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How to tell whether your ankle is actually restricted

Restriction is usually silent. It does not hurt, you have never known anything else, and the first evidence is something else complaining, so measure it rather than judge it.

Written by Heath, who has lived it: casts from birth, a fusion at sixteen, the US Army, and distance running.

Test it properly

Four tests. The first is the one clinicians actually use; the rest tell you what the restriction costs in real tasks.

1

Knee to wall

Face a wall. Put one foot forward, flat, toes pointing straight at it. Slide the foot back until your knee only just touches the wall with the heel staying down. Measure from the wall to your big toe.

On the affected side

Write the number down anyway. There is no agreed normal for this test, so your own measurement is mostly useful as a starting point to compare against later.

Write the number down. Restriction of this kind usually shows on stairs and hills before it shows on flat ground.

Write the number down. Somewhere above the ankle is likely supplying the movement it cannot make.

Write the number down. Whatever it is, a measurement you took yourself is one of the more useful things to take to an appointment.

2

Now compare the sides

Same test, other leg. If both feet were affected, use whichever measures further as your reference.

The difference is

Symmetrical, whatever the absolute number. Symmetry means fewer one-sided problems above.

A real asymmetry. This is the gap your knee and hip are covering.

A large side-to-side difference is the version most likely to show as a one-sided pattern further up the leg.

3

The squat

Feet flat and roughly hip width, squat down as far as you comfortably can. Watch what the heels do.

Your heels

Squatting needs considerably more range than walking, so this is a strong result.

A one-sided lift is the restriction showing itself under a demanding task.

Common with bilateral clubfoot, and it shows why deep squats are rarely a fair test of anything else.

4

Downhill and down stairs

Going down needs more ankle movement than going up, which is why it is the everyday task restriction announces itself in first.

Descending feels

Then the restriction is not reaching your daily function much.

A common report, and one people rarely connect to the ankle.

Avoidance is worth naming out loud at an appointment. It counts as functional loss.

What your answers suggest Four tests, ten minutes

You need a wall, a flat floor, a tape measure and shoes off. Measure both sides, write both numbers down, and keep them. The comparison between your two sides, and the same measurement months from now, tell you more than any single figure does. Do each test on both legs and answer for the clubfoot (talipes equinovarus, CTEV) side.

The everyday tells

Things you would notice without testing anything, if you knew to look.

The heel lifts early, before the other foot is ready to land
The foot points outward to get around the restriction rather than through it
The arch flattens more than the other side under body weight
You reach for a handrail going down but not going up
Flat shoes make a whole day feel harder
Kneeling with the foot flat behind you is uncomfortable
Standing still, that heel wants to sit slightly higher
Walking on soft sand or a slope is disproportionately tiring

The fifth one is worth dwelling on. If a slightly raised heel makes an obvious difference to how your day goes, you have effectively run the test already. The shoe was supplying movement your ankle was not.

Why the knee position changes the answer

Two muscles limit upward ankle movement, and they behave differently. The larger, more visible one crosses both the knee and the ankle, so bending the knee slackens it and takes it out of the test. The one underneath crosses only the ankle and is unaffected by what the knee does.

So: more movement with the knee bent means the big calf muscle is a live limiter, and that muscle responds to training. No change means the limit is lower down (the deeper muscle, the joint capsule, or the joint itself) which is a very different conversation about what is worth attempting.

One test, two knee positions. It is the cheapest diagnostic distinction available to you.

The stiffness page takes that distinction further. What is taking your range, and how much of it comes back. This page is only about establishing what the range actually is.

