People who cannot sit into a deep squat usually assume it is their hips. Most of the time it is further down.
Here is the test that tells you, and the sequence that works on it.
Why the ankle is usually the limit
A deep squat needs the shin to travel forward over the foot while the heel stays down. That movement is ankle dorsiflexion, and it is the one a day in a chair, plus years in shoes with a raised heel, tends to quietly reduce.
When the ankle runs out of range, the body finds it elsewhere. The heels lift, or the feet turn out, or the back rounds to keep you balanced.
So a squat that collapses is often an ankle problem wearing a hip costume.
The wall test
This takes thirty seconds and it is worth doing before anything else.
- Kneel in front of a wall with one foot flat on the floor, toes about a hand's width from the skirting.
- Keeping the heel down, drive that knee forward to touch the wall.
- If the knee touches with the heel flat, that ankle has usable range. If the heel lifts or the knee stops short, it does not.
Do both sides. A clear difference between them is common and worth knowing about.
If you pass the test comfortably on both sides and still cannot squat, the limiting factor is elsewhere, and more calf stretching will not change it.
The five stretches, in order
Ground up, exactly as the app runs it.
- Ankle Circles. One foot off the floor, slow circles in both directions. Forty seconds each side. Dull, and the best warm-up for the rest of this.
- Toe and Arch Stretch. Tuck the toes under and sit back gently onto the heels. Thirty seconds. Go carefully; this one is sharper than it looks.
- Kneeling Shin Stretch. Kneel with the tops of the feet flat and sit back. Thirty seconds. This is the front of the ankle, which almost nobody stretches.
- Standing Calf Stretch. Hands on a wall, one leg back, heel down. Forty seconds each side. Then repeat with that back knee softly bent, which moves the stretch lower into the ankle rather than the belly of the calf.
- Deep Squat Hold. Feet about shoulder width, toes slightly out, sit down between your heels. Forty-five seconds. Hold a doorframe and let your weight hang back if you need to; that is not cheating, it lets you relax into the position instead of fighting it.
The two-knee trick
Point five above mentions it, and it is worth its own paragraph because it is the most useful detail here.
A calf stretch with a straight back knee biases the gastrocnemius, the part of the calf that crosses the knee. A calf stretch with a bent back knee biases the soleus underneath it, which is the one that limits how far the shin can travel forward over the foot.
For squat depth specifically, the bent-knee version is usually the more relevant of the two, and it is the one most people skip.
How long to hold, and how often
Thirty to forty-five seconds per stretch. The 2025 Sports Medicine meta-analysis of 189 studies and 6,654 adults found thirty-second holds matching sixty-second ones, and weekly gains levelling off at roughly ten minutes per muscle group, however those minutes were divided.
Ankles respond on a slower schedule than hamstrings do, in the sense that this is a project rather than a session. Treat the wall test as the measure and retest every few weeks rather than every day.
When to stop, and when to ask someone
Stretching is general fitness, not treatment. The ankle is a joint where a hard, bony end-feel means stop: if the movement is blocked by something that feels like bone rather than tension, more stretching will not change it and may irritate it.
Stop if you get pain at the front of the ankle joint, pain at the back of the heel, any sharpness through the arch, or anything that persists afterwards. An ankle that has been sprained badly or operated on wants a professional opinion first. Our fitness and safety note covers it.
Where Lucy fits
Lucy is an iPhone app of short guided stretching routines for people who sit all day. Path to a Deep Squat is four minutes and five stretches, and it is the five above in that order, ground up.
It is built as a project rather than a one-off: the same joint approached from several angles, repeated. The timer counts each hold and cues the side changes.
One routine is free in full. The rest is a subscription with a 7-day free trial, priced in your own currency on the App Store.
FAQ
How do you know if your ankles are limiting your squat?
The wall test above is the standard screen: kneeling with the toes a hand's width from a wall, drive the knee forward keeping the heel down. If the knee reaches the wall with the heel flat, the ankle has usable range for most squatting.
How long does ankle mobility take to improve?
Longer than hamstrings, in most people's experience, and nobody can give you a reliable number. Use the wall test as the measure and retest every few weeks rather than judging it session to session.
Should you squat with your heels on a plate?
Raising the heels reduces how much ankle range the squat demands, so it lets you reach depth today. It is a reasonable way to train the position while you work on the ankle separately, rather than a replacement for doing so.
Does stretching calves help ankle mobility?
Calf work is the usual approach, and the bent-knee version is the one that targets the muscle most relevant to shin-over-foot travel. If the restriction is bony rather than muscular, stretching will not change it, which is what the wall test helps you find out.
Can tight ankles cause knee problems?
That is a question for a professional about your body rather than something an app can answer. What is fair to say is that when an ankle runs out of range, the movement tends to be found elsewhere in the chain.
Lucy runs the ankle work as a timed routine you can do by a counter.