Daily Mobility Exercises by Dr. Kelly Starrett Forums General Should I Get My Ankle ‘Scoped?

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    • #70836
      AvatarNicholas Sadowski
      Participant

      Hey everyone!  I have been reading Becoming a Supple Leopard, and I love it so far.  I have really terrible bottom-of-squat position, and many of the mobilization have really helped, but I am noticing a major road-block.  Dorsiflexion of my right foot is noticeably limited, compared to my left foot.  I can actually do a full pistol squat on my left leg, but once I lower to a certain depth on my right leg, I simply can’t go deeper without falling backwards.

      I did some damage to my ankles throughout junior high, high school, and college, playing various sports and rolling my right ankle constantly.  I had a few rolls on my left ankle, but they never seemed so bad.  A few of my right ankle rolls were so severe that I had to hobble along for weeks (this happened once in high school and once in college).  Stupidly, I didn’t see an orthopedic doctor about these issues when they occurred.  Now that I’m trying to execute proper squat form (bad squat form landed me in a world of hip pain – this led me to read BASL), I decided to go see an orthopedic doctor about my hip and ankle.  The doc couldn’t find anything wrong with my hip (I suspect I just had some really bad impingement – it’s a non-issue now), but he found some major bone spurs in my right ankle after taking x-rays.
      I’ve used the test and re-test principles from BASL after completing each mobility exercise, and none of the ankle/plantar mobility exercises seem to help my bottom-of-squat position (tried voodoo banded calf raises and squats, ball whack, and plantar lacrosse ball).  However, in this case, I don’t believe the test and re-test conclusion applies here; test and re-test says (correct me if I’m wrong) that if you are doing a certain mobility exercise, and it doesn’t improve the position you are working on, then move on – that area is not the problem.  In my case, I know that ankle mobility is my problem because of the pistol test and because I have to lift my right heel off the ground to get into the proper bottom-of-squat position.  I also know that my dorsiflexion is the limiter, because I can feel it very clearly.  There’s a hard-stop when I try to move my right foot in dorsiflexion in any movement.
      I’m seriously considering ankle anthroscopy to remove my bone spurs.  I really want to get this show on the road and start squatting again (I’ve been out of commission for half a year), and I want to get ready for the ultimate frisbee season.  We Minnesotans live for the few summer months we have.  I don’t think further mobilization exercises will be fruitful.  I guess what I’m really looking for is general advice / experience regarding anthroscopy of bone spurs – specifically regarding the ankle – and maybe some custom-tailored advice taking my whole story into account.  And hope-beyond-hope maybe there’s some mobilization exercise that will fix everything, but I doubt that based on physical bone spur restrictions on my ankle mobility.
      I’ve got decent health insurance, so cost isn’t really a problem – I just want to be mobile!
    • #74283
      AvatarAnonymous
      Guest

      Are you missing end range hip flexion?
      Missing end range hip flexion is why you get pushed back.
      Wednesday, August 21st, 2013
      Thursday, August 22nd, 2013
      Friday, August 23rd, 2013

      You can have restriction from the cumulative effect of the repeated ankle tweaks.
      The ankle issues that were more severe healed better because you were more restricted.
      The mobs you are using aren’t working because you aren’t addressing the root cause of the issue or where the issue originates. Until this is addressed the symptoms will continue to show up.

    • #74291
      AvatarNicholas Sadowski
      Participant
      Thanks!  I will watch those videos and incorporate them into my daily mobilization.


      The ankle issues that were more severe healed better because you were more restricted.”

      Could you elaborate on this?
    • #74303
      AvatarAnonymous
      Guest

      When you had a more serious injury there was more time before you were able to do some movements or have it bearing weight. It was tender so you had more down time so it had more time to heal before having weight or performing some skill.
      In the cases with a lesser degree of injury you may have had weight on it too early or doing some movements or skills too soon because there wasn’t pain.

    • #74516
      AvatarCharlie Hobbs
      Participant

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