Do you deal with ankle pain? instability? or frequent ankle sprains?
Did you know there are 33 joints in your foot and ankle??? 112 ligaments and 28 muscles! Honestly, I had to look that up... I even didn't think there was that many.
There re 3 main areas of the foot:
1. Your Rearfoot
2. Your Midfoot
3. Your Forefoot
Today, we are going to go through 3 main joints in the foot and ankle....
1. Talocrural Joint
2. Subtalar Joint
3. MidTarsal Joint
So...what do these joints mean?
Talocrural Joint
Your Talocrural Joint is the joint between your Tibia, Fibula and your Talus. This joint is responsible for the smooth motion of Dorsiflexion during gait as well as plantarflexion. What is dorsiflexion and plantar flexion?
Dorsiflexion is the motion as if you are bringing your toes up toward the ceiling. This is the same motion in walking when your leg is moving over your foot.
Plantarflexion is the motion as if you are pointing your toes away from you, or pressing a gas pedal. This is the motion that ballerinas are in for hours! Walking on your toes? In heels? this is Plantarflexion! This is the motion at the end of your gait pattern when you are pushing off your toe before your foot swings forward in front of you.
2. Subtalar Joint
This is the joint between your talus and your calcaneus (your heel bone). The joint also allows for dorsiflexion and plantarflexion, but it also allows for more Pronation and Supination, along with Inversion and Eversion.
3. Midtarsal Joint
This joint is the part of your foot as it is transitioning from the rear foot into the mid foot. This joint is important in the load transfer between the rear foot and the mid foot. If you do not have good mobility here, or good mobility in the joints of your mid foot, you will start to compensate through your rear foot or your toes!
One of the ways we assess this (and more), is looking at a squat and looking at your motion in gait.
We are looking to see: 1. Is your talocrural joint able to attain Dorsiflexion? 2. Is your subtlar joint allowing proper movement? Is it falling/ 3. Is your Midtarsal joint collapsing? Stabilizing? is it transferring load properly???
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