Your Keys To Rock-Solid Ankle Stability, Explosive Sports Performance and Incredible Balance!
Home -> BetterU News Archive -> Issue #33 - Ankle Stability

The following information is a supplement to the article entitled "Your Keys To Rock-Solid Ankle Stability, Explosive Sports Performance and Incredible Balance!" found in Issue #33 of BetterU News. This page demonstrates the training techniques described in the article.

#1 Standing and balancing

This is a very simple exercise and the one we'll start with. All you need to do is stand on one foot and balance there for as long as you can! As you work to keep yourself balanced, you will notice that your ankle is constantly shifting around to compensate for slight changes in your body position. This constant shifting is working the supporting muscles of the ankles! It is deceptively simple but very effective. This is because in everyday life, you very rarely stand on one foot for any length of time. Your ankles and calves are not required to balance or support you as much. When you stand on one foot, you force these supporting muscle to work overtime.

#2 Standing and balancing with weights

This shows balancing holding onto 2 dumbells.	This shows balancing with the barbell. This version can be harder to balance with.

#3 Standing on an unstable surface and balancing

This is effective because it provides an unstable surface which your ankles must react to in order to keep your balance. Some good surfaces you can use include foam (like the foam on a flat bench), a pile of towels or clothing, sand, air mattress, etc. There are a great many surfaces that are effective for this. Feel free to use your imagination. I like to use a rolled-up towel set on the floor for this one - no need to buy any expensive equipment! This balancing can be done either with or without weights. If you are using weights, I would suggest sticking to dumbells - they're easier to control than the barbell.

 

This exercise adds the large muscles of the calves to the mix. Basically, you will do as the name implies - you will do a single leg calf raise, holding onto one single dumbell, swinging it around yourself in random directions as you do the calf raise. [Note: the demonstrator is using a dumbell to do the calf raises on in order to increase instability even further]

This random movement forces your calves and ankles to build stabilizing strength VERY quickly. It also helps train your ankles to react quickly to sudden random stresses, much like in a sporting event. This is very practical movement that has great carryover into sports.

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