Ankle band side walks
Whenever I do this exercise, I always get those weird looks from people in the gym. They always look at me as if I am a crazy woman, that just got out of the madhouse. One time, while I was performing the exercise, there was that guy who couldn’t keep on watching me anymore and dared to ask me “Ok, why in the world are you doing this gay exercise?”. I just smiled and gave him the band, asking him to try it! No unnecessary explanations! Personal experience, always gives the best answers to every question!
He did one set and said “Oh, my this exercise is terrible, it really made my abductors burn!”
Personally I love this exercise. It really helps with hip stability, knee stability and strengthening of the abductors.
How to perform it?
Put the band around your ankles. Get in a half squat position, but keep your back straight and your shoulders back.
Then step to the side with one leg( let’s say the left). Then the right leg should follow the left, so both legs bring together again. When you move your legs you should control the movement and don’t drag the legs!
More often than not, people put the bands around their ankles and start rushing the movement! The goal of the exercise isn’t to do it quick! I’d say that the slower you do it, the more you will feel the burn!
I usually incorporate this movement in my warm up, by doing 3 rounds of 8-10 steps to each side.
The other option is to do the exercise, by once again starting in a half squat position. This time your legs should be as wide apart as possible. After that start by doing small steps backwards and then forward.
Contrary to what you know about squats- that your toes should be pointing out, this time you should focus on keeping your toes pointing inward. You are supposed to do it like this, because when your toes are pointed out, you are mainly using your hip flexors, and your goal is to use your abductors, which is achieved when your toes are slightly inward!
But no matter how much I explain, you will never understand how unique this exercise is, until you try!
And here is a video with Martin Rooney, who does an excellent work, explaining the exercises:
If when you perform squats and deadlifts, your knees cave in, I sincerely encourage you to try this exercise as an assistance exercise! It will strengthen your abductors and it will help you stabilize your knees!
Besides that I am really sorry, that nobody showed me this movement when I was a basketball player! I sincerely recommend it to those of you, who are playing basketball! But in this case, besides doing it the slow way, you could practice your defense stance, by putting the band on your ankles and then move like that in defense! Thus, when you remove the band, nobody is gonna be able to break your defense! 😉
Do you incorporate this exercises in your training program? WHat are the positives you’ve noticed?
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Thank you !! Can;t wait to see the next one 😉
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