I Tried These Foot And Ankle Strengthening Moves For Runners And The Results Surprised Me

Anyone who’s training for a marathon will (or should) know about the importance of supportive strength training. While I was training for the Reykjavik Marathon I made sure to include of single-leg exercises, core work and even knee exercises in my routine to help keep injuries at bay.

But one thing that hadn’t been on my radar was workouts to strengthen my feet and ankles. That was until I found this series of workouts from Victoria Sekely, a USATF Level 1 and RRCA certified run coach and physical therapist.

Sekely has programmed five sessions which increase in difficulty every week so it’s worth starting with session one and working your way through the entire series. Here’s the first session and all five routines are collected in a playlist on Sekely’s TikTok page.

@trainsmartrunstrong
♬ Smiles & Sunsets – ultmt. & Hz.

Sekely doesn’t include how many reps you should do for each exercise—that information is only available to members of Selkey’s virtual Runner’s Workshop ($50 a month). A membership gets you access to a detailed follow-along video for these sessions plus many others.

The routine seriously challenged my balance and I often had to stop midway through an exercise to restabilize.

In all honesty, I didn’t expect much from including these movements in my strength program but my feet and ankles do feel stronger. I’ve suffered a few ankle injuries, including rolling my ankle several times, and my ankles can feel a bit unstable going over uneven ground. After several weeks of adding in these movements, this seems to have improved.

If you want to add strength work into your running routine but don’t know where to start, Coach has got you covered with plenty of free expert advice. These are some of the best leg exercises for runners and these strength exercises for runners will help improve your performance.