So, how do you actually test your plantar flexion? I created this test I just call it a line test. Basically 50 degrees of plantar flexion is, is a good kind of starting point for someone who’s trying to improve their swimming. So the reality is is you just need a friend – you need someone with a camera that can take a picture of you standing on one leg, have them a few feet away from you and then when you’re ready, you’re going to stand on one foot and you’re going to plantar flex the other foot as much as you can, similar to as you see in the picture below. Have the person, take a snapshot of your foot. Make sure to get the foot itself and the ankle and the bottom of the shin and the frame, similar to the picture that you see. What you do is you would repeat that on both sides, but you from there you would upload the photos to your computer or open up an app on your iPhone or your Android phone, and you basically would draw a straight line from your kneecap, all the way down to your biggest toe.
If that line crosses over your toes, that means your plantar flexion isn’t at 50 degrees or more. It means your plantar flexion is less than that. But if the line looks similar to this picture right here. You can see that she has enough plantar flexion to not have her toes cross the line therefore she has 50-degrees or MORE of plantaflexion. So the line is just really a gauge of how far can you put your toes from the knee angle. And if you can do that, that’s a good thing. And if you can’t, then you have some work to do.
