Ankle Mobility – The Hidden Secret for a Perfect Squat

Is strengthening the only solution to a healthier and injury preventive lifestyle?

I would like to put a question of doubt on where all this is going if we are only working within a restricted range of movement. Range of motion is a vital component when working on overall fitness, it is defined as the degree of movement that occurs at a given joint during a movement.

The squat is defined as a sitting posture with dorsiflexed ankles, a deeply flexed knee and hip and is one of the multiple joint movements performed in a closed kinetic chain.

The optimization of a good squat lies in the parallel sequence of the hips, knees, and ankles with no shift of the knee joint neither inwards nor outwards, while the heels remain on the ground at all times. Squatting performance is not only subjective of lower limb strength but also mobility at the hip, knee and ankle.

Limited ankle mobility consequently restrains complete knee range and increases the inward movement of the knee, increasing improper loading on the knee and leading to a risk of injury.

Evidence states that resistance training aimed at performing throughout a full range of motion confers beneficial effects on hypertrophy of the lower body musculature when compared with training provided within a partial range of motion. Surprisingly, the spinal stabilizers were also activated producing a higher muscle activity with the ankle in greater dorsiflexion range while performing a squat.

Ankle Mobility is often ignored or disregarded as part of fitness training and it would strongly be suggested to introduce exercises aimed at improving the flexibility and mobility at the ankle joint to engage in better training and prevent risk for injuries in the future.

Isha Devdas
Sports Physiotherapist

References

1. Haff GG, Triplett NT. (eds). Essentials of strength and conditioning. 3rd ed. Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics, 2015.
2. Kathiresan G, Jali N, Rayhan Afiqah N, Azila Aznie N, Fidieyana Osop N. The relationship between ankle joint flexibility and squatting knee flexion posture in young malaysian men. World Journal of Sport Sciences.2010;3:226–230
3. Schoenfeld BJ. Squatting kinematics and kinetics and their application to exercise performance. J Strength Cond Res.2010;24:3497–3506.
4. Schoenfeld BJ, Grgic J. Effects of range of motion on muscle development during resistance training interventions: A systematic review. SAGE Open Med. 2020.
5. Sung HR, Oh SJ, Ryu JN, Cha YJ. Muscle activities of lower extremity and erector spinae muscles according to ankle joint position during squat exercise. J Back Musculoskelet Rehabil. 2021;34(4):671-676.

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