Sidelying hip clam shell
What is the gluteus medius?
The gluteus medius (glute med) is one of our posterior back muscles that stabilise our hip to prevent it from dropping when we walk, squat and run. It also helps rotate our hip and extend it backwards.
To do this exercise
This is a great, easy starting exercise to improve glute med strength. We recommend this exercise to patients with hip and knee pains from running and issues with their knee rotation during squats and leg based exercises.
Start laying on your side and rotate your leg/knee upwards and slowly downwards
Try and keep your trunk and back from rotating with your upper leg
You should aim to do this exercise till fatigue approx. 10-15 repetitions
You shouldn't feel pain, you should feel your muscle working hard - the muscle you should feel sits just above your bigger gluteal muscles just under your lower back.
This is a beginner’s exercise of which here at Sydney Health Physiotherapy we can progress it to optimise the load and repetitions of the exercise to give you the best results. Exercise to manage Glut muscle tendinitis.
