Here are some ankles strengthening exercises which are highly recommended by sports medicine practitioners. They do include the statutory warning that these exercises should be performed under the guidance of the coach or the athletic trainer. The physician should be immediately contacted if there is any pain while performing the exercises.

The gastrocnemius Stretch

This exercise is performed to stretch the gastrointestinal regions by locking one knee and stretching back the other leg and gaining the support of a wall with outstretched hands. The position has to be adjusted until one feels a comfortable, painless stretch in the calf of the outstretched leg. This position should be held for about fifteen seconds and the whole movement should be repeated with the second leg.

The stretch for the soleus muscle, the inside calf muscle

In this stretch the first leg is bent at the knee and grounding the knee while taking support of a wall with outstretched hands and the other foot. By leaning forward on the bent knee, the stretch will be felt along the calf. This stretch should be held in a painless position for about fifteen seconds before repeating the entire stretch with the other leg in sets of four.

The stretch for the Tibialis

The stretch happens at the ankle joint in this exercise. One has to sit on a chair and cross one leg over the other at the thigh such that the ankle of the crossed leg is free and moveable. The toes are held with one hand and the whole crossed leg is pulled such that a painless stretch is felt at the ankle. Again this position should be held for less than fifteen seconds and has to be repeated for four times for both the ankles.

The Range of Motion

This is a simple exercise which some of us would do without thought. Here the toes are held tight and assuming the big toe to be a pencil, circles are drawn in clock wise and anti-clockwise directions for fifteen seconds in both directions. The movement should happen at the joint of the ankle.

The towel scrunches and towel scoop

Here playful movements of the feet to scrunch a towel laid out on the floor with the heel off the ground will make the entire ankle stretch as the toes gather the towel.

The heel is placed off the ground and a heavy book is placed at one end of the towel and the stretched toes are used to scoop up the towel by making movements with the ankle towards the centre of the body.

General exercises like raising the whole body on the toes, swinging the whole leg in clock-wise and anti-clockwise direction. Jumping the hops-notch will also help in strengthening the ankle muscles.

For the above set of exercises the experts would allocate about twenty minutes of workout and following it with other fitness exercises.

These are some of the practical ankles strengthening exercises which are far different from what is done at the boot camp or at the gym to strengthen the ankles.

Author Bio: Kya Grace is a Sydney personal trainer. If you would like to sign up for a Boot Camp or to go to a personal trainer in Sydney trial, visit Personal Trainers in Sydney.

Category: Wellness, Fitness and Diet
Keywords: Boot Camp