What could cause tight and stiff feeling ankles?

Answer 1

Tight anklesA new client came in this morning for an Alexander Technique session and one of the problems she mentioned was the feeling of tight and painful ankles, particularly in the Achilles Tendon when waking up in the morning. The condition had been developing over the last year; a period when she had also put on some weight.

Now it's not the normal procedure during Alexander Technique sessions to work on relieving symptoms. When it comes to posture, the actual pain or symptom is rarely isolated to one area, but part of a much bigger picture relating to their whole posture. it's often the 'tip of the iceberg'. So although I might do a small amount of specific work on her ankles, I am best able to help by working on her whole poise, balance and co-ordination, and where there are painful symptoms relating to tensions etc, they are likely to disappear as a consequence. We need to work on the cause, rather than the effect. Naturally there may be other reasons for ankle pain such as arthritic joints and if this is the case, she should see a doctor or physiotherapist. But in her case there seemed to be postural problems that are likely to be the cause, and this is what we can help with AT.

I could see that when my client was standing, there was the tendency for her to be leaning forwards just a bit and this also showed itself during walking. She also had a habitual stance of stooping forward and shortening her stature. There will be an unnatural and constant strain in muscles and tendons in the back of her legs, back and neck due to her habit of being off balance. There is probably a reaction to this strain occurring during rest at night: they contract further. The answer is likely to be a change in her manner of standing and walking so she is under less strain during the day. It is my belief that by helping her to free up, lengthen and open out, she will improve her poise and co-ordination to a degree where her symptoms will hopefully go without us working specifically on her ankles. She is likely to experience quite a number of other benefits too, but these are not what I'm discussing with this blog.

My client will learn during our sessions how to become more aware of her balance and how to 'use the technique' for herself. However, there are a couple of considerations here that prompted me to write this blog.

If we have the tendency to lean forward just a bit (or a lot in some people's case!) then the reason why we don't fall over is because we are tightening various muscles in the backs of our legs as well as straining the Achilles Tendon and hamstrings. This is an automatic response of our body to the precarious situation we are in. Falling over hurts.....and our reflexes and survival systems kick in to save us. (This may seem simple and obvious, but this situation is very common with a great many people.) If we were table o relax all the muscles that are working overtime, we certainly would fall over. So this cannot be achieved unless we improve our balance.

Why do we lean forwards you may ask? Well it's probably become a habit, but certainly not something we did as a child as we have wonderful free poise, unaffected by habits. We pick up these habits from copying parents, friends, as well as getting stressed. We also lean forward in a business or social situation where we may be put on the spot, if we're presenting something to a group or individual, if we want to impress our boss or audience or anxious to do well. We have quite a high centre of gravity with our heavy torso and a 4-5 kilo head, so our balance is precarious. It's easy to get off balance and if we do, there will be many tensions required just to stop us from falling. We get stiff, tight in the muscles along with a stiff neck, headaches and impaired breathing and lower self-confidence. We undermine ourselves.

The answer is to always let your body weight come back a little so it's over your ankles. Don't lean backwards, but equally do not lean forwards! Seek the vertical. The ideal alignment (if we were a fixed statue) would be head over shoulders, shoulders over hips and hips over ankles. But naturally we move around as humans, so we won't get stuck in this position, but it is a 'resting place or position of neutrality where we are in best balance and consequently have the chance to use minimum effort.

High heels have the tendency to throw our weight forwards and I wrote about this in a previous blog. We can have the habit of leaning forwards in any case.

The second point is to do with body weight and it's probably self evident from what I've already said. But if we are carrying more body weight than we would wish, this makes moving around harder work. It also creates more of a pull if we are off balance. By the way, I'm not suggesting that my client is over weight! But this can be a relevant factor for many people. If we are very tall or over-weight then as the effects of gravity are unremitting we will experience even more of a strain if we are off balance. If we are over-weight then we can help avoid back trouble and strain by losing a few pounds. But despite this, we can help our balance immediately by drawing our attention to how we are. Look in a shop window as you pass to see if you are tipped forwards or leaning. If so, bring your body weight back over your ankles. By doing so, you can then encourage your ankles to relax more, to think them free and loose. As the subtitle of my book goes....."Bring your body into balance and revolutionise your life."-)

taken from www.noelkingsley.com