Ankle Plantar Flexors & Dorsiflexor Strengthening

Plantar flexors and dorsiflexors provide the movement, strength and stability for your ankles. These muscles run up and down your calves and shins and allow you the motion to point your foot up and down. Ankle flexor muscles are important in everyday actiivities, especially walking. Strengthening your ankle plantar flexors and dorsiflexors increases your balance, because ankle weakness can contribute to poor balance. Strong ankle muscles can also help prevent injury.

Dorsiflexion

To strengthen your ankles doing dorsiflexion, use a resistance band to apply force against the action. In a seated position, extend one leg out and place a resistance band at the ball of your foot. Take both ends of the band in one hand, and hold the band enough so that it is applying some force to your foot. Point your toes away from your body; this is the starting position. Slowly move your foot up toward your body by bending your ankle back. Go as far as you can, pause for a second, then return to start and repeat. Do both sides for three sets of 12 reps.

Plantar Flexion

Plantar flexion is the opposing movement to dorsiflexion. Sit with one leg extended and the resistance band around the ball of your foot. Keep your toes pointed up toward the ceiling as you tighten the slack on the resistance band by holding each end in your hands. Slowly point your toes forward, away from your body, by bending your ankle. Go as far as you can, pause for a second, then go back to starting position. Repeat for three sets of 12 repetitions.

Calf Raises

Calf raises use plantar and dorsiflexion to strengthen your muscles. You can adapt this exercise to increase or decrease intensity. To begin, stand behind a chair or sturdy object that you can use for support if needed. Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart. Keeping your back straight and abs contracting, lift yourself up onto your toes, pause for a second, then lower yourself back down and lift yourself onto the heels of your feet, pause for a second, then return to start. To increase the intensity, try doing just one foot or adding weights. To decrease the intensity, hold onto the object in front of you until you can do the exercise on your own. To increase stability, place your toes on a rolled-up exercise mat or beach towel while performing the exercise. This puts your foot into a dorsiflexion position without testing your balance skills. Work up to three sets of 12 repetitions.

Push-Off

The push-off exercise uses your own body weight and plyometric training to strengthen your ankle muscles. Plyometric training uses the stretch-shortening cycle of your muscles to develop gains in strength. For the push-off exercise, you need a stable surface to step onto. Begin with one set of toes on the stable surface; this foot should be in the dorsiflexion position with your knee bent. The other foot should be in front of the stable surface. In one quick motion, squat down, then jump up with both feet. While in the air, bring your back leg up onto the surface so that both your feet are now on the elevated surface. Land gently, bending your knees, then return to start and repeat. Do just one to three sets of eight repetitions of this exercise on each side.