Foot and ankle history and clinical examination: A guide to everyday practice

Table 6 Examination techniques of muscles functions[3]

Muscle	Ankle position	Manoeuvre of the test
Tibialis Anterior	Maximum Dorsiflexion and inversion	Try to plantar flex the ankle with your hand and ask the patient to resist, use your second hand on the tendon to feel the contraction (Figure 1)
Tibialis posterior	Plantar flexion and inversion	Patient inverts the foot in full plantar flexion whilst the examiner pushes laterally against the medial border of the patient’s foot (in an attempt to evert the foot). The examiner needs to use second hand on the tendon to feel the contraction (Figure 2)
Peroneal longus and peroneal brevis	Plantar flexion and eversion	Patient everts the foot in full plantar flexion and the examiner pushes medially against the lateral border of the patient’s foot (in an attempt to invert the foot) (Figure 3)
Extensor hallucis longus	Neutral	Patient extends the great toe and the examiner try to planter flex it (Figure 4)
Extensor digitorum longus	Neutral	Patient extends the lesser toes toe and the examiner try to planter flex it1 (Figure 5)
Flexor hallucis longus and flexor digitorum longus	Neutral	Patient curls the toes downward and the examiner tries to dorsiflex them1

¹It can be difficult to neutralize the intrinsic muscles completely.