What Are the Best Ankle Strength Exercises?

Imagine stepping off a curb, your foot landing awkwardly, and in an instant, you feel that painful twist in your ankle. The sharp sting is followed by a dull ache, making every step challenging.

It’s in moments like these that you truly understand the importance of strong ankles. Strong ankles help you move better, stay balanced, and reduce your risk of future injuries.

The best ankle strength exercises work your calf muscles, ankle joint, and stabilizers around the foot and lower leg.

Exercises such as standing calf raises, single-leg balance drills, resistance band flexions, and ankle alphabet movements all contribute to stability, control, and strength.

Want to strengthen your ankles? Keep reading to discover:

• The Most Effective Exercises for Strengthening Your Ankles
• The Benefits of Strengthening Your Ankles
• 8 Tips for Stronger Ankles
• Stretches for Ankle Strength and Mobility

The Most Effective Exercises for Strengthening Your Ankles

Building ankle strength is about choosing the right kinds of exercises based on your fitness level, goals, and body mechanics. Your ankles are the foundation of nearly every movement you make, walking, jumping, squatting, and even standing.

If they’re weak, everything above them (knees, hips, lower back) pays the price. That’s why your ankle strength training routine should be intentional and safe.

Before you dive in, remember: consult with a certified personal trainer, especially the experts at Crunch Fitness. They’ll help assess your ankle stability, strength imbalances, and mobility, then create a personalized plan to build resilience without risk.

This approach prevents injuries, optimizes results, and helps you progress with confidence.

Bodyweight Ankle Strengthening Exercises

No equipment? No problem. Your body weight is more powerful than you think. Try these bodyweight ankle-strengthening exercises anywhere. No excuses!

• Standing Heel Raises: Stand tall with feet hip-width apart and place your hands on a sturdy surface for balance if needed. Slowly lift your heels as high as possible while keeping your weight on the balls of your feet.

Pause at the top, ensuring your knees remain slightly bent and do not lean forward. Slowly lower your heels back to the floor with control. This exercise increases calf strength and improves ankle stability, which is essential for walking, running, and jumping.

• Standing Toe Raises: Stand with feet hip-width apart and shift your weight onto your heels. Keep your body upright, lift your toes toward the ceiling as high as you can, and hold briefly at the top. Keep your heels on the ground and avoid rocking backward.
  
  This strengthens the tibialis anterior, a muscle that protects against shin splints and improves ankle control. Enhanced ankle control from this exercise helps prevent falls during daily movement. 
• Single-Leg Stand: Stand close to a wall or chair for support if needed. Balance on one leg for 20–30 seconds while engaging your core and keeping a slight bend in your standing knee.
  
  Maintain an upright posture and try not to let your hips tilt. This exercise enhances ankle stability, improves joint strength, and builds coordination for daily activities and athletic performance. 
• Ankle Circles: Sit or stand with your legs extended or feet flat on the floor. Slowly lift one foot and draw circles in the air with your toes, first clockwise and then counterclockwise. Focus on making the movement smooth and controlled, keeping your leg still while only the ankle moves.
  
  Repeat in both directions on each side. This exercise enhances ankle flexibility and helps increase blood circulation in your lower legs.

Pro tip: Beginners should focus on slow, controlled movement and upright posture, not speed. Keep your kneecaps facing forward and your ankles aligned.

Avoid rolling your ankle inward or outward during movement. Bodyweight training builds foundational strength so you can master movement patterns before adding resistance.

Resistance Band Ankle Exercises

Resistance bands are like portable personal trainers; they provide progressive tension that strengthens the ankle without high impact. To ensure you’re using the right level of resistance, consider using bands of varying colors or resistance levels.

Typically, lighter bands are suitable for beginners and heavier bands for advanced users. This specificity helps guide you to an appropriate load, minimizing trial-and-error frustration and increasing the effectiveness of your workouts.

Try these:

Resistance Band Dorsiflexion

Sit on the floor with your legs extended. Anchor one end of a resistance band to a sturdy object and loop the other end over the top of your foot.

Keeping your leg straight, slowly pull your toes toward your body against the band’s resistance. Return to the starting position with control. This exercise can help improve ankle mobility and strengthen lower leg muscles.

Resistance Band Eversion and Inversion

Sit on the floor with legs outstretched. For eversion, anchor the band on the opposite side of your foot and loop it around the outside edge. Press your foot outward against the resistance, keeping your leg still.

For inversion, anchor the band on the same side as the foot and loop it around the inside edge, pulling your foot inward. Control the motion in both directions to strengthen smaller stabilizing muscles that protect against ankle sprains.

This increase in strength helps your ankles respond to sudden shifts in direction.

Resistance Band Plantar Flexion

Sit with your legs extended and loop one end of a resistance band around the ball of your foot, holding the ends in your hands. Keeping your knee straight, point your toes away from your body, stretching the band as you press down.

