Biomechanical Insights into Ankle Dynamics: Enhancing Athletic Performance and Injury Mitigation

The ankle joint plays a central role in human locomotion and postural control. Adequate ankle mobility and neuromuscular coordination are essential for efficient force production, balance regulation, and functional movement patterns. Limitations in ankle dorsiflexion range of motion have been associated with altered movement mechanics, compensatory strategies, and increased injury risk in both athletic and general populations. Yet ankle function is governed as much by its underlying physiology — muscle activation, motor unit recruitment, and muscle–tendon properties — as by joint mechanics. Recent advances in biomechanical assessment — surface electromyography (EMG), motion capture systems, stabilometric platforms, inertial measurement units, and wearable sensors — allow researchers to quantify neuromuscular responses, joint mobility, and ground reaction forces with increasing precision. These developments create new opportunities to understand how ankle physiology and biomechanics shape movement performance and how targeted exercise interventions improve ankle function.

The goal of this Research Topic is to advance the understanding of ankle joint function in human movement, performance, and injury prevention, with the physiological and neuromuscular mechanisms underlying ankle function as its principal focus. The ankle plays a critical role in locomotion, balance control, and force transmission during daily activities and athletic performance, and alterations in mobility and neuromuscular control can significantly influence movement efficiency, functional performance, and the risk of musculoskeletal injuries. Despite growing interest, the physiological mechanisms — muscle activation patterns, neuromuscular fatigue, muscle–tendon behaviour, and training-induced adaptation — that drive ankle function during exercise remain insufficiently explored, as does their interaction with ankle range of motion and movement mechanics during sport-specific tasks. This Research Topic aims to gather multidisciplinary research integrating exercise physiology, neuromuscular science, and biomechanics to clarify how ankle function is regulated, how it responds to acute exercise and chronic training, and its implications for performance optimization, rehabilitation, and injury prevention.

This Research Topic welcomes contributions addressing the physiological, neuromuscular, and biomechanical aspects of ankle joint function. We invite original research articles, systematic reviews, methodological papers, and clinical investigations focusing on ankle function in both athletic and clinical populations. Topics of interest include, but are not limited to:
o Neuromuscular control and motor unit recruitment of ankle musculature
o Physiological determinants of ankle force and power production
o Muscle activation (EMG) during gait, jumping, and sport-specific movements
o Neuromuscular fatigue of the plantar flexors/dorsiflexors and its effect on performance
o Muscle–tendon physiology and stiffness regulation at the ankle
o Ankle dorsiflexion and joint mobility
o Exercise interventions and physiological adaptations targeting ankle function
o Wearable sensors and technological approaches for ankle assessment
o Ankle biomechanics, rehabilitation, and injury prevention