Ankle stability and your back
Your ankles are the first major stabilising joint to hit the force from the ground as you walk, run, jump or play or skip.
Although there are other issues in your foot that can affect the way your body transfers weight through your legs, such as your foot arches, ankle stability is the issue I see most often affecting the pelvis and causing low back pain.
Because of the way our lower leg bones are formed, the most likely place to stretch or damage a ligament is on the outside of our ankle. When this ligament is too stretchy, either through genetics, repeated ankle sprains, or a combination of both, our joint loses some of its of stability.
This means we can end up with a tiny “wobble” through the joint as we walk. This can mean the muscles around the hip and low back have to work a lot harder to keep upright and moving forwards, and may also lead to the hips turning in or out to create a wider, more stable base at the ground.
If the hips are turning in or out, this can have consequences for the pelvic floor, organs inside the pelvic bowl, and how we transfer weight from spine to pelvis to legs.
An unstable ankle can also give problems with the knees, as the weight from our body may begin loading through the wrong part of the knee joint as a result of these changes
How to test your ankle stability
One very simple test is to stand on one leg, and see how stable you are. If you can manage to stand without too much wobble, you can take the test a little further - as long as you’re somewhere safe to do so, you can then close your eyes and see how long you can stand on one leg without needing to put your other foot back down on the ground.
If you manage less than 5 seconds, your ankle is probably quite unstable and you should seek advice asap. You should be able to do at least 30 seconds of standing one-legged, eyes closed, without needing to wobble too much, so anything less than this might mean you need to work on stabilising your lower joints. This can be done through a combination of treatment and exercises, depending on what exactly has caused your instability.
Should you wear an ankle brace?
It can be tempting to wear an ankle brace to protect yourself, especially if you’ve had lots of sprains. Although this might be a good idea during sport or other strenuous activity, wearing one all the time might actually worsen the issue. By relying on the ankle brace instead of building more stability in your muscles and joints, you can end up losing more strength through your ankle over time. It’s much, much better in the long term to get an assessment of your ankle and do the appropriate prescribed exercises - not only to prevent injury at the ankle, but also in your knees, hips, and back.
