Move with May

I’ve been taking courses through the Brookbush Institute — an evidence-based education platform for personal trainers and corrective exercise specialists created by a physical therapist.
As someone with flat feet myself, learning more about lower leg dysfunction, ankle mobility, and foot control has completely changed how I think about movement and corrective exercise.
Brookbush demonstrates this exercise using a treatment table setup, but I wanted to show how it can also be adapted at home using a door anchor and mini band.
A lot of people work on ankle mobility with:
• calf stretching
• foam rolling
• ankle mobilizations
…but forget to strengthen the muscle that maintains that motion.
The tibialis anterior (shin muscle) is the primary ankle dorsiflexor (lifting the foot toward the shin) — and helps control how the foot lowers during walking, running, jumping, and stairs.
Every time your heel hits the ground, the tibialis anterior helps decelerate plantar flexion (lowering the foot toward the floor) so the foot doesn’t just “slap” into the ground.
This muscle is commonly associated with:
• dorsiflexion (knee moving forward over the foot without the heel lifting)
• arch/foot control
• shock absorption during gait
• flat feet / excessive pronation
• shin splints
And in many people, it tends to become relatively long and under-active.
That’s why improving ankle mobility isn’t only about releasing tight calves or mobilizing the ankle joint — your body also needs strength and control to actually use that new range of motion during daily movement.

Brookbush Institute