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- Issue 100
- Restoring ankle dorsiflexion range of motion…
Restoring ankle dorsiflexion range of motion in athletes: an individualized clinical decision-making system
Key Points
- This article proposes five potential regions of restriction to ankle dorsiflexion range of movement.
BACKGROUND & OBJECTIVE
Ankle dorsiflexion (DF) is an important component of daily tasks such as walking and descending stairs, as well as high end sporting tasks such as sprinting and changing direction. As maximal DF is reached there is a shift from force absorption to propulsion. Any loss of DF range of movement (ROM) due to previous injury can therefore impact an athlete’s force absorption capacity, meaning that they have to develop compensatory strategies (1). This need for compensatory strategies subsequently increases the risk of further lower limb pathology.
The weight-bearing lunge test (WBLT) has been recognized as the gold standard for assessment of ankle DF ROM (2). However, this test is widely used as a quantitative measurement of range, without the inclusion of qualitative assessment which may provide information around the cause of any loss of ankle DF movement.
Therefore, the objective of this paper was to provide a framework from which clinicians can work to identify potential causes of DF restriction, before then providing individualized interventions to address the identified causes.
This paper does an excellent job of highlighting the fact that not all ankle dorsiflexion range loss is related to the talocrural joint, which historically would be the area that we would try to target to improve range.
METHODS
This paper looked to utilize the gold-standard assessment method of ankle DF ROM, the WBLT (see Video 1) as a starting point for the paper. The authors then provided a clinical decision-making framework based upon the findings of the quantitative