Keep your legs slim and trim with this exercise targeting wide ankles!
Embarrassed by your ankles? With the sunshine on its way you’ve probably turned your thoughts to wearing summer sandals and shorts and exposing your lower legs and for many people having wide ankles is a big issue.
The fat stored between your calves and ankles is often referred to as cankles and they can make people really insecure. There’s hope, though! The best way to blast away those cankles is by losing weight throughout your whole body and eventually the layer of fat will begin to disappear. As well as watching what you eat, you can do this exercise that targets your lower legs to promote weight loss. Calf raises will help slim them down and get you feeling super confident again.
The one-legged calf raise is an easy toning move that you can do anywhere – all you need is the back of a chair or something hip-height to support yourself.
How Stand on your right foot, holding on to the back of a chair for balance. Raise your left leg bent behind you. Contract your calf muscles and raise your right heel off the floor to balance on tip toes (A). Hold for two seconds, then lower your heels back down to the floor (B). Do two sets of 12-15 reps on both sides.
Focus on rising up as high as possible onto your toes. The larger the range of motion during each rep, the harder your muscles are having to work. It won’t be beneficial if you’re only doing half reps, feel the burn!
Tip! Remember to stretch afterwards. It’s super important to stretch after exercising to prevent muscle soreness and improve flexibility!
Cankles can be caused by water retention, too. The easiest way to figure out if you’re retaining water is to press down on your ankles with your finger, if it leaves a temporary dent in your skin it most likely means you’re holding water. If this is the case, try to lower your salt levels, cut out alcohol and drink plenty of water.
If the worst comes to the worst and you’ve tried all of the above and your cankles STILL wont shift, there’s a high chance that it might run in the family. Speak to parents and grandparents and there might be a possibility that your genetics are to blame.
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