Do you notice your heels pop up off the ground when you squat? Do you feel stuck, almost like you can’t drop down lower in your squat no matter how hard you try? You might be overlooking one of the most important pieces of the mobility: ankle dorsiflexion. Ankle dorsiflexion plays a major role in everything from walking, running, lifting, and jumping. But when it’s limited, your body will find ways to compensate somewhere else. Compensations can lead to dysfunction and/or pain in multiple body parts, including the ankle, knee, hip, or back. This post will review what ankle dorsiflexion is, why it matters for functioning in daily life, and how it influences movement, pain and injury risk.
**This is not medical advice. Please consult your medical provider for more information.
What Is Ankle Dorsiflexion?
Ankle dorsiflexion is the movement of the ankle joint known as the talocrural joint that involves pulling your toes up towards your head. It doesn’t seem like much, but this motion is important for every day tasks, including walking, squatting, and going up and down stairs. For normal function with generalized tasks, a normal range for dorsiflexion should be around 10 degrees. This would include activities like walking and going down stairs. For more strenuous activities, like running and jumping, 15-20 degrees is ideal.
Ankle dorsiflexion can be measured in either open chain or closed chain. Open chain is when the end of the limb (the foot) is free to move. Closed chain is when the limb is fixed. Another way to look at it is with open chain exercises, you are moving something. With closed chain exercises, something is moving you. When measuring and working on ankle dorsiflexion, most activities you do in daily life are closed chain. Thus, it makes sense to work on ankle dorsiflexion in the way you intend to be using it. That means doing more exercises and working on improving ankle dorsiflexion in closed chain is the better option because it is more functional.
Why Ankle Dorsiflexion Really Matters
As previously discussed, dorsiflexion is needed for many activities we do every single day, including walking. So why is dorsiflexion so important? It is a basic requirement for so many different movements. And when you don’t have adequate range, your body is really good at compensating. This impacts your form and mechanics. It affects the way you walk and it can affect your posture. Over time, this leads to a normalization of these compensatory patterns. This means that this becomes the new “normal” way you move. And this is what leads to increased injury risk.
Impact on Squat Form
Limited dorsiflexion significantly impacts your squat form and biomechanics of the lower body. When your ankles are stiff into dorsiflexion, it will limit how deep you can go into your squat. If you are able to maintain your mechanics, you simply won’t be able to squat very deep. The large majority of people will begin to compensate for this lack of depth.
Common compensatory patterns are lifting your heels off of the ground as your body tries to move the ankle into a more plantarflexed position (the toes pointing down, creating a larger angle between your shin and top of your foot. If your ankle is stiff only on one side, you may rotate your hips or trunk away from that side to compensate. You also might flex your hips forward more, almost like your chest or trunk is tipping down towards the ground.
Other patterns I constantly see in the clinic are the feet toeing out considerably during a squat. This places the hips in a significantly greater external rotation range. While this isn’t inherently bad, it does mean that you are avoiding ankle dorsiflexion range. If you are already limited here, you will continuously remain limited unless you work on it. In other terms, don’t avoid the motion you need to work on. Another issue I see are the knees moving into a valgus pattern. This is when the knees cave inwards towards each other when you are squatting. This is another common way of the body compensating for the lack of ankle range as the body finds the path of least resistance. Finally, excessive foot pronation is something else to watch out for.
Typically, all three of these can be seen together. This shows how body mechanics work and her interrelated multiple body parts are. Placing the legs in an externally rotated position sets up the feet to more likely pronate. This pronation then leads to valgus stress as the knees. While these are not the only compensations, they are very common ones to see.
To learn more about squat mechanics, check out this post!
Influence on Gait
In this study, movement was recorded using a high-speed motion capture camera to assess the kinematics of individuals when walking and jogging. There were two groups, one with limited dorsiflexion (<10 degrees) and one with functionally normal dorsiflexion (>10 degrees) as determined by a functional squat test. The findings are as follows:
Walking
Individuals who had limited dorsiflexion also presented with limited hip extension during their gait cycle. This impacts your gait by limiting how far you can step, known as your step and stride length. When you are walking, the trailing limb moving behind you will start to move into ankle dorsiflexion as your shin bone (the tibia) moves forward. Prior to your heel coming off of the ground, this is where you will be at your maximum dorsiflexion angle. If you have limited ankle dorsiflexion, your heel will either pop up off the ground early, your leg will not travel as far behind your, or both! It all depends on how limited your ankle range is and how your body has been compensating, but this shows how limited ankle range will affect your hip and walking ability.
