10 Days to Easier Standing – Foot Exercises for Strength & Stability

We know how hard it can be to get up out of a chair. If my ankle doesn't bend, then I'm fighting it. If my ankles can move, I can use my ankles to start my movement, put my weight over it. So the ankle mobility feeds into our ability to move up and down. And this hinge point can change because we have our weight distribution on it. So if I don't have a lot of ankle mobility today, I can certainly have a lot of ankle mobility tomorrow by working into that joint. Hi, I'm Brian Dorfman. I'm a kinesiologist, specialist in movement and rehabilitation, as well as a renowned yoga teacher. Very excited to talk about how to use our feet, ankles, in the process of standing up from a chair and general movement in the foot and ankle area. So the mobility in the ankle becomes very important for positioning ourselves to step up there and it also comes in handy for when we're walking. So the first thing when we're seated is, we're gonna inhale, take an inhale, and then exhale and walk your heels back. And then inhale again and walk the heels back closer to the chair. And one more time, inhale and exhale. If you can move your feet more, try and walk them back just a little bit more, okay? So this movement in your ankle from here to here is gonna help you when you get up out of the chair. So the idea is, first when we get up, we wanna feel like the heel is sliding back towards the chair so we can shift our knees and start to move our weight. So the mobility in the ankle becomes very important for positioning ourselves to step up out of a chair and it also comes in handy for when we're walking. So let's just do one foot at a time. So take an inhale, and then when you exhale, take your left heel and move it as far back as you can. Put it down, inhale, move it forward. And then when you exhale, move the right foot back. Inhale, pick that up, move it forward. And exhale, move the left heel back. Inhale, forward. Exhale, right heel back. And one more time, each foot. Inhale. Exhale, left heel back. Flex the ankle. Inhale, foot forward. And exhale, right heel back. Good, bring both feet forward. Lean your chest forward. And then inhale, lift your chest. And exhale, release. Inhale for a four count. Exhale, release. And two more times. Inhale. Exhale. Last one, inhale. And exhale. Okay, next we're gonna stand up and we'll work on the positioning of the foot and the ankle in a standing position. And the transition into standing, I bring my heels back. I lean forward. And then I shift my weight. Grabbing the back of a chair, bending your knees. Have some flexion in the knee and ankle. When you inhale, you'll stay. Inhale. And then exhale, take the left knee up. Inhale, that foot down. Exhale, right knee up. Exhale, down. Sorry, that was an inhale. Exhale, left knee up. When I put this down, I'm gonna inhale and I'm gonna really set my heel. And then exhale, right knee. Inhale, bring that down. And then let your feet move back a bit. Bring your right foot forward. Inhale, bring your left knee up. Exhale, bring your left foot back onto your heel. Two more times. Inhale. Exhale. Really find your heel. Inhale. And exhale for a four count. Inhale, step the foot forward. Exhale, bring your right foot back. Find your ankle. Inhale, bring the knee up. Exhale, foot back. Inhale, up. Exhale, back. One more time, inhale, up. Exhale, back. And then let's bring both the feet together. Back a little bit. Bend your knees as much as you can. And notice when you bend your knees, you also bend your ankles, okay? So we need some knee movement to help with the ankle movement. Once we bend the ankle some and the knee some, then we can lift our chest because we want to stand up because this isn't gonna get us up, okay? So we're gonna do four breaths here. Inhale, the chest lifts. And exhale, bend the knees. Inhale, lift the chest. Exhale, bend the knees. Two more. Inhale, chest up. Exhale, bend the knees, the ankles. And last time, inhale, up. And exhale, back. That should do it. The tendency is for the joint mobility and the foot and ankle to be compromised. In other words, it gets very challenging for us to bring this bone forward in front of our foot. So what happens is the ankle just will get more and more stiff because we're not moving it. So it helps to use our weight to move our ankle. This hinge point can change because we have our weight distribution on it. So if I don't have a lot of ankle mobility today, I can certainly have a lot of ankle mobility tomorrow by working into that joint. ♪♪♪