Just wanted to let you guys know about ANKLE MOBILITY!

This is incredibly important and often under-rated in our squat patterning for depth and performance. There are several muscles that we can release and stretch in order to improve the mechanics of our squat in our entire lower limb. These include but are not limited to the 3 major muscles of our shin, these are the Calf muscles (Gastrocnemius and soleus) and the
main shin muscle being the Tibialis anterior (anterior meaning Front).
There are 4 things that you can do to these muscles to release them and get a little bit more range of motion.

The first is Foam Rolling! This can be done with of course a foam roller or some kind of hard ball (lacrosse or spikey). Spend some time rolling and finding spots that are sore and stop on them for a few seconds before moving on.

The second is STRETCHING of the muscle. I have done this with a band for added stretch, though you can do this many way! If you have any questions about how you stretch your calves just ask a trainer and we can give you 1 of many ways! In this video it was about applying force over my ankle and finding where there was pain and stretching in that direction. I have also attached a more AGGRESSIVE stretch for my calves …. Boy did that hurt!

The third is STRETCHING with an ACTIVE contraction of the calf muscles. This allows our body to feel a stretch then feel a contraction and allow our body to move with our newly found range of motion! So, once we stretch for the best results we must actively work that new- found range of motion or the stretching can mean very little. (IF YOU DON’T USE IT, YOU
LOSE IT!)

The last thing is… even if you don’t see a benefit of stretching your calves at the ankle… it will almost always definitely improve your hips. The body is connected in a wide variety of ways, if you take care of one thing it’s like a domino that will help everywhere else.If you have any questions about this, please comment below and I will be more than happy
to answer any questions that you may have!
Good luck on the mobility work!

Coach

Aaron