You’d probably never think about your ankle until it stopped moving one day. A tight ankle can subtly mess with your squat, influence your gait, and in the long-term even cause pain in your knees or hips. The Lunge Test for ankle joint mobility is a straightforward, well-established way to check how much your ankle moves – in the direction it needs to for daily life.
This post covers what the test measures, how to do it, interpret the results, and know when you need professional help.
What Is the Lunge Test for Ankle Joint?
What is the weight-bearing lunge test?
The weight bearing lunge test is also referred to as the knee-to-wall test and is a way to measure closed chain ankle dorsiflexion range of motion. This test is performed while standing as opposed to lying down and better demonstrates ankle mobility during movement. This test is common practice among physiotherapists, sports medicine doctors, and strength coaches because it’s easy to perform, repeatable, and inexpensive.
What the Test Measures
Your ankle bends in the opposite direction, toward your shin, during a movement called dorsiflexion. In the lunge test, your tibia (shin bone) is supposed to slide forward over your stationary, flat foot. The space between the big toe and the wall when your knee is barely touching that wall is an indication of how far and how well you’re able to dorsiflex (higher lunge = more dorsiflexion, shorter distance, less dorsiflexion).
Of course, if the heel isn’t flat, you’re kinda cheat’n…because you’re flexing at the hip and bending your knee instead.
Why Ankle Dorsiflexion Matters
Limited dorsiflexion affects everything downstream. During squat, stair climbing or running uphill, the tibia needs to move forward quite a bit to bring the rest of the foot and ankle along. If the ankle doesn’t move to meet that demand, the rest of the lower limb has to make up for it by way of heel lift, knee collapse, or heel lift plus knee collapse, heel lift plus lower back round, or some combination of all three.
Lack of ankle mobility creates dysfunctional overcompensation patterns that can lead to overuse injuries in the knees, hips, and plantar fascia.
How to Perform Lunge Test for Ankle Joint
The setup is simple, requiring only a wall, a tape measure and some space on the ground. Stand facing a wall, with one foot pointing straight ahead (as if aiming your toes at the base of the wall). The trick is to be consistent – use the same foot position, starting point, and tracking for your knees every time and for each side.
Starting Position and Setup
Position your test foot a few centimetres away from the wall with your toes pointing forward (not turned out to the side). Fan knee forward toward the wall maintaining tracking over second toe (don’t let it cave in or drift out). Keep body upright (do not lean over the front foot to shift weight), behind foot resting comfortably in a split stance.
Finding the Maximum Distance
Begin close enough to the wall that your knee can rest against it, then take the foot back a few centimeters – an inch at a time. Try to get the knee to touch the wall without ever raising your heel from the ground. Keep going back until you can’t quite get the knee to touch the wall and still keep the heel on the ground – this distance is your result.
If you raised your heel before your knee hit the wall, you didn’t get a score.
How to Measure and Record Results
Now you know the furthest range, mark a measurement on the wall in centimetres from the tip of the longest big toe to the wall. Take 2 or 3 measurements from each side and average the results. Remember to test both ankles – symmetrical data can often be more meaningful than a single number in isolation.
Distance and Angle Measurements
The most common unit of measurement used by clinicians is the cm distance. One measurement widely suggested is around 10cm (though others contend this is different for each activity and individual) however the function needed for each activity can be different, so take care when comparing to measurements on this list. You may also see some using an inclinometer on the shin to measure the angle of the tibia at its furthest point of dorsiflexion.
This adds a degree of accuracy, however adds a cost for the inclinometer. For the purposes of running around the house, the tape measure method is perfectly fine and easy to do.
Standardizing the Test
Repeatability counts. But always try to do the test barefoot, or in the same pair of shoes. If you warm up lightly – five minutes of slow walking or cycling, for example – you will eliminate the stiffness, and get an accurate measurement.
If you feel pain while moving, note where on your body it is, and don’t forget other compensatory actions, such as pronation or rotation of the hip, as these will influence the distance travelled and are not representative of ankle function.
Interpreting Lunge Test for Ankle Joint Results
No one size fits all cutoff. It depends on the person – a recreationally active walker will be very different from a competitive weightlifter or Crossfitter in terms of how much movement that toe-to-wall distance accounts for. However, most movement experts would view a toe-to-wall distance of less than 10 cm as limiting for squatting and running.
Comparing Left and Right Ankles
You know what matters more than the numbers?
The side-to-side difference. If you notice a difference of more than 1.5cm (0.6 inches) when comparing one ankle to the other, that could mean you have a mobility difference to tackle, especially if you’re an athlete or have previously sustained an ankle sprain. Chronic sprains can result in scarring and ankle restrictions that decrease mobility on the injured side – and the lunge test can pick up on these disparities.
Recognizing Compensations
Pay attention to heel lift, excessive foot pronation, knee valgus (caving inward), or trunk lean. These compensatory motions indicate the body is circumventing the ankle instead of using it. When this is the case, the measured distance exceeds the true dorsiflexion range of motion, potentially giving the appearance of a stronger ankle than is actually present.
Limitations, Safety, and When to Seek Help
The lunge test is thorough and statistically sound, but not perfect. Technique, foot placement, and body structure can influence readings. It provides measurements for range of motion only and does not evaluate strength, nerve, and joint health.
Common Testing Errors
Common errors consist of failing to maintain foot position uniformly in between takes, instead letting the knee push inward. Measuring from the wrong point on the toe. Requiring the knee forward into pain can skew the metric, and also putting a spot like ligament tissue in pain can exacerbate an injury.
Movement and also pain are two separate discoveries – both matter, yet erroneously combining them results in mistaken judgment.