3 reasons why you should be *obsessed* with ankle circles

You're busy; so efficiency is 👍! 

I've got a move that'll get three giggles with one tickle! Let's dive in with your 

"Brainy What-Why-How"

Your weekly nibble of brain-based tips to help you move and feel great!

🧠

What:

Adding ankle circles to your life -- anywhere you can put them -- will likely increase your overall mobility.

Why?

1️⃣ We generally under-train our ankles. (Because people aren't obsessed enough about it! 😤) 

Taking the ankles around a full circle a few times can help the connection between the ankle and the brain become stronger and clearer (i.e. less likely to injure!) 

2️⃣ Your ankles are the first joint to get impacted every single time you take a step (probably thousands of times per day). 

All that impact ...

especially with lacking mobility training (re point 1,)...

can sometimes make the brain think "Ankle movement is compromised; danger danger!". 

The brain will thus protectively guard joints further up such as the knee, hip, spine, and even up to the jaw, by creating stiffness.

3️⃣ Different ankle positions will stretch different branches of the sciatic nerve, especially in forward folding postures! 

The sciatic nerve branches into smaller nerves as it travels down your legs.

You can help your mobility a lot by gently stretching the sciatic nerve (this is often what you're already doing in forward folds -- even though you may feel it in the hamstrings.)

By circling the ankles in a forward fold, you're able to stretch three different branches of the sciatic nerve in one fell swoop! 

How:

This could not be easier to implement:

CIRCLE YOUR ANKLES. BUT!! don't go circular just yet...

There's circling your ankles and then there's circling your ankles...

Pay attention while you're doing it:

1️⃣ Watch your ankle. Make sure it's your ankle doing the movement and not the knee, or toes, or foot.

2️⃣ Move deliberately through your full range of motion. It should take some effort. No floppy circling allowed 🙅 

I explain more in ​this video​.

3️⃣ Add these to your forward folding postures and see what an impact it has on your hamstring mobility. I start MWA's new ​Gentle Spine and Shoulders Awareness Flow​ with this (as well as some nerve mobilisation for the upper body! -- it's super yummy 🧚) 

Not yet a MWA member?
Get started ​HERE​ with a 7-day free trial,
and get moving with science-backed tools today!

This month the MWA theme is ​Satya​ -- being truthful -- to ourselves and others.

"We can judge our progress by the courage of our questions and the depth of our answers, our willingness to embrace what is true rather than what feels good.” - Carl Sagan"

Thank you for reading!

Please share with a friend or colleague who might find this valuable.

Have an ankle-icious week!

Adell

Want to go way deeper on all of this geeky brain stuff?

• New information coming out SOON on my next NeuroYoga Teacher Training. Interested? Get ​on the waitlist​ to get special offers and be the first to know!
• Check out my ​Brain Based Creative Sequencing Course ​-- everything you need to get moving in new ways in accordance with how your brain best functions!