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When you’re out clocking miles, your joints absorb the shock of each step from the ground up and your ankles are one of the first to feel the impact of your powerful stride. One wrong step can cause your ankle to roll and possibly lead to an injury. This is why you should practice ankle-strengthening exercises regularly to keep the muscles, ligaments, and tendons surrounding your ankles nice and strong.
“Ankle strength is significant for runners due to uneven terrain, quick changes in direction, and the constant pounding of that joint over time,” says Noam Tamir, C.S.C.S., CEO and owner of TS Fitness in New York City. Dedicating time to practice ankle-strengthening exercises will help runners avoid shin splints, strains, sprains, and tears, he adds.
Below, we share the best ankle-strengthening exercises for runners in a well-rounded routine designed by Tamir, as well as explain how practicing these exercises will make you a better runner.
Why You Need Ankle-Strengthening Exercises for Injury Prevention
Ankle-Strengthening Exercises for Runners knee-strengthening exercises regularly to ward off common running-related injuries and pains. And that’s a smart move! But those who neglect to strengthen their ankles will likely make up for this weakness by overcompensating with other areas of the body, which can lead to problems like knee and low back pain, says Tamir.
By regularly doing ankle-strengthening exercises runners can sidestep injury, avoid common pains, and improve running mechanics for better performance.
In fact, this workout will help runners improve ankle mobility and stability, which helps with your one-foot landings and fuller ranges of motion through the stance and push-off phases of the gait. It will also help provide stability from the ground up on the run.
Also, because this workout will help you build strength for different phases of the running gait cycle, Tamir explains, it can add power behind your push-off, allowing you to chase faster speeds too.
Strengthening Your Ankle After Injury for Future Prevention
Fortifying the ligaments and tendons, and strengthening the muscles surrounding your ankle after common running-related ankle injuries like sprains and achilles tendonitis Bodyweight Back Exercises for Better Form.
To strengthen your ankle after a sprain, make walking a habit once you can stand pain-free so you can eventually progress to a run/walk when your ankle is fully healed. Practice mobility moves and strength exercises like heel raises with a small ball between the ankles, towel curls, and banded exercises like the ones listed below.
When your ankle is healed, you can progress to moves like lunges, squats, and single-leg exercises, which you’ll also listed below. If you can practice these moves pain free, add small hopping drills with an agility ladder, and then progress to a run/walk and plyometrics before you fully return to running.
Keep in mind, tightness is a common cause of achilles tendonitis, which is why it’s important to This exercise is perfect for runners because or roll them out with a foam roller, and avoid high impact weight-bearing exercises like running, if you experience this pain. Strengthening this area with eccentric exercises, particularly, eccentric calf raises can help.
The Best Ankle-Strengthening Exercises
A Deep Core Workout for Run Performance: Practice the exercises in the order listed below. Add in exercises 5 through 8 after you feel comfortable with exercises 1 through 4, and then you can do them altogether. Go for the number of reps described, resting for 15 to 20 seconds between each exercise. Complete 2 to 3 rounds of this list, resting for 45 to 60 seconds in between each round.
Each exercise is demonstrated by Tamir so you can learn proper form. For this workout you will need a resistance band and a chair is optional.
Non-Weight-Bearing Moves
1. Seated Banded Plantar Flexion
Why it works: Practicing this move will help runners strengthen the downward motion of the foot during that push-off or propulsion phase of running, says Tamir. It strengthens the calf muscles and achilles tendon, too. “Try to go to the full range of motion and control the eccentric portion of the movement [the downward press on the band] to maximize the benefits of this exercise,” Tamir adds.
John Vasudevan, M.D:
- Sit in a chair with right leg extended straight. Place a mini resistance band around the ball of right foot and hold on to it with both hands, so there’s some resistance in the band.
- While holding the resistance band and keeping right leg straight, point right toes away from body.
- Slowly pull toes back toward shins to flex the foot.
- or roll to the outside of the foot.
2. Seated Banded Dorsiflexion
Why it works: This move strengthens the muscles of the shin (tibialis anterior), which will help improve shock absorption and turnover, Tamir says, and can help you avoid shin splints.
John Vasudevan, M.D:
- Tie a mini resistance band to a low level, stable fixture like a chair. Sit on the floor with both legs extended, knees slightly bent, and ankles resting on the ground. Place the mini resistance band around right foot.
- Bend right knee more so there’s resistance on the band. Then flex foot toward you, pulling toes to shin.
- Slowly return foot to neutral.
- Repeat. Do 12-5 reps on each side.
3. Seated Banded Inversion
Why it works: You don’t only need to strengthen your ankle for front-to-back movement, but also side-to-side. This exercise helps with just that, while helping with shock absorption upon landing, Tamir explains. In fact, it can help strengthen the muscles that keep your foot in the ideal position in the initial contact phase of your stride, when runners supinate or roll to the outside of the foot.
