Your ankles are the joints between your feet and lower legs, consisting of the tibia, fibia and talus. There are muscles that manipulate the ligaments and tendons of the ankle, but none directly surrounding your ankle to bulk up. Because of the lack of muscle around the joint and surrounding area, the only way to truly get rid of skinny ankles is to add fat. Fat distribution in your body is based on genetics, so you'll need to increase your overall body fat to increase the fat around your ankles.
Step 1
Eat foods high in fat and calories to increase your overall body-fat percentage. Check the labels of the foods you buy to determine fat content. Fat values are listed near the top, usually in grams. Pay attention to calories, too, as you will need to increase your overall calorie consumption to gain weight. Calories also are listed at the top of the food label.
Step 2
Replace foods light in calories or fat with those more dense in calories, or with fattier foods. Instead of drinking water, try fruit juice or whole milk for added calories. Dairy products, pastas and breads are also healthy food sources that are dense in calories.
Step 3
Reduce your cardiovascular workouts to avoid burning excess calories. Increase your strength training, particularly in your lower legs to increase the muscle mass around the general area of your ankles. Exercises like the calf raise may help increase your overall lower-leg muscle mass and hide your small ankles.
Step 4
Taper your eating and weight training once your ankles achieve your desired size. If the rest of your body becomes too fat at this point, you can always do cardiovascular exercise and diet appropriately to lose the weight again.
Step 5
Exercise your lower legs to increase adjacent muscle mass. Try exercises like the calf raise, by simply raising and lowering your body on your toes only, utilizing your calf muscles. Aim for several dozen repetitions per set, depending on your ability. You can add additional weight to your body to increase resistance and bulk up your lower legs.
Step 6
Climb stairs to further supplement your calf and lower leg workouts. You can use either a stair climbing machine or climb ordinary stairs. Note that while stair climbing will exercise your calves, it will also burn calories, which can be detrimental to adding mass to your ankles. You will need to offset your stair climbing with additional eating to replace the calories you lose and not burn fat.
Tips and Warnings
- While gaining weight is the only sure way to increase body mass around your ankles, there is no way to guarantee added fat will go directly to your ankles.
- Do not increase your weight to unhealthy or obese levels to add mass to your ankles. Avoid eating fast food and junk food to add weight. These foods are dense in calories and fat, but overconsumption can have negative side effects on your health. Consult your doctor before beginning any weight-gain or weight-loss diet to make sure you are healthy enough and your approach is correct.
References
- ShapeFit: Building Muscular Calves - Build Up Your Calf Muscles
- Hot Exercise: Four Exercises to Bulk Up Skinny Legs
- Fit Hacks; Top Ten Ways To Get Fat; 2007
- State University of New York, Health Science Center at Syracuse: Functional Anatomy of the Ankle and Foot
- Southern California Orthopedic Institute: Anatomy of the Ankle
- FDA: How to Understand and Use the Nutrition Facts Label
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