While this is not the extent of the findings from this study, the alteration in gait mechanics can explain why individuals who have limited dorsiflexion can lead to a higher risk of injury. Limited ankle range will affect multiple joints, including the foot, knee, hip, and pelvis. With multiple compensatory patterns present with daily tasks we do over and over again, all this does is increase the likelihood that an injury will occur. Usually, this type of injury turns into an overuse injury where a certain body part takes increased stress to it over and over again due to the repetitive nature of our daily tasks. Common overuse injury sites include plantar fascia pain, Achilles or calf pain, and medial knee pain.
Common Causes of Limited Ankle Dorsiflexion
What exactly leads to limitations with dorsiflexion? A lot of it comes down to movement habits and lifestyle factors. Prolonged sitting, heels and other heel-elevating footwear, and a lack of different types of movement are all contributing lifestyle factors and habits. Walking on different elevations and surfaces is also helpful for the foot. Walking uphill places the ankle in a more dorsiflexed position and walking on sand with bare feet lets the foot bend and mold more than walking on stable flat ground like we are used to. Allowing the foot to move in multiple directions keeps both the ankle joint and the small muscles of the foot moveable.
With a lack of movement or variation in foot mobility, the calf gets tight. The muscles of your calf (the gastrocnemius and soleus) can get tight and stiff. These muscles produce ankle movement into plantarflexion, which is the opposite of dorsiflexion. If these muscles get tight, any time you pull the ankle into dorsiflexion, you’re going to feel a tight stretch in your calf. That is because the plantarflexors and limiting your range into dorsiflexion. You will then have to work on reducing the stiffness in your calf in order to gain your dorsiflexion range back.
How to Know If Your Ankle Dorsiflexion Is Limited
If you notice that your heels lift when you squat, it might be beneficial to check your dorsiflexion range. There is a very simple test that you can do to check ankle dorsiflexion.
All you need is a wall for this test. Place a pillow or pad down if you need some cushion for your knee. Start in a half kneeling position with the foot who’s ankle dorsiflexion range you want to test placed flat on the ground.
Place your foot about a palms length away from the ground. Then, keeping your heel on the ground and your toes pointing forward, try to push your knee forward to touch the wall. The trick is to do this without compensating.
If your knee can touch the wall without lifting your heels, collapsing your arch, or with your toes rotating to the right, then you have adequate functional ankle dorsiflexion. If your knee does not touch the wall or you notice the compensations listed above, you need to be working on your dorsiflexion range.
Remember to test both sides.
Improving Dorsiflexion Helps More Than Just Your Squat
Ankle dorsiflexion is needed for more than just your ankles moving. It also helps with more than your squat. It provides greater efficiency when walking and contributes to less pain from your feet up to your low back. Dorsiflexion even improves neuromuscular control and activation of your posterior chain.
Dorsiflexion isn’t just about ankle flexibility. It really is a whole body function. Remember that the body is interconnected. When one area is stuck, another works overtime. This is related to the concept that the body will find the path of least resistance. Your body will find a way to compensate when something isn’t functional or contributing as much as it should. And more often than not, those compensatory patterns are what lead to the pain and tightness you’re trying to fix.
The good news? Awareness is the starting point. Once you notice your patterns and can recognize what is missing, you can make the necessary changes. Whatever is going on at your feet will eventually work its way up the chain. Don’t let it get to that point.
Other Related Articles on the Foot/Ankle
- Recognizing Plantar Fasciitis Symptoms & What to Do About It
- Unlocking the Role of Big Toe Extension
- A Complete Guide to At-Home Bunion Treatment
- What to Know About Calf Strains: Prevention, Treatment, and Recovery
- Knee Pain Walking Down Stairs? This Can Help!
References
Rao Y, Yang N, Gao T, et al. Effects of peak ankle dorsiflexion angle on lower extremity biomechanics and pelvic motion during walking and jogging. Front Neurol. 2024;14:1269061. Published 2024 Feb 1. doi:10.3389/fneur.2023.1269061
TL;DR
Ankle dorsiflexion is the movement when you pull your toes up toward your shin. It plays a pivotal role in many movements, including walking, squatting, and running. When dorsiflexion is limited, your body will compensate elsewhere, typically in the knees, hips, or low back. Improving ankle dorsiflexion leads to a lot more than just ankle mobility. It leads to stronger, more efficient, and pain-free movement patterns.
