I am currently rehabbing a minor knee injury, and my physical therapist suggested that my glutes are weak, which could be a contributing factor to my knee troubles. Weak glutes are so common in runners!
I posted about this on my Instagram running account @jenlrun and asked the running community for their favorite glute strengthening exercises. I received so many ideas that I decided to consolidate it and share it. Most of these exercises don’t require any special equipment except a band! The following is a list of the recommendations. I also received a couple useful videos so I linked those at the bottom.
Please note, I am NOT a physical therapist or trainer of any sort, and I am not recommending any of these to anyone or attesting to the safety or effectiveness of any of these. I have simply compiled the list for informational purposes, in case anyone wants to reference it for ideas. Some of these were exercises I didn’t recognize (froggers?!), so a quick google search turned up how-to info.
Happy running!
GLUTE STRENGTHENING EXERCISES
Clamshells
Standing clamshells (with or without band around knees)
Bridges (with or without band at knees, with abductions)
Single leg bridges
Marching Bridges (also with band at feet)
Bridges with feet elevated (ex. On ottoman.) (single leg or both)
Monster walk with band
Eccentric step down
Standing hip abduction
Cable kickbacks
Deadlifts
Single leg deadlifts
Romanian deadlifts
B-stance deadlifts
Hip thrusts (variations- on exercise ball, with weights on hips)
One-leg hip thrusts
Froggers
Diamond leg lifts
Dumbell snatches
Abductions (extended range abductions)
Side lying hip raises
Reverse hypers
Step ups (with or without weights)
Lateral side-steps with band
Standing kickbacks (with or without band)
Squats (Variations- with band, squat holds with weight plate)
Walking banded squats
Pistol squats
Decline squats
Sumo squats
Side leg lifts
Lunges (also marching lunges)
Static lunges with heavy weight
40-60 walking lunges after easy runs
Donkey kickback with weight behind knee
Single leg curtsy squats
Kettlebell swings
Jumping rope after short runs
Elliptical
Swimming
Barre
Single leg abduction
Cable machine pull through
Hip flexor stretching
Bulgarian split squats
Back leg lifts with band
Weighted calf raises (Also single leg)
Frog pumps
Wall sits
Here are the videos!
One is not specifically a glute strengthening exercise but an awesome mobility stretch for opening up the front of the hips and quads. It's called couch stretching and you can see the video here.
The other is a lunge matrix video for before runs which looks like it could be really helpful. You can see it here.
Have fun! xx Jen
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