Featured Pose: Ankle Circles

by Baxter and Nina

This office yoga pose is a very versatile ankle exercise that enables you to address a typically neglected joint. Many of us have stiff, swollen, or weak ankles, or tend toward ankle sprains. Depending on how you practice this simple pose, you can focus either on loosening and releasing tension from your ankles or increasing the strength of the muscles around your ankles. You could also use this pose to improve circulation in your feet; if your feet tend to fall asleep, this pose may quickly wake them up. And because the seated position for this pose has you cross your ankle over your knee, the pose can help increase mobility in your knees and hips (it's a mild hip opener).

Ankle circles are simple and easy to do, and you can do them almost anywhere you can sit down, at the office, while traveling, while using a computer, or at home on the couch.

Baxter prescribes this for:

•    stiff ankles
•    weak ankles, including ankle sprains
•    swelling in your ankles, legs, or feet
•    intermittent numbness in your feet or toes
•    tight hips
•    antidote for sitting too long, either at a desk or while traveling.

Instructions: Start by removing your shoes (don't worry—if removing your shoes is not possible, you can still do it with your shoes on). Then sit on the front edge of your chair with your knees bent and your legs parallel to each other, and your feet directly underneath your knees and hips-distance apart. As always, follow Baxter’s Prime Directive! Lift from your sitting bones through the crown of your head, to protect your back as you do the pose.

Now bring your right shin bone onto the top of your left leg, just above the knee, so your outer ankle bone is just to the left of your thigh allowing your foot to move freely.

For those with stiffness or swelling in the ankles, try variation 1. Simply make easy circles with your foot, circling six times in one direction and then six times in the opposite direction.

For those with weak ankles, try variation 2. Imagine that your big toe is drawing a circle in space off to your left side. Move slowly and deliberately, as if you’re meeting some resistance, like moving through like warm sand. This will activate the musculature around your ankle joint and can help to build strength for those with ankle weakness or a history of ankle sprain. Do six circles, and then repeat in the opposite direction.

Another option for improving muscle strength (borrowed from the world of physical therapy) is to trace in the air the letters of the alphabet with your big toe. This has a similar effect as variation 2, but because are executing different patterns, you are potentially activating different muscle groups.

When you’re done with your ankle circles, return your right foot to the floor and repeat with your left foot. Take a moment to notice whether your feet and/or ankles feet any different.

Cautions: If you have knee or hip issues and can’t comfortably bring your ankle onto your opposite knee, try a different variation. Place a second another chair in front of you so you can rest your calf on it while your ankle and foot hang off. Then do your ankle circles with your leg supported and straight in front of you. Otherwise, this pose is pretty safe!

More on ankles is coming soon!