6 Ankle Strengthening Exercises for Stability and Recovery

Ankle strengthening exercises help restore ankle stability and function, especially after an injury. Strong and stable ankles help support balance and movement, which also helps prevent injury. Start slow and focus on proper form; if you have pain or persistent instability, seek medical advice.

Note: For maximum results, try to do the below exercises barefoot. This will help you access the smaller muscles in your feet and ankles.

Calf raises are a foundational exercise for strengthening the ankles because they target your two major calf muscles (the gastrocnemius and soleus). Both are crucial for ankle movement when pushing off during walking, running, and jumping.

You can make this exercise more challenging by holding weights or doing it with one leg at a time to increase the intensity. You can also do calf raises on an elevated surface with your heels hanging off the edge to increase the stretch on the way down. Doing this will improve your stability and prevent your muscles from being pulled during injury.

Here’s how to perform calf raises:

1. Stand with your feet hip-width apart.
2. Slowly press through your toes and raise your heels off the ground.
3. Lower back down with control and complete subsequent reps. 

Similar to calf raises, isometric standing heel lifts also target your calf muscles. However, they challenge your ankle strength without movement. This helps improve ankle stability (how strong and sturdy your ankle is during movement) and build strength through the smaller ligaments and tendons of your feet.

You can hold onto something at first if you’re having trouble balancing on your toes the whole time.

Here’s how to do a standing heel lift:

1. First, stand with your feet hip-width apart.
2. Slowly press through your toes and raise your heels off the ground.
3. At the top of the movement, hold for as long as you can on your tippy toes until you feel your calf and foot muscles fatiguing.
4. Rest and repeat. 

Your tibialis muscles—one in the front of your lower leg, near your shinbone, and one in the back of your lower leg—are essential for walking, balance, and stability.

Tib-raises target the muscles on the front of your shins, which help you turn your foot inward and upward. This helps you avoid tripping when you walk, preventing injury.

When you do tib-raises, you’ll need to experiment with the distance that you stand away from the wall with your heels. Further is harder, closer is easier. Find the balance that challenges you, but still allows you to get a full range of motion when you lift your toes up.

Here’s how to do the exercise:

1. Stand against the wall with your feet flat on the floor and take a couple of small steps forward, inching your feet away from the wall. 
2. Keeping your heels on the ground, lift your toes toward your shins without bending your knees.
3. Pause for a moment at the top to feel the maximum contraction in the front of your shin.
4. Slowly lower down and complete 10–20 reps or until you feel a burning and can’t lift your toes higher.

A simple but effective exercise, the single-leg balance drill targets all the muscles that support your foot and ankle. It also challenges your body’s ability to sense position. This is key for catching yourself if you trip by accident, for example, or lose balance.

When you do this exercise, think about pressing your big toe into the floor. It will help ‘root’ you to the ground and support your arch. Once you feel ready to progress the exercise, try doing it on a soft surface or balance board for an extra challenge.

Here’s how to do the single-leg balance:

1. Standing with your feet flat and sturdy, press your big toes into the ground, and then shift your weight over to stand on one leg.
2. Lift the free-standing leg up to about 90 degrees and continue standing on your balancing leg. Make sure to keep pressure on your big toe to support your foot.
3. Hold for as long as you can and reset as needed if you lose balance.
4. Repeat several times through. 

This exercise is gentle yet effective, making it a good choice if you’re just starting to rehabilitate an ankle injury. It will help improve your mobility and strengthen the muscles and ligaments around your ankle joint.

The exercise will also help bring circulation to your foot, which is important if you have swelling from the injury. Use pain as your guide. If it still hurts to move your ankle, you’re likely doing the exercise too soon.

Even if you haven’t injured your ankle, this exercise is still great for enhancing your ankle mechanics, strength, and mobility.

Here’s how to do the ankle alphabet:

1. While seated or lying on your back, use your foot to ‘draw’ the alphabet in the air, one letter at a time. 
2. Go slow and controlled, and complete A–Z on each foot.

This stabilizing exercise targets the muscles that control your foot twisting outward (peroneal muscles) and the ones that control your foot twisting inward (tibialis posterior). This can help you resist ankle-rolling injuries.

Strengthening these muscles will help you prevent rolling an ankle again in the future, since repeat ankle sprains are extremely common after experiencing them once. You don’t need a very heavy resistance band for this exercise, but once it gets easier, you can level up by upgrading the band.

Here’s how to do the exercise:

1. Anchor a resistance band and loop it around your foot. 
2. To target the muscles that help twist your foot outward, move your foot outward against the band.
3. Then, to target the muscles that help twist your foot inward (tibialis posterior), move inward. 
4. Perform 2–3 sets of 12–15 reps each way. 

When it comes to strengthening your ankles—especially after an injury—proper technique and pacing are essential. If you jump into aggressive exercises too soon or use incorrect form, it can set back your recovery or create new issues. Move slowly and intentionally when you practice each exercise; quality matters more than quantity, and always listen to your body.

You might feel some muscle fatigue and mild discomfort, which is completely normal. However, if you feel sharp pain, then stop immediately. These are signs you may be overdoing it or stressing healing tissues. If you are rehabbing an ankle injury, start with gentle, non-weight-bearing exercises (like the ankle alphabet) and gradually progress to weight-bearing and balance work as your strength improves.

As a general principle, it’s best to seek medical care if you cannot put weight on the injured ankle or if you have visible bruising, deformity, or excessive swelling. Other symptoms include numbness, tingling, or burning around the site of injury.

Even if your symptoms seem minor at first, early medical attention with a proper diagnosis and rehab program can prevent the injury from becoming more serious.