in this video I'm going to discuss the weight bearing lunge test or wall test to assess ankle dorsiflexion restriction or ankle stiffness hi and welcome back to physio tutors this test can be used as a continuous assessment of ankle dorsiflexion several techniques have been described in the literature where during the lunge either the front limb or back limb is assessed and the clinicians either used an inclinometer or tape measure to assess the degree of dorsiflexion a review done by Paul Nadal in the Year 2015 reports no significant differences in reliability between the different measurement techniques there is widespread consensus that limited ankle dorsiflexion is a contributing factor in several orthopedic conditions such as patellofemoral pain syndrome or over pronation and the foot possibly causing plantar fasciitis a wall distance of 5 inches or 12 and a half centimeters is considered normal range of motion just use one hand width as a rule of thumb we are going to demonstrate the wall distance technique using a tape measure the patient should try and touch the wall with his knee while keeping the foot flat on the ground you will then measure the distance between the wall and the big toe repeat these steps and increase the distance as long as the patient is able to touch the wall with the knee whilst keeping the foot planted on the ground if you feel an anterior pinching sensation the limitation probably lies within the joint itself and mobilizations will help secondly soft tissue might be the cause of the problem and targeting the calf through stretching or foam rolling might improve mobility to assess progress using this technique a change of one point nine centimeters is necessary for a change in ankle dorsiflexion range of motion to be free of measurement error okay now that you've seen the wall test you might want to check out our video on ankle joint play or another video from our ankle assessment playlist as always give this video a thumbs up if you liked it and we like the conversation with you so reach out to us on social media just click the link down below subscribe to our channel if you haven't and I'll see you in the next video bye