loosen up that joint and get it feeling better.
those were your stretches and exercises for ankle impingement. so if you'd like
to help support my channel make sure and click on the link up here, yeah. and where
should they click to subscribe down there. and
be safe, have fun, and I hope you feel better soon.