What you’re targeting:
- Bent leg side:
- Gluteal and deep posterior hip muscle mobility
- Straight leg side:
- Hip flexor mobility
- Gluteal neuromuscular control through your full available hip extension range of motion
What you need:
- A mat or carpeted surface for comfort
How to perform:
- Position:
- Starting on your hands and knees in all fours, bring one of your legs forwards and place the outside of your thigh on the ground with your knee bent and your foot pointing towards your opposite hip.
- Extend your opposite leg straight behind yourself while keeping your torso centered over your front leg. Both the front of your sternum and your front thigh should be pointing straight forwards
- Flex your ankle upwards to place your great toe directly under your shin
- From here, move from weight bearing on your hands to weight bearing on your forearms—folding forwards over your front lower extremity.
- Movement:
- Lift your knee of your back leg by tightening your buttocks
- Hold for 1-3 seconds at “terminal knee extension” (where your knee is straight)
- Lower your knee back to the ground while maintaining your buttock muscle activation
- This causes your muscle to work while it is lengthening (an eccentric contraction). Eccentric muscle contractions are used to develop control and strength.
- Tips:
- Set yourself up for success. You can use towels to improve comfort in this position by placing support under the knee or thigh of your forward leg if you are experiencing knee pain
What you should feel:
- Stretching in the buttock of your forwards leg and pulling in the front of your extended hip.
- Gluteal activation of your extended leg
- You should not feel knee joint strain with this activity. Adjust your positioning if you are feeling knee pressure/discomfort
How many repetitions and how much weight?
- Athletes should perform 2-5 sets of 20-30 repetitions of this exercise (on both sides) with a hold of 1-3 seconds at the top of their range of motion