Runners are incredibly good at accumulating miles, but the body doesn’t care about how many miles you’re tracking on Strava or your Garmin watch; it cares about load tolerance.

I work with a large population of runners, both in person and virtually online, from solo runners to those in run clubs, and almost all ankle-related running injuries fall into one simple category: The ankle wasn’t prepared for the amount of stress it received!

I always tell all my clients, look, you don’t need to become a bodybuilder or powerlifter, but you do need enough strength in the right muscles to handle the thousands of repetitive foot strikes to support your joints and avoid injury.

When ther body isn’t strong enough to support the joints, or your capacity is exceeded, problems show up usually as:

Achilles tendonitis (tendinopathy)
General ankle joint pain
Ankle sprains

Let’s break down each one and what your body is telling you when these occur

Achilles Tendonitis/tendinopathy in Runners

The Achilles tendon is the extension of the calf muscles, anchoring the muscle to the heel, and is the thick, broad tendon at the back of your ankle. It’s designed to store and release energy with every step you take. Running relies on it like a spring.

The problem occurs when demand increases faster than the tendon can adapt. This commonly happens in three situations:

1. The New Runner

You sign up for a 5K after not running for many months or even years. Then, you start running daily, because that’s what the pros are doing, right?

Eventually, that sudden increase in running mileage begins to overload the tendon, causing you pain with every step, when you stand after sitting for hours, and when you go up and down stairs. Ouch.

Your cardiovascular system improves quickly, but tendons adapt slowly. So you feel “fit enough” to keep running while the tendon quietly accumulates stress.

2. The Experienced Runner Increasing Mileage

You were running 20-30 miles/week with no issue. Now you suddenly jump to 40-50, in one week preparing for a race. Your fitness can handle it, but your tendon capacity might not.

3. Weak Supporting Muscles

If the muscles of the calf, such as the big gastrocnemius and the smaller soleus muscle, and the smaller foot stabilizers are not strong enough, the tendon absorbs more force than it should during activities like running and jumping. It causes the tendon around the muscles to take more load than it can tolerate, causing pain and eventually tendinopathy.

Pain is often your body asking for load management and strengthening.

General Ankle Joint Pain While Running

Sometimes runners don’t have tendon pain but instead feel:

stiffness in the ankle
soreness deep in the joint
aching after longer runs
discomfort during push-off

This usually involves the talocrural joint, your main ankle joint, which consists of the tibia, fibula, and talus.

The causes are often a combination of:

Poor Load Distribution

Weak muscles mean more force goes into joint surfaces, causing unwanted stress into the joint.

Mobility Restrictions

Limited ankle dorsiflexion forces compensations up the chain. If the ankle joint does not move well, the knee and hips must compensate, and vice versa.

Repetitive Stress

The joint tolerates mileage until it doesn’t.

What Helps

It is usually thought that in order to heal, we need complete bed rest. But that’s not the case. Instead of only resting, runners typically improve when we combine:

Strengthening surrounding muscles
Improving ankle mobility
Controlled loading

Ankle Sprains in Runners

Sometimes runners do everything right and still roll their ankle. From stepping on a pothole, hitting uneven pavement, terrain changing suddenly, or from fatigue late in the run. Most sprains involve the anterior talofibular ligament (ATFL), the most commonly injured ligament in runners.

The step caused the ankle sprain. Your strength capacity determines whether it becomes an injury or not.

Strong ankles can’t prevent every twist, but they help prevent twists from becoming injuries.

Weak or poorly conditioned stabilizers delay your reaction time, so the joint collapses before muscles can protect it.

That’s why runners with previous sprains often keep re-spraining, not because ligaments never healed, but because stability wasn’t rebuilt.

Why Strength Training Matters for Runners

Running is a repetitive single-leg activity. At no point are you ever on two legs when running. If your muscles aren’t strong enough to properly absorb force, your tendons, ligaments, and joints will.

Strength training:

reduces load on tendons
improves joint stability
improves running economy
reduces injury risk
improves durability

You don’t need heavy bodybuilding workouts. You don’t need to train the way a bodybuilder or powerlifter does. You need targeted strength capacity for the demands of running. This involves a lot of single-leg exercises, single-leg landing, stability, and more.

And I’ll tell you now: your Pilates, boot camp, and Pure Barre classes are not strength training and not the best at helping you stay injury-free from running. Not because they’re not an effective exercise program, but because they;re not true strength training, and not specific to running.

Exercises to Strengthen the Ankles for Running

Here are just a few of MANY exercises I perform with my runners to help them stay string, mobile, and build stability to help prevent ankle injuries.

Ankle Mobility

Ankle Stability

Ankle and Lower Body Strength

Here is my favorite Slant Board for some of the exercises above to help with ankke ranfe of motion and strength
The Slant Board by The Tib Bar Guy HERE

Final Thoughts

Most running injuries aren’t random. They happen when training load exceeds tissue capacity.

If you improve the strength of the muscles that support your ankle, your body distributes force better, absorbs impact better, and tolerates running better. That’s how runners stay consistent. And consistency is what actually makes you a better runner.

aRE YOU dEALING WITH aNKLE PAIN STOPPING YOU FROM RUNNING?

If you're dealing with ankle pain or any pain or want to prevent future injuries while getting stronger, I offer 1-on-1 virtual training designed to help you build strength, improve mobility, and return to the activities you love pain-free.

My online coaching includes personalized strength and rehab plans by a Doctor of Physical Therapy tailored to your goals, weekly check-ins, and direct support from me.

👉 Click here for more info or use the link to get started: obeystrength.com/coaching

Let’s work together to rebuild your strength from the ground up.

Ankle Strengthening for Runners: Prevent Pain, Tendonitis & Sprains