January 20, 2021
Author: Wisdom in Movement
Exercise of the week: I Leg Hip Thrust
Benefits:
To start off the New Year, we have a great exercise called the 1 Leg hip thrust, that focuses on pelvis stability and gluteal strength, particularly in the gluteus medius and minimus. Part of your core strength is also dependent upon how strong and stable your gluteal muscles are conditioned for walking, running, standing, lateral movement and weight shift. What I also love about this exercise is that it’s a unilateral movement that is beneficial for the non-dominant leg. At times during bilateral exercises the dominant limb/side will tend to overcompensate in the action of the exercise.
Constant attention on your muscles is required and doing body weight exercises such as this will help manage and mitigate strength and muscle loss that occurs with older age. Another cool thing that occurs when performing unilateral exercises is the cross-education of muscles on the non-working side, which is a neural event. What this means is that when you are training one side during a unilateral exercises, there is an indirect activation of the non-working side of the body.
How this Benefits the you in Golf:
- Provides Anatomical Balance in the backswing and in the follow-though of the swing
- Improves awareness and proper utilization of the ground forces in golf swing
- Strengthens core and pelvic stability
Exercise instruction:
- Upper back is positioned on the bench.
- On foot is on the floor while the other leg is extended straight out.
- Lower hips towards floor, and then drive up, using the gluteus by pushing through the heel.
- Get hip as high as possible and return to start position and repeat
Frequency:
Once or Twice a week – 4 sets | 8 reps
For more exercises go see more of our page right here
For more personalized workouts with the top strength and conditioning coach in golf, go here
Co-authored by: Nick Randall (Golf Fit Pro)