The Body Knows

Your ankle is not the two bumps on either side of your foot. In this episode I walk through the mortise, the joint your two lower-leg bones form around the talus, and why it has to open a little on every single step you take. I explain what happens when the tibia and fibula freeze and stop opening, why the whole back of the leg then has to overstretch, why runners feel it most, how a half-open mortise makes you pronate, and why an ankle that stops working so often shows up as knee pain.

This episode is for education and isn't medical advice.

My writing, teaching, and book live at https://leighankrum.com
Practitioners: https://leighankrum.com/practitioners

CHAPTERS
0:00 Coming up
0:13 The Body Knows
0:28 Welcome: how the ankle works
0:37 The malleolus: inner and outer
1:06 The talus and the mortise
1:38 Every step, the talus widens the ankle
2:17 When the two bones freeze
2:44 Overstretching the back of the leg
3:29 For runners
3:50 Half open: why you pronate
4:27 What to do about it, and the knee
4:58 Until next time

What is The Body Knows?

How does the body actually heal? Leigh Ankrum — founder of the Ankrum Institute and a teacher of whole-body manual therapy — shares short, clear conversations on what your body is telling you: fascia, the nervous system, the body's pressure systems, movement, and the deeper patterns underneath pain. If you have ever sensed there was more to your symptoms than you were told, you are in the right place. The body knows — listen in.