People also ask

Testing ankle range

How do I test my own ankle movement?
The knee-to-wall test is the standard: face a wall in a half-kneeling position with the foot flat, and see how far back the foot can go while the knee still touches the wall and the heel stays down. Compare sides.
How much do you actually need?
Level walking is usually put at around ten degrees of upward movement past neutral. Stairs, hills, squatting and running all need more, which is why restriction often shows up in those tasks long before it affects flat walking.
Why does bending my knee change the result?
The larger calf muscle crosses the knee, so bending the knee takes it out of the equation. More movement with the knee bent points at that muscle; no change points lower, at the soleus or the joint itself.
Is one stiff ankle worse than two?
One-sided restriction causes more asymmetry and more secondary problems, because the two legs do different jobs. Two restricted ankles produce a symmetrical pattern that is often better tolerated but limits tasks like squatting more.
Why is my ankle stiff but not swollen?
A restricted ankle does not have to look like anything. Two things commonly hold one back while the joint looks entirely normal from the outside: a calf that has shortened, and something inside the joint blocking the front of it. The second has a name, anterior ankle impingement, and a 2026 systematic review divides it into a bone-dominant type at the inside front of the ankle and a soft-tissue-dominant type at the outside front.6 The knee-bent against knee-straight comparison on this page tells you which side of the muscle-or-joint line you are on before anyone images anything.
Why is my ankle stiff in the morning and after sitting?
Both have the same shape: a stretch of not moving, then stiff first steps that ease off. Sitting lets a calf sit short for an hour at a time, and those first steps are the ankle being asked for range it has not been giving. It also means a measurement taken straight out of a chair is the worst number you produce all day, so take it after fifteen minutes on your feet. A different version of this is worth a doctor rather than a tape measure: several joints stiff at once, heat or swelling alongside it, or stiffness that does not ease once you are moving.
How do you loosen a stiff ankle?
Find out first whether there is anything to loosen. Where the end-point is muscle, range responds to loaded calf work and the knee-bent measurement is the one that moves. Where the end-point is bone, it does not, and pushing harder into it is how people end up with a sore ankle and the same number. That is the reason to measure rather than stretch on faith. Knee to wall gives you a figure in centimeters you can repeat in a month and see whether any of it is reaching the ankle.
Why does my ankle feel like it catches or blocks at the front?
That is the description of anterior impingement, and it is worth knowing that its two types are found in different ways. The bone-dominant type sits at the inside front of the ankle, and oblique x-rays picked those spurs up with 93 percent sensitivity in the 2026 review; the soft-tissue type sits at the outside front, where dynamic ultrasound and MRI do the work.6 Neither is settled from a website. What is worth taking to the appointment is the measurement and exactly where it blocks.
What are the signs of limited ankle range of motion?
The heel lifting early when you walk, being unable to squat with heels down, the foot turning outward to get past the restriction, difficulty going downhill or down stairs, and the arch flattening more than the other side under load.
How much ankle movement is normal?
Roughly ten centimeters on the knee-to-wall test is usual, though the range across healthy adults is wide. In clubfoot the comparison between your two sides, and change in your own measurement over time, matter more than any published figure.
Can I have restriction without any pain?
Very commonly, and that is the usual presentation in clubfoot. The restriction is silent and the pain appears in whichever joint is compensating for it, often years later.

Sources

Where this comes from

1 Kim SH, et al. Lower extremity strength and the range of motion in relation to squat depthJournal of Human Kinetics, 2015 2 Taylor JB, et al. Ankle dorsiflexion affects hip and knee biomechanics during landingSports Health, 2022 3 Chisholm MD, et al. Reliability and validity of a weight-bearing measure of ankle dorsiflexion range of motionPhysiotherapy Canada, 2012 4 Powden CJ, Hoch JM, Hoch MC. Reliability and minimal detectable change of the weight-bearing lunge test: a systematic reviewManual Therapy, 2015 5 Macrum E, et al. Effect of limiting ankle dorsiflexion range of motion on lower extremity kinematics and muscle activation patterns during a squatJournal of Sport Rehabilitation, 2012 6 Yang M, et al. Systematic review of anterior ankle impingement: subtype-specific diagnosis and interventionJournal of Foot and Ankle Surgery, 2026

Related

Now that you have a number

Does it explain my knee? →When the ankle-knee link is the real explanation, and when it is not. Why the range went →Four causes, two of which you can push back on. Shoes that help →Rocker soles and heel drop, which substitute directly for lost range.

Written by Heath, founder of Clubfoot Forward, an adult with bilateral clubfoot, childhood surgery and a triple arthrodesis. These are self-tests for orientation, not a clinical assessment or a diagnosis, and nothing here is medical advice. Stop any test that produces sharp pain. Reviewed September 2026. See the editorial policy.

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