Ankle-friendly exercises

Leg, glute, upper-body and core exercises that do not load the ankle, ideal if you have a sprain, an injury or pain when putting weight on your foot.

After a sprain, a fracture or with chronic ankle pain, many routines become hard to follow: almost every classic leg exercise (squats, lunges, jumps, deadlifts) means standing with weight or landing on the floor.

The good news is that you can train your whole body, legs included, without loading the ankle. The key is guided machines where the leg works seated or lying down, such as the leg extension, leg curl, machine hip thrust and the abductor and adductor machines. For cardio, the stationary bike is usually better tolerated than the treadmill, elliptical or rower.

The list below shows the exercises in our catalog that do not load the ankle according to our classification. If you are recovering from an injury, follow your doctor's or physical therapist's advice and progress gradually.

For a complete routine built on these principles, see Low-impact glutes & legs.

67 exercises do not load this joint.

Lower body

Quads

• Leg extension

Hamstrings

• Leg curl (seated or lying)

Glutes

• Machine hip thrust
• Barbell hip thrust
• Floor glute bridge
• Quadruped glute kickback

Abductors

• Hip abduction machine
• Seated banded abduction
• Side-lying leg raise
• Clamshell

Adductors

• Hip adduction machine

Upper body

Chest

• Barbell bench press
• Incline dumbbell press
• Machine chest press
• Pec deck fly
• Cable crossover

Triceps

• Parallel bar dips
• Cable triceps pushdown
• Overhead triceps extension
• Skull crusher
• Bench dips

Shoulders

• Standing overhead press
• Seated dumbbell shoulder press
• Machine shoulder press
• Dumbbell lateral raise
• Cable lateral raise
• Front raise
• Reverse pec deck
• Face pull

Back

• Pull-ups
• Assisted pull-ups
• Lat pulldown
• Straight-arm cable pulldown
• Barbell bent-over row
• One-arm dumbbell row
• Seated machine row
• Single-arm cable row
• Seated cable row

Biceps

• Barbell curl
• Biceps curl (machine or seated dumbbell)
• Hammer curl
• Cable curl

Core

Abs

• Machine crunch
• Standing cable crunch
• Floor crunch
• Reverse crunch
• Dead bug
• Lying leg raise
• Flutter kicks
• Scissor kicks
• Single-leg lowering
• Hollow body hold
• Tabletop crunch
• Toe touch crunch
• Ab wheel rollout
• Captain's chair leg raise
• Hanging leg raise

Obliques

• Bicycle crunch
• Heel touches
• Machine torso rotation
• Pallof press
• Cable woodchop
• Russian twist

Lower back

• Back extension

Cardio

Cardio

• Stationary bike
• Recumbent bike
• Arm ergometer

If you have an injury, pain or a medical condition, check with a professional before doing this exercise.