When performing conventional and Romanian deadlifts, the angle of the ankle joint changes more at the bottom and knee-height positions than at the mid-thigh position, showing that ankle motion varies...
Mechanism
Synthesis from 1 study
When you start lifting with your hips back, your ankles have to bend more to keep the weight close to your body. When you start with your knees bending more, your ankles don’t need to bend as much. But once the bar gets halfway up, both ways of lifting force your body into the same position, so...
Most probable mechanism
When lifting with the hips leading, the ankle has to bend more to keep the bar close to the body when it's low, but when the knees lead more, the ankle doesn't need to move as much. At the middle of the lift, both movements force the body into a similar position, so the ankle doesn't move differently anymore.
During the initial phase of the lift, the position of the hips relative to the bar determines the required dorsiflexion angle at the ankle to maintain bar proximity and balance.
In movements where hip extension dominates, greater ankle dorsiflexion is mechanically necessary to prevent forward torso lean and maintain center of mass alignment over the base of support.
As the bar passes knee height, the relative contribution of knee and hip extension becomes more balanced, reducing the need for differential ankle movement between movement patterns.
At mid-thigh position, the alignment of the torso, femur, and tibia converges into a similar biomechanical configuration regardless of initial movement strategy, minimizing ankle angle variation.
Evidence from Studies
Supporting (1)
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