Fatherly discusses ankle mobility and shares agility tips for aging adults, with guidance from Constantine A. Demetracopoulos, MD, foot and ankle surgeon at HSS.

Dr. Demetracopoulos explained, “Ankle sprains are the most common sports injury. As time passes from those injuries, you start to develop ankle stiffness, whether from scarring in ligaments that make the ankle feel tighter or early arthritic changes in your ankle.”

Maintaining your ankle mobility through regular exercise is a lot easier than regaining it after its gone. According to Dr. Demetracopoulos, stretching and maintaining functional strength are the best strategies. “Doing squats and lunges is way better for you than getting on elliptical for 30 minutes and tuning out,” he said. Those functional movements will improve range of motion better than passive aerobic exercise, “and using your body weight is perfectly fine.”

He also advised saving stretching until the end of exercise citing, “There’s a lot of evidence that stretching makes you more susceptible to injury.”

“Your two best moves are squats and reverse lunges,” said Dr. Demetracopoulos. “[Reverse lunges] are great because not only are you working on flexibility in your ankle but also balance and proprioception.”

Read the full article at Fatherly.com.