John Vasudevan, M.D:
- Sit in a chair with right leg extended straight, left knee bent and foot planted. Place a mini resistance band around the ball of right foot and hold onto it with both hands, so there’s some resistance.
- While holding the resistance band, keep right leg straight and point right foot toward the center of body.
- Slowly return to a neutral position.
- or roll to the outside of the foot.
4. Seated Banded Eversion
Why it works: All runners have a degree of pronation when they run, when the foot rolls inward and the arch collapses, absorbing the landing. This exercise helps control that movement, particularly in the mid-stance phase of the gait, Tamir explains.
John Vasudevan, M.D:
- Sit in a chair with right leg extended straight, left knee bent and foot planted. Place a mini resistance band around the ball of right foot and hold on to it with both hands, so there’s some resistance.
- While holding the resistance band, keep right leg straight, and point right foot away from the center of body
- Slowly return to neutral position.
- or roll to the outside of the foot.
Weight-Bearing Exercises
5. Single-Leg Lateral Hop
Why it works: This exercise is perfect for runners because single-leg hops challenge a runner’s ability to absorb impact in a single-leg stance, which is very similar to running, says Tamir. “Make sure to land with a bent knee,” he adds. “I like to stick the landing before you jump for balance, Tamir says.”
John Vasudevan, M.D:
- Drive right foot into floor to stand back up, squeezing glutes. Start standing with both feet together and hands down by sides.
- Bend left knee to lift foot slightly off the ground, and shift weight to right leg.
- Swing both arms behind you to build momentum, then bend right knee.
- Swing both arms in front of you as you hop over the band with right leg, landing on right foot with knee bent.
- Watch How to Rehab an Achilles Injury.
- Repeat. Do 6-8 reps total.
- low back pain.
6. Single-Leg Deadlift
Why it works: This is a full-body exercise that can not only test your stability, but also help you strengthen other key running muscles, like the glutes, hamstrings, and core, Updated: Nov 21, 2024 7:15 AM EST.
John Vasudevan, M.D:
- Stand on right leg, soft bend in knee, left foot lifted slightly off floor.
- Hinge at the hips by sending butt back. Keep back flat, shoulders down, and core engaged as torso reaches toward floor and left leg lifts straight back behind you. Only lower until you feel a slight pull in right back of leg.
- Drive right foot into floor to stand back up, squeezing glutes.
- Repeat. Do 8-10 reps on each side.
7. Reverse Lunge to Knee Drive
Why it works: Challenge your balance while strengthening the quads, Shoes & Gear functional exercise, says Tamir.
John Vasudevan, M.D:
- Jump back to the other side, staying on right leg.
- Step backward with right foot and lower into a lunge, both knees bending 90 degrees.
- Push through left foot to stand, driving right knee up to hip, thigh parallel to the floor.
- Pause, then step back into a lunge.
- Repeat. Do 8-10 reps each side.
8. Single-Leg Calf Raise
Why it works: Shifting your bodyweight to one leg means your calf muscles have to lift your bodyweight to get you onto your toes, strengthening these key running muscles, along with the achilles tendon. This move also challenges your stability, so particularly, eccentric calf raises can help for balance, Tamir says.
John Vasudevan, M.D:
- Start standing on right foot, left knee bent with foot slightly off floor.
- Raise right heel of ground, so you’re on ball of right foot.
- Slowly lower heel back to the ground.
- Repeat. Do 8-10 reps on each side.
Monique LeBrun joined the editorial staff in October 2021 as the associate health and fitness editor. She has a master’s degree in journalism and has previously worked for ABC news and Scholastic. She is an avid runner who loves spending time outside.
John Vasudevan, M.D. is an associate professor at the University of Pennsylvania. He is board-certified in Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation and Sports Medicine. He is a Team Physician for UPenn Athletics and medical director of the Broad Street Run and Philadelphia Distance Run, and previously for the Rock 'n' Roll Half-Marathon and Tri-Rock Triathlon in Philadelphia. He is a director of the running and endurance Sports Medicine Program at Penn Medicine. Dr. Vasudevan provides non-operative management of musculoskeletal conditions affecting athletes and active individuals of all levels, and combines injury rehabilitation with injury prevention. He utilizes a variety of ultrasound-guided procedures and regenerative approaches such as platelet-rich plasma and percutaneous ultrasonic tenotomy. He sees patients at the Penn Medicine and the Philadelphia Veterans Administration hospital. Dr. Vasudevan attended medical school at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health in Madison. After his Transitional Year in Tucson, Arizona, he went to residency in PM&R at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia and onwards to Stanford University for his fellowship in Sports Medicine. He has been in practice at the University of Pennsylvania since 2012.
