Donkey Kick Exercise: Muscle worked, Health Benefits, How to do?

What is a Donkey kick exercise?

Donkey kick exercise is an isolation exercise that is sure to give you a great burn while opening up the hips, improving posture, and strengthening your lower body.
This is a funny-sounding exercise that has serious benefits. this exercise moves your leg in the air.
In this exercise main movement is to take the quadruped position and bent-knee hip extension, but it considering a donkey kick because it looks like a donkey kick. This exercise is great for improving posture.it can improve your quality of life.

Which muscles are used in donkey kick exercise?

• Primary targeted muscles are the Gluteal muscles, these muscles are glutes Maximus, minimus, medius.
• Secondary muscles are core, hamstrings, shoulders, and back muscles

Health Benefits by doing donkey kick exercise.

• Stronger muscles and Strengthen Your Core and Hamstrings: Donkey kick exercises are a type of resistance training that can help you to strengthen and stronger your lower limb muscles and core muscles.
• Clamshell exercise Can help you to lose weight: Doing this exercise requires more energy than your regular activities.
• Helps to Improves mood: This exercise promotes the release of substances that help you to boost your mood.
• Helps to prevent asymmetries of muscles: By engaging one leg at a time you reduce the risk of using one leg more than the other like in certain other exercises.
• This can help you avoid muscle asymmetries.
• Improves sleep:
• This exercise can improve the quality and duration of your sleep.
• Slows down aging:
• This exercise can slow down the progression of aging markers.
• Helps to improve balance and coordination
• Helps to improve posture: This exercise help to strengthen your postural muscles, prolonged sitting, poor posture from prolonged periods on electronic devices, and your weak abdominal wall can all lead to lower back pain. All these problems can be greatly improved by making this exercise a staple in your strength-training routine.
• This exercise Can Be Easily Modified: After you have mastered the standard donkey kick, it can easily be modified. adding different variations of the move (by adding a weight or a band) can make it more challenging, and help to increase strength and stability.
• This exercise Can Help to Prevent
• This exercise Also Activate the Shoulder muscles.
• The shoulder and core muscles are also working to hold stability and posture through the exercise.

How to do Donkey Kick exercise in proper form?

• For this exercise, you have to come on all four limbs, with your palm directly below your shoulder joint and knees directly below your hip joint.
• Your neck and spine should be neutral, your arms should be extended, core engaged, and knees flexed unto 90 degrees, elevate your one knee off the ground and lift until it is the same line with the trunk.
• Slowly lower our knees to the initial position.
• Do this movement for 40 to 50 seconds on both legs or you can do it until you feel fatigued.

Donkey Kick Exercise Video

Are there different variations of donkey kick exercise?

Straight-leg donkey kick with half-circle

How to do it?

• An add a circle in your donkey kick adds some difficulty to a basic donkey