Are those ankles normal? Plantar flexion in yoga, football & gymnastics.

Question from a yoga teacher: One of my male students cannot ground the front of his ankles to the floor in cat without pain. I suspect this is because he has tight calves. What can we do to improve the contact of his front ankle with the floor?

This is pretty normal. Many people cannot ground the front of their ankles in cat. Its not necessary to ground the front of the ankles, it is possible to get enough support with just the knees and toes touching the floor. But this might put undue pressure on the knees and toes, so there is a case for increasing the contact between the shins, front ankles and the floor. Without knowing where the pain is, its impossible to know if this is the case, but wherever there is pain, it is likely to mean that this part of the body needs more support, and we are always more supported if we have more of our body in contact with the floor, or some other object that we can take support from.

I'm not sure the reason for this is necessarily tight calves, although I see why you might think that. In my experience, usually it is a 'restriction' at the ankle joint. Because the restriction is potentially bony, this contact should not be forced. So instead of trying to get support from the contact of the front ankle and the floor by moving the ankle down, we can move the floor up. This can easily be done by putting a rolled-up towel under his front ankles so more of the front of his lower leg, ankle and foot will touch the floor.

If it is his bony anatomy that is restricted, or an issue with his ankle, this will support it. If it is his calves, it will give them support so that he might be able to relax them in time.

In my experience, it is mostly men who have this ‘restriction’ in the front ankles. This is most likely because of the difference in activities that most men do, as opposed to most women. Well, the difference in activities that most of the men I have worked with do, as oppose to most of the women I have worked with.

My past experience with men in this area, comes from my time teaching yoga in football. I worked for many years in men’s football; for Preston North End, Blackburn Rovers and Everton.

Most footballers have this 'restriction' in their ankles. I use those quotes marks as it's not really a restriction at all. It's an adaptation that happens because they kick balls regularly, and therefore over time they build up a lot of strength in ankle plantar flexion. Because their ankles are strong, they tend not to move very much in plantar flexion as they have adapted over time to be used for power. Indeed, if we were to try to make them stretch out their 'tight' calves and 'tight' ankles, we might well end up making them less functional for the movements that they need to do.

The functional range for plantar flexion (pointing the toes) is 0-50 degrees. So ankles that are generally functional, will not be able to ground the front of the ankle joint to the floor in cat since this requires 90 degrees of plantar flexion; way beyond the functional range for most people.

Of course, there are plenty of exceptions. Indeed, some of the best male footballers I've worked with have 90 degrees of plantar flexion. They tend to be the strikers. They train a lot for this. Most men who play a bit of football or rugby or run, etc will not put in the 6-8 hours a day training that those athletes do; and so their ankles will not have been trained to the degree that a professional footballers will. They will not have trained for injury prevention quite so much.

Although these days, we tend to be moving away from the idea that stretching to increase range is a good strategy for injury prevention; with many recent studies showing that pre-activity stretching can actually increase the risk of injury. This has not filtered down into many training programs yet.

There is also a marked difference in the ability of ankles to plantar flex depending on which position the footballer plays in. Goalkeepers tend not to have as much plantar flexion as strikers, even on a professional level. Their training protocols are quite different to that of strikers. But still, any footballer at a professional level will have worked a lot on plantar flexion in comparison to your average Sunday 5 a side player.

There are also plenty of women who have less than 90 degrees of plantar flexion. I have little experience with women’s football, so most of the people I have worked with who fall into this category are runners or walkers, or women who have never worn high heels.

Most of the people I have worked with who can plantar flex way beyond functional range are young gymnasts. Although at school level, gymnastics is often done more for enjoyment than competition, once gymnasts get to club level, they tend to self select their specialism for their own unique blend of hyper mobility and strength. The gymnasts who win are the ones who’s anatomy is best adapted for that particular technique. This adaptation will be the result of training, but how successful that training is depends on their individual anatomy.

So if women or men have done ballet or gymnastics or worn high heels, they will have most likely adapted to having beyond standard functional range of plantar flexion. Just like my male cousin, who is a professional ballet dancer has.

So, saying it is a male / female difference is a massive stereotype because what really makes the difference is our individual anatomy and the movement pathways that we work on most.

If there is not a regular movement pathway for plantar flexion in a person's movement repertoire, then there is not much point in cultivating that skill in yoga, unless the absence of that skill takes them way under functional range of movement. and this means they compensate for that loss of movement in a way that causes them pain there or elsewhere.

So, try not to make your student feel that this is not normal, or that he needs to change something. Just say that this is quite normal, loads of people need to have a rolled-up towel under their front ankles so they have more of their front lower leg in contact with the floor to help give them more support and improve the surface area into which they can ground.

The only reason we do not often see much of this in yoga classes is because people tend to self select for yoga too. People who perceive themselves as being not very ‘good’ at yoga tend not to come to yoga, nor be particularly well represented in images of yoga. Since plantar flexion of 90 degrees is required for many kneeling postures, these postures are only ever depicted as being done by people with that range of movement. Unfortunately this leads people to believe that they are not normal if they cannot do this, when its perhaps more accurate to say, that it is not normal to be able to plantar flex 90 degrees.

Debbie Farrar (31/1/21)