TrainersEye · Foot & Ankle Health
Foot & Ankle Rehab · 30 Sessions

Thirty sessions.
Twelve minutes each.
Feet that carry you.

Five phases, 180 different movements, no repeats — from ankle pumps on a painful heel to single-leg hop testing. Built for plantar heel pain, Achilles tendinopathy, ankle sprains and instability, a stiff ankle and a fallen arch. At home, barefoot, with a wall, a step, a towel, a ball and a loaded backpack.

Before you start

See a doctor first — do not start — if you cannot take four steps on the foot after an injury or it is tender on the bone; with a sudden pop, a gap above the heel and no push-off; a hot, red or swollen foot with fever; calf pain with swelling and redness; numbness or a wound that is not healing; or one-spot bone pain that is worse at night.

The pain rule: up to 5/10 during, back to your normal by the next morning, no worse week to week.

Heel pain: judge progress by the first steps of the morning, not by how the session felt. That number should shrink week by week.

Achilles: pain a few centimetres above the heel takes full heel drops. Pain on the heel bone itself does not — stay on flat ground, as every Phase 3 sheet says.

Progression: every movement has an easier and a harder version. Two clean sessions on a level earn the next.

Kit: a wall, a chair, a step, a towel, a ball and a loaded backpack. Barefoot on a non-slip floor unless the foot is very painful.

Phase 1Settle and mobilise

AWake the ankle. Free the foot. Nothing hurts.Six seated and standing drills that move the ankle through its range and switch the calf on without taking your weight. BRoll it. Press it. Let the sole settle.Tissue work for the sole and gentle isometrics in every direction — the calmest day in the programme. CTen degrees. That is what walking needs.Dorsiflexion day: the range that walking, stairs and squatting all depend on, plus the two calf stretches. DThree points on the floor. Every step.The foot tripod, the big toe and the first real arch work — the foundation everything else stands on. ELower slowly. Hold steady. Build the tendon.The first controlled lowering and the first balance work, with rotation drills for the sides of the ankle. FSix sessions in. The ankle bends. The foot holds.Phase 1 check-in: measure the ankle range, take a full heel raise, and walk on the toes and the heels.

Phase 2Foot and toes

GBuild the arch. Do not buy one.Phase 2 opens inside the foot: eleven small muscles that hold the arch and are almost never trained. HThe windlass. Lift the toe, raise the arch.The mechanism that makes push-off stiff and efficient — and the drills that train it. IHigh load for the heel that hurts.The evidence-based drill for plantar heel pain: a slow heel raise with the toes propped, loading the fascia directly. JInside edge. Outside edge. Both strong.The two tendons that hold the ankle in line — tibialis posterior inside, peroneals outside. KPush off. Every step ends there.Toe-off is the last push of every stride — today the forefoot, the calf and the balance that carries it. LTwelve in. The foot does its job.Phase 2 check-in: the single-leg heel raise, the tibialis and the walks that test the whole foot.

Phase 3Calf and Achilles

MSlow. Heavy. All the way up.Phase 3 opens on the Achilles: full-range loading with both a straight and a bent knee, because they are two different muscles. NThree up. Three down. Twice a day if it helps.The classic loading protocols, straight-knee and bent-knee, run at a tempo the tendon can actually use. OHold it. The tendon goes quiet.Isometric day: long holds settle an irritable tendon, then the heaviest slow loading of the week. PTwenty-five reps. That is the standard.Endurance day: the calf fails on repetitions long before it fails on strength, and that is what the day tests. QFull range. Full load. Both legs equal.The heaviest calf session in the programme, plus the deep-range work most people never do. REighteen in. Count them. Compare sides.Phase 3 check-in: the heel-raise test on each leg, the ankle range measured again, and the walks timed.

Phase 4Balance and stability

SWobble. Catch it. That is the training.Phase 4 opens on balance — the single best-evidenced way to stop the next ankle sprain. TSideways. The direction ankles roll.Lateral loading and the peroneals — the muscles that catch a rolling ankle before it sprains. UHop. Stick it. Two full seconds.The first hopping — small, low, and judged entirely on how quietly and how still it lands. VEvery direction. Every surface. Still standing.Multi-directional loading and unstable ground — the two things real walking throws at an ankle. WReach further. Hold the line. Both sides equal.The reaching and single-leg strength that expose exactly which ankle is still behind. XTwenty-four in. Test the balance. Then trust it.Phase 4 check-in: the balance test, the reach test and the first real bound.

Phase 5Load and return

YSprings first. Sprints later. Quiet feet always.Phase 5 opens with elastic loading: short, stiff ankle bounces that teach the tendon to store and return energy. ZOne leg. Off the floor. And back, silently.Single-leg hopping — the test that decides readiness for running, introduced small and symmetrical. AARun tall. Push off. Stop dead.Running mechanics on the spot, stair drive, and the stopping that ankles actually fail at. ABRope. Rebound. Rapid heels.Repeated elastic loading — the closest thing at home to what running asks of an Achilles. ACUphill. Uneven. Loaded.The ground is never flat — today the ankle meets slopes, soft surfaces and real load. ADThirty sessions. Both feet. Same numbers.Graduation: the heel-raise count, the hop distance, the balance time and the ankle range — left against right, written down.