Tibialis Raise Guide

Stand upright with your hips against a wall and your heels about 12 inches away from it. A slight hip bend is fine if you need more ease. Keeping your legs straight and quads engaged, lift your toes up toward your shins to engage the tibialis anterior — the muscle running along the front of your shin. Lower back down with control and repeat.

Adjusting Difficulty

• Easier: Walk your feet further from the wall to reduce the load.
• Harder: Walk your feet closer to the wall to increase the demand.

Throughout the movement, keep your quads engaged and avoid hiking your hips or bending your knees to compensate.

Purpose

Ankle and lower leg strength is the first building block of ground-up rehabilitation. Weakness here — sometimes presenting as foot drop after prolonged nerve pain — leaves the knees and low back vulnerable. Building strength in the tibialis anterior creates the stable foundation that all knee and lower back training depends on.