Tommy O’Brien demonstrates a proper use of rail and power. Photo: Patrick Eichstaedt
Are you having trouble with your rail game? Do you find that you are significantly stronger on your heel rail, but just can’t get your body where you want it over your toes? Ask yourself a question: can you perform a full squat without your heels lifting?
If not, you may need to think about what’s happening with your ankles. I rarely go into specifics when it comes to the feet for one main reason: they’re really damn complicated. When someone comes to me with a knackered neck, my first instinct is to refer them out, because there is just too much that can go wrong there. When it comes to your feet, they are incredibly complicated. Not to mention the fact that because they are the bits of your body most likely to be in contact with the earth, this is where your force generation comes through for almost all standing activities.
According to an article in The Health Community, one quarter of the bones in the human body are in your feet. Not to mention 33 joints, and over 100 muscles, tendons and ligaments. That’s not unsubstantial, and is a strong indicator that they are required to do some pretty complicated tasks. So if you are going to compensate anywhere, it’s in your feet.
And just to top it off, because we are so clever we have managed to encase our feet in items of clothing that mostly prevent your feet from working the way they are designed, they don’t really stand a chance. But since we don’t get the benefit of high performance footwear when we surf, your feet have to work the way they are designed.
Ankle Exercise #1: The Kneeling Hamstring Hip Mobilizer
I like this exercise because it is simple and not particularly aggressive. I also like it because it doesn’t just focus on the ankle, but the entire ankle/knee/hip complex.
If you have a restriction in your your lower calf, your knee just won’t protrude ahead of your toes, this spells trouble for your rail game, as you will have to use your upper body more than you might want to.
The second part of the exercise involves a simple mobilization for the ankle rotators. It has the added effect of giving the front of your shin a nice stretch. The ankle rotators are commonly stuck with our generation (and have been for much of the 21st century).
As you settle your hip over your heel, get a nice gentle roll through this part of your ankle. Don’t be at all surprised if this doesn’t move very much. It might also be quite uncomfortable, so my advice is to be gentle when just getting started, and if in doubt, refer out to a podiatrist in your area!
Ankle Exercise #2: The Active Squat Stretch
This is my personal favorite, and if you are in my neighborhood you will see me doing this in clothes stores while my wife is shopping, before paddling out, or in a corner of Lululemon Athletica. I’m that weirdo.
This exercise loads the joints slightly more aggressively than the one above, so you may find this more challenging, but you may also get faster results because of it.
You need to get into a deep squat, so just achieving this might take you some time. If you can’t do this without your heels lifting, than I suggest grabbing hold of something that you won’t pull over on top of you and sinking into a deep stretch for 3-5 mins at a time until you can. You may also benefit from leaning back onto your hands and rocking forwards and backwards to really work across your ankle in both directions.
Once you can do this without undue physical effort, the exercise can be progressed by gently rocking across the ankles to roll them through a full range of motion. I don’t recommend doing this until you can nail this deep squat first, though.
Ankle exercise #3: The Gastroc and Soleus Stretch
If you have problems with ankle flexibility and nowhere else, then this will isolate your ankle without much recourse to the rest of the kinetic chain. So this can be useful, but I find the top two much better. You may prefer this, so go with what feels right.
In this exercise, use a small gutter if you are out running or a small step to give you enough height to allow your ankle to sink. Really get into a deep Gastroc (large muscle belly) or Soleus stretch, depending on what your knee is doing. Held against a wall, this posture can also be held to twist the trunk to use this as a mobilization, but I find this to be too generic compared to the first two. This stretch can be performed as either a Contract-Relax, or for long slow duration holds of 1-3 mins each.
If you have questions that you would like to see answered here, please drop me an email at ash@weekendsurfwarrior.com.
If you have found this info useful, subscribe to the Weekend Surf Warrior newsletter, where you will receive a copy of Ash’s five minute surf warm up COMPLETELY FREE!
