Walking mechanics
The idea is to think of this as “walking lite” since you aren’t taking full steps. You want to focus on feeling your weight transfer from the outside heel to the inside ball of your foot. Imagine half of an X drawn on your foot as you do this to help with visual. As you perform it, go from back to front and front to back.
Squat walks
Once you have your mechanics down, we can add some loading to these motions to strengthen them. Believe it or not, all you need to do to add some loading is to walk in a squat position. Aside from that, the same rules apply here as they did for your basic walking mechanics. Make sure to feel the change and control it. Start slow, if needed. If it’s too difficult to pop into a full squat and maintain cognizance of your mechanics, try a half squat, or somewhere in between standing and squatting.
One legged jump roping
This might be one of my favorite exercises due to the sheer amount of versatility it offers. On one hand, you can get some quality HIIT in with this one once you perfect it. In addition to that, it provides a serious pump for the calves. All that aside, it keeps your ankle plantar flexed and the compression forces help strengthen it. To perfect it, make sure you are keeping your knee bend to an absolute minimum. If you need to regress because you can’t clear the rope, practice without the rope.
Circular articulation
You can progress in this like you can that walking mechanics. That is, you can start standing, and move to a squat position to make it more taxing. Just like in the walking mechanics, you want to feel the ankle joint move through each position as you perform the circular motion.
