Your Ankle Strength Isn’t Failing You—But Your Training Might Be

Most dancers don’t have “weak ankles”. But many dancers have underprepared ankles. If your strength work consists almost entirely of turned out relevés, eleves or parallel heel raises, you’re only training your body for a fraction of what your choreography actually demands. And then we’re surprised when pain, instability, or injury show up. 

Typically, we aren’t dancing in just one plane. So your strength training shouldn’t reside there either. And, if, while you are doing loads of eleves and releves and heel raises to get stronger you are practicing only in one position and consistently moving through SUB optimal positions (I’m talking to those of you who wing your way to the top), you’re headed for trouble. 

We want to be able to meet the demands of choreography that asks for weight shifts at odd angles, be prepared for landings that aren’t perfectly aligned, and be able to withstand and produce force while rotating, traveling, or off-balance.

Building base strength isn’t just about endless heel raises 

It’s:

• Tolerating load through the full foot (big toe → outer foot → heel)

• Controlling the ankle in multiple directions 

• Managing force when alignment isn’t perfect

That means your training should include variations like:

• Slight internal/external rotation biases

• Weight shifting across different parts of the foot

• Different tempos (slow control vs. faster rebound prep)

• 100% should include single leg exercises

Each heel raise variation you saw in the videos posted to Instagram and Facebook isn’t random—it shifts how force travels through your ankle and lower leg, in order to build a more adaptable, resilient system that is supported on all sides.

Why this matters for injury risk: 

Injury risk increases when:

• Load exceeds what your tissues are prepared for

• Movement happens outside the positions you’ve trained 

If you limit your training positions, your “capacity ceiling” is lower than you think. This is step one: building a base that can handle load in multiple directions.

In Part 2, we’ll talk about how to take that strength and actually make it usable in jumping, landing, and explosive movement—because strength alone isn’t the finish line.