Certified trainer shares 4 ankle moves. Try them today to feel steadier on stairs.
Your ankles are the unsung heroes of every step you take, but after 65, they start losing the strength and stability that kept you confident on your feet for decades. Most people assume balance exercises are the answer, but there’s a better approach that targets the specific muscles and mechanisms your ankles actually need.
The loss of ankle function typically stems from two main culprits: simple disuse and poorly rehabbed old injuries. When you sit too much and don’t walk, jog, or jump enough, your ankle muscles weaken from lack of stimulation. Add in decades of ankle sprains,strains,and breaks that never got proper rehab,and you’ve got a recipe for compensatory movement patterns that make things worse over time. These four exercises can help you rebuild that strength without fancy equipment or a gym membership.
what Happens When You Lose Ankle Strength
Table of Contents
Disuse is the
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Tibialis Anterior Raises
This exercise strengthens the tibialis anterior muscle, which runs along the front of your shin. It’s crucial for dorsiflexion (lifting the foot up) and controlling how your foot lands when you walk or run. Weakness in this muscle can lead to foot drop or shin splints.
Muscles Trained: Tibialis anterior
How to Do It:
- Set up in the same position
- Come up higher on your feet
- Hold for 30 seconds
- Straighten your knees as you get stronger
- Eventually work up to holding the full position for 30-60 seconds
Form Tip: You should feel a big stretch through the tibialis, but your using this position to strengthen the peroneal muscle to fight excessive rolling of the ankle.
Toe Walking
This exercise strengthens all the intrinsic muscles of the foot, the calves, the gastrocs, and especially the Achilles tendon. It directly trains the windlass mechanism, helping you get up on that big toe so the sesamoid bone moves forward for a more efficient gait pattern. This is what gives people that “spring in their step”-it drives force into the glute and up through the low back to create an efficient gait pattern.It’s an S1, S2 dermatome, meaning the nerves come out of the top part of the sacrum and run all the way down to feed these muscles.
Muscles Trained: Intrinsic foot muscles, calves, gastrocnemius, Achilles tendon
How to Do It:
- Come up onto your toes as far as possible
- Keep a slight bend in your knees (or straighten them for more calf work)
- Progression 1: Walk forward for 60 seconds
- Progression 2: Walk backward for 60 seconds
- Progression 3: Walk laterally in one direction for 60 seconds
- Progression 4: walk laterally in the other direction for 60 seconds
- Use a dowel, wall, or partner’s hand for balance if needed
Form Tip: Stay up on your toes the entire time. Straight knees engage the calves more, while bent knees shift some emphasis while still working the foot muscles.
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Heel Walking
The calcaneus (heel bone) is the most proprioceptive-dense bone in the lower body. This means most of the information that comes to your brain from your foot comes from the heel.The heel is an L4-L5 dermatome, so the nerves come out of the spine in the lower back region.This exercise dramatically impr