Slowly return to the starting position. This mimics a calf raise motion to strengthen your calf muscles.

Discover more: What’s the Best Strength Training Gym?

Weight-Bearing or Functional Strength Ankle Exercises

Once you’ve built basic stability, it’s time to add functional strength exercises that load the ankle in movements typical of daily life.

Imagine climbing stairs while carrying groceries or navigating uneven terrain without losing balance. Exercises like step-ups help condition your ankles for such real-world scenarios, ensuring that you can handle these tasks with greater ease and confidence.

• Step-Ups or Lateral Step-Downs
• Calf Raises on a Step
• Walking Lunges or Split Stance Holds

Balance and Proprioception Ankle Exercises

Strong ankles need to think fast. That’s where balance and proprioception come in. Try:

• Single-Leg Balance on a Cushion or BOSU Ball
• Tandem Walks (heel-to-toe along a line)
• BOSU Ball Weight Shifts

Do 2–3 sets, 3–4 times per week. These drills activate stabilizing muscles, improve reaction time, and reduce injury risk, especially during running, sports, or HIIT classes.

Low-Impact Ankle Strength Exercises

Need something joint-friendly? Low-impact ankle stability exercises can keep you strong without pounding your joints:

• Cycling or Elliptical Training: Enhances endurance and ankle mobility.
• Rowing: Strengthens lower leg and foot muscles while improving circulation.

These activities improve blood flow, joint stability, and endurance while sparing joints.

To get started, why not commit to one low-impact session this week? It’s a simple step that can empower you to turn intention into practice, strengthening your ankles without stressing your joints.

Read our article: The Ultimate Gym Workout Routine for Muscle Gain and Strength Building

Benefits of Strengthening Your Ankles

Your ankles, though small, support your entire body weight in every movement. Serving as the link between your feet and the rest of your body, they provide a foundation for almost everything—even when standing. Strong ankles help your body move more efficiently.

According to the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons, nearly 25% of all sports injuries involve the ankle, most commonly sprains due to instability or weak supporting muscles. Strengthening the ankles not only prevents those injuries but also enhances total-body performance.

Key Benefits of Strong Ankles

• Improved Balance and Proprioception: Strong ankles enhance your body’s ability to sense movement and position, improving control and coordination. Studies show that proprioceptive training can reduce ankle sprain recurrence by up to 50%.
• Better Mobility and Alignment: Flexible, strong ankles allow smooth joint motion, helping you maintain proper posture and gait, which reduces stress on your knees, hips, and lower back.
• Reduced Risk of Injury and Stiffness: Ankle strengthening supports tendons and ligaments, lowers strain in high-impact activities, and aids recovery after injury.
• Greater Athletic Performance and Agility: From sprinting to HIIT, strong ankles help transfer power more efficiently, giving athletes faster acceleration and better change-of-direction control.
• Long-Term Joint Health and Independence: Maintaining ankle strength supports stable joints and good circulation, which keeps you mobile and independent as you age.

8 Tips To Help Develop Stronger Ankles

The following eight tips will help you stay consistent, track improvements, and prevent injuries as you work toward stronger, more resilient ankles.

1. Train 2–3 Times Per Week: Consistency is key. Training your ankles regularly allows the muscles, tendons, and ligaments to adapt gradually without fatigue or strain.
2. Gradual Progression: Increase resistance or complexity over time. Research shows that steady overload helps build long-term strength while reducing the risk of overuse injuries.
3. Balance Supporting Muscles: Don’t just work your ankles; include your calves, shins, and feet. Balanced strength supports alignment and prevents joint stress.
4. Focus on Proper Form: Quality over quantity. Incorrect form (like rolling the ankle outward) can do more harm than good.
5. Always Warm Up and Cool Down: Light ankle circles, calf raises, or dynamic stretches prepare tissues for movement and improve recovery post-workout.
6. Add Exercise Variety: Mix bodyweight, resistance band, and balance drills to challenge your ankles from all angles.
7. Track Your Progress: Keep a log of repetitions, balance duration, and resistance levels to visualize improvement.
8. Seek Expert Guidance: Crunch Fitness’s personal trainers can evaluate your form, customize your routine, and ensure your ankle strength training delivers safe, lasting results.

Stretches to Support Ankle Strength and Mobility

Strong ankles also need flexibility. Stretching the muscles and ligaments around the ankle joint improves range of motion, circulation, and joint stability, helping prevent stiffness and injuries. Add these to your post-workout or recovery-day routine to maintain healthy, pain-free movement.

