5 Yoga Poses to Stand Stronger

Learning how to strengthen ankles is an unsung yet fundamental part of your yoga practice. When you think of stability, your mind might go straight to having a strong core, which holds you up and keeps you steady amid everyday life. But moving through your day, as well as a yoga class, requires the cooperation of your entire body, including the joints—think wrists, knees, and, yes, ankles.

Pay closer attention and you’ll quickly notice how essential your ankles are to proper alignment. Slight shifts in placement and weight distribution are often the difference between a posture that supports your body and breath and one that causes stress and strain. The following yoga poses require and build ankle strength, offering both an initial gauge and an opportunity to improve your steadiness over time. Plus, strong ankles reduce your risk of rolls and sprains, keeping you mobile in your life and on your mat.

How to Strengthen Ankles: 5 Yoga Poses for Joint Stability

If you find yourself feeling shaky or wobbly in a standing shape, chances are your ankles could use a little love. Joint strength begets stillness.

1. Downward-Facing Dog

A shape at once foundational and transitional, Downward-Facing Dog is a study in full-body stability. You cannot relax into this pose without first finding strength in your core, upper body, legs, wrists, and ankles. Your ankles literally hold you up here, bearing your weight in both static and dynamic variations of the posture. (Think swaying side to side or pedaling out your feed.) As you build strength in your joints, and every other part of your body, you’ll discover more and more access to the surprising restful nature of Down Dog.

2. Eagle Pose

Sometimes you just need a simple (or not so simple) twist. Eagle Pose asks that you balanced on one foot, carrying weight on one ankle while wrapping the other around your standing leg or simply hovering it above the floor alongside your standing foot. The shape requires major focus, as it takes you entirely out of your usual context, moving your center of balance and asking your ankles to renegotiate that shift to support you.

Eagle is tricky at first, but the more breaths you take in the pose, and the more times you practice it, the more awareness you’ll cultivate. Once you first true stillness here, your ankles will have room to gain in strength and stability, rather than simply bearing the off-kilter load of your balancing body.

3. Squat

Your entire body benefits from time in Malasana—including your ankles. Malasana puts your ankles in a state of dorsiflexion, which draws your shins closer toward your feet for a deep joint stretch. The yogic squat asks that your ankles bear the majority of your body weight, increasing their strength over time with continued practice. This sort of multi-focused stretching and strengthening not only boosts mobility  throughout your entire body, it increases overall physical functionality.

4. High Lunge

For a pose that stretches and strengthens by turns, try High Lunge. This posture works your ankles in two ways, with your front foot supporting and stabilizing your bent front leg while your back foot helps you balance. It’s a powerful pose. Hanging out here for a few breaths will help build said strength—even if you wobble a little along the way.

5. Hero Pose

This shape may seem simple, but it involves intricate alignment of your feet and ankles. Hero Pose is one of those postures that is a little different for every body, requiring micro adjustments of the feet and legs (and perhaps even a supportive prop or two) in order to experience comfort. Once you’re able to find your version of Hero, the seated position builds ankle strength passively, the tops of your feet and fronts of your ankles planted on the floor creating plantar flexion, with toes pointed away from shins.

Hero may be more of a stretch than an overt strengthening exercise, but that’s kind of the point: in yoga, the two camps are often one and the same.