【Text, Pictures/Excerpted from the Acquisition Culture "Strength Squat", author Aaron Hoshger]

Even if you occasionally suffer from ankle joint pain, the ankle itself is a stable joint, and it is easy to become stiff and lose its flexibility. Therefore, the role of ankle is movement and flexibility. When the ankle cannot move, it will affect other parts of the body, and the lower part will become unstable, so the natural arch will collapse and the upper part will become unstable. When squatting, the unstable knees often sway and collapse inward. These are only immediate effects of unflexible ankles. Finally, stiff ankles will have negative effects on other parts of the body. Stiff ankle joints can destroy the overall movement mode.

To achieve a complete depth of squat, the body must have a certain degree of ankle flexibility. Unless you are doing a low-rise squat, the knee must be able to move forward beyond the toes. This forward knee acts from the ankle and is called dorsiflexion of the foot. You can plan one line on the side of the bone and another line on the outer side of the foot to measure dorsiflexion. The smaller or closer the angle, the better the dorsiflexion of the athlete. Most athletes with insufficient dorsiflexion will experience difficulties.

Stiff ankles are usually the culprit behind a squat problem. When you squat, do you still open your palms outward, regardless of how hard you try to keep your toes forward? Can you keep your feet straight at the lowest position when grabbing or rushing? Do your knees often collapse when you do a gun squat? All of these movement problems are related to insufficient ankle activity.

I would like to introduce a simple method to test ankle. This test can tell us whether the ankle is fully active, or whether the movement is caused by other parts of the body.

This test is called a high kneeling position dorsiflexion test. Ankle flexibility has been tested countless times in the study. Physical therapist, Dr. Mike Reinold, recommends the use to test ankle flexibility because this test provides reliable results without requiring through an expert.

Find a wall, remove your shoes, and kneel as close as possible to the wall. Use a ruler to measure the position of the large toe five inches away from the wall. Push the knee forward from this position and let the knee touch the wall as much as possible. The heel must be kept on the floor.

{twenty one} {twenty two}

■ Action Checklist:

Is there a check in your "pass" field? If you can touch the wall five inches away from the wall while keeping your knees in line with your feet, you have enough ankle flexibility. If you have a checkmark in the "Failed" field, it means that the dorsiflexion of the foot is insufficient. This may be a limitation of the software organization, or a question of the degree of flexibility, or both.

By related periods, we learn different ways to view humans. Be sure to check the movement first. If you have a problem with your single foot or double foot squat, we can use different tools (such as high kneeling dorsiflexion test) to find out the cause and solve the problem of foot and ankle flexibility, and we can improve all the exercises.