• Calf Stretch: Stand facing a wall with one leg extended behind you. Keep your heel down and knee straight to stretch the gastrocnemius muscle. This improves ankle dorsiflexion, essential for squats and running form.
• Seated Ankle Flexion Stretch: Sit with one leg extended and gently pull your toes back toward you using a towel or band. This move targets the shin and foot muscles that support ankle control.
• Achilles Tendon Stretch: From a standing position, slightly bend your back knee while pressing the heel into the ground. This stretch targets the Achilles tendon and lower calf, reducing the risk of strain and improving push-off strength.
• Ankle Alphabet: Sitting or lying down, trace the letters of the alphabet with your toes—this boosts mobility and circulation in all directions of the ankle joint.

Considerations & Modifications

Everyone’s ankles are different. Athletes need dynamic strength for performance, while office workers often need mobility breaks. Older adults may focus on stability, and injury recovery requires care and gradual progress.

For conditions like ankle sprains, Achilles tendonitis, plantar fasciitis, or flat feet, modifications are key. Gentle resistance, slower progression, and focused mobility drills help restore strength without aggravating tissues.

Because every body moves differently, Crunch’s certified personal trainers can assess your condition, tailor your ankle strengthening plan, and guide you in avoiding risky or unnecessary exercises, keeping you safe, strong, and steady with every step.

Are Ankle Exercises Necessary for Everyone?

Absolutely. Ankle strengthening exercises benefit everyone—athletes, beginners, office workers, and older adults alike. The type of exercise and intensity may differ, but the importance is universal. In today’s world, sedentary habits and improper footwear have become silent culprits behind weak ankles.

Long hours sitting at a desk or wearing unsupportive shoes can lead to muscular imbalances and reduced joint mobility. Over time, this lack of movement contributes to stiffness, poor balance, and even chronic pain in the ankles, knees, and hips. Targeted ankle exercises help reverse these effects, strengthening the supporting muscles and restoring functional movement.

Different populations have varying needs. Athletes rely on ankle strength for agility, speed, and injury prevention. Older adults focus on maintaining balance, mobility, and independence. Even if you don’t experience ankle pain, preventive strengthening can make a huge difference in maintaining long-term joint health, improving coordination, and reducing fall risk as you age.

How Long Does It Take to Build Ankle Strength?

Ankle strength doesn’t happen overnight, but progress starts sooner than most expect. With consistent effort, around 2 to 4 weeks of regular training, you’ll likely begin noticing improvements in stability, balance, and mobility. More significant gains, such as increased endurance and joint resilience, typically occur after 6 to 8 weeks of structured training.

Timelines vary depending on several factors: your starting strength, age, training frequency, exercise selection, and whether you’re recovering from an injury. Some individuals may notice reduced discomfort and improved control relatively quickly, while others need more time to rebuild stability after a long period of inactivity or weakness.

Building long-term stability requires continued practice, not just short-term effort. Crunch’s personal trainers can evaluate your starting point and design a realistic, results-driven program tailored to your pace and goals, helping you track progress every step of the way.

Join Us!

Crunch promotes a culture of positivity, inclusivity, and fun with no judgments by providing an environment for all individuals regardless of their health and fitness goals. Find a Crunch gym near you to try our free trial membership, or join Crunch now. We’re here for you – at the gym or at home. Access the best live & on-demand workouts anytime, anywhere with Crunch+. Ready to get sweaty? Try hundreds of workouts for free! Start your free trial now!

FAQ’s

How Often Should I Do Ankle Strengthening Exercises?

For best results, aim to do ankle strengthening exercises 2–3 times per week. Consistency helps build stability, mobility, and endurance without overloading the joint. Always allow a day of rest between sessions for recovery.

Can I Do Ankle Exercises If I Have Arthritis Or A Past Sprain?

Yes, but choose low-impact, controlled movements. Gentle range-of-motion and resistance band exercises can improve joint mobility and reduce stiffness. For safety, consult a Crunch Fitness personal trainer or healthcare provider for a customized routine.

Should I Feel Sore After Ankle Workouts?

Mild soreness is normal, especially when starting out, but sharp pain isn’t. If discomfort lasts more than 48 hours, scale back intensity or review your form with a trainer. The goal is strength, not strain.

Can Ankle Strengthening Improve Balance And Prevent Falls?

Absolutely. Research shows that strong ankles enhance proprioception, your body’s ability to sense position and movement, helping improve balance, stability, and coordination while reducing fall risk.

What’s The Most Important Muscle Group For Ankle Stability?

The calf muscles (gastrocnemius and soleus) and the smaller stabilizers around the ankle joint are crucial. Together, they control movement, absorb impact, and protect against ankle sprains.

Is Walking Or Hiking Good For Strengthening Ankles?

Yes. Walking and hiking strengthen the lower legs and improve joint mobility, especially on uneven surfaces. Just wear supportive footwear and gradually increase distance and intensity.

Is Cycling Good For The Ankles?

Definitely. Cycling is a low-impact exercise that strengthens the ankle, calf, and foot muscles while promoting circulation. It’s an excellent option for people recovering from injury or seeking joint-friendly conditioning.