Friday, June 18, 2010

Exercise of the Day and Client Spotlight - Inner/Outer Leg

Today's Exercise of the Day is how to work the inner and outer parts of your legs called the adductors and abductors. There is that weird looking machine in the gym you see where people sit down and spread their legs as wide as possible and then push in or push out. That works your ad and abductors, but it's just not a comfortable machine.

These two exercises that my client Beth demonstrates for us in today's video are much more comfortable to do and involve dynamic movements (more then just isolating one body part), so it is functionally better for you to do these two exercises.

The first one is called a side or lateral lunge. Hold some kind of weight (dumbbell, plate or kettlebell) in your hands with your arms locked stiff and between your legs. Then lunge to each side. Whichever side you lunge to, bend that knee, keeping both of your feet facing forward. NEVER LET THE KNEE GO IN FRONT OF THE FOOT. With the opposite leg, straighten the knee to almost a locked position, feeling the stretch on the inner portion of the straightened leg.

The second exercise is called a lateral tube walk. This can be done with or without an ankle band. Beth is doing it with an ankle band. All you do is get down into a squat position and walk laterally in each direction. Again, never let your knee bend in front of your toes, keep your feet facing forward and STAY DOWN LOW. You should feel this exercise in the outer portion of your leg and the outer side of the hip.

These exercises should be done every time you do your legs routine and I promise you will be sore for 2-3 days following these exercises because these are muscles that are very under worked. However, they are extremely important in protecting the knee from being hurt and they help runners run faster. It will also help define the inner thigh that soo many women ask me about.

I want to thank Beth for demonstrating these exercises.

Enjoy the exercise, enjoy your weekend and as always, let me know how it goes.


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