Thursday, August 25, 2016

This Butt And Hips Exercise Will Also Help Prevent Knee Pain

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While plyometric exercises are great for driving up your heart rate and burning calories, high-impact jumping movements that work your lower body can often be tough on your knees. However, that doesn’t mean all booty-strengthening moves put your joints at risk. The clamshell exercise works your butt and hips and sets your knees up to be able to handle other exercises (without putting any stress on them in the process). Win-win.

“The clamshell is one of the best lower-body exercises because it helps strengthen the gluteus medius and piriformis (outside hip area),” says Michelle Lovitt, M.A., exercise physiologist. Plus, low-impact moves like the clamshell don’t place any unnecessary stress on the knees. You don’t have to avoid those jump squats or burpees entirely (unless recommended by your doctor, always check in with your doctor if you’re experiencing pain!), but having some less explosive exercises mixed in will keep your joints happy. Plus, strengthening the hips and glutes can help your knees handle that stress when you are working with those higher-impact moves.

If you’re having knee pain, physical therapists will often look to the muscles that support your knees to reduce the stress that’s placed on it. So while it might not seem like working these muscles would help with knee pain, the body has a sneaky way of using this strength to its advantage. “The gluteus medius helps in external rotation of the hip, and strengthening it also prevents internal rotation of the femur, which prevents internal rotation at the knee, keeping it tracking properly to prevent injury,” says Lovitt. As the old song goes, the knee bone’s connected to the: thigh bone

Convinced yet? Grab a spot on a mat or the floor and try it for yourself. Here’s how. 

Clamshell

CLAM_SHELL

Whitney Thielman 

  • Lie on your left side with your hips, knees, and ankles stacked on top of one another. Support yourself by placing your head on your left arm and putting your right hand on the floor in front of your chest.
  • Bend your knees at a 90-degree angle.
  • Keeping your feet together, rotate your right knee open, then slowly lower it back to the ground.
  • That’s 1 rep. Do 15, then switch sides.
  • Once you master the move, work your way up to 2-3 sets, suggests Lovitt. You can also loop a resistance band around your knees for an extra challenge.

You may also like: 9 Easy Stretches For Tight Hips

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