Are YOU at Risk of Lower Limb Pain? | Try this Simple Test!

Lower limb pain can be caused by discrepancies in the available range of motion at the ankle joint – this can be checked by performing the commonly used “Lunge Test”, also called the “Toe to Wall Test”.

In this test the leading foot is placed close to the wall - you then lunge forward until the knee of the leading foot touches the wall whilst keeping the heel down– if the knee successfully touches the wall you redo the test but move the foot a little further from the wall. Repeat the test until you are no longer able to touch the knee to the wall then measure the maximal distance that the toes can be away from the wall but the knee still touch. Then repeat for the other leg. If there is a difference in the result for each leg of more than 10% then it is advisable to have a comprehensive assessment done to determine the cause of the imbalance – it may be due to past ankle injury, past fracture or calf tightness – a great test and very predictive of possible lower limb injury when training volume is increased.