Daily Mobility Exercises by Dr. Kelly Starrett › Forums › Foot/Ankle › Sliding surfaces of the ankle › Re: Sliding surfaces of the ankle

09/28/2014 at 12:16 pm #75311
AvatarElyse Waters
Participant

I’m going to try to sum everything up.

Ankle injuries and anatomy:
  • Several mild sprains as a kid, playing handball doing gymnastics.
  • Growing pain in the ankles (but who haven’t had that?)
  • Bunionett on the right foot
  • Bone spurs on the back of both heels (lateral to the heel cord)
  • Don’t think I got rear foot varus.
  • I’m 99% sure I’ve always walked with feet straight, or almost straight.
  • When I walk I notice that as I put the front foot down and move into dorsiflexion, my knee goes in (valgus). It’s either that or pain when knee goes over toes. Same with running.
  • As a kid I think my legs flared out as I ran fast (knee in, foot out)
Mobility work I’ve done:
  • Banded and not banded ankle mobs, heel elevated, front foot elevated, weighted, kneeling, standing
  • Sliding surfaces with ball and voodoo floss
  • Calcaneus
  • Gliding of the lateral malleolus
  • Soft tissue work: gastroc, soleus, pos/ant tibialis, bottom of feet
Observations:
  • Doing the basic ankle mob (mulligan) with band pulling the tibia back, the pinching at the front gets worse.
  • Band pulling tibia forward doesn’t feel any different from without band.
  • Nothing eases the pain at the front.
  • My skin slides good now.
  • Sometimes I feel a stretch behind the lateral malleolus (not heel cord) in dorsiflexion, usually with straight or slightly bent leg.
  • My manual therapist did some joint manipulations and deep tissue massage of the soleus.
  • Been doing this for 3 months. 

What I’m doing for my ATFL? No idea! Haven’t gone into that much detail, but I’ve pretty much tried everything on MWOD.

I’m not giving up, but I do need to prioritize. I’m starting boxing in january and I’m hoping to start BJJ/MMA/Thai Boxing/SW before 2016. I’m not getting any younger! 😛

Added a video in the link below, pretty clumsy one though, of feet from the back, and side into dorsiflexion. Maybe it won’t show anything, but who knows? Video in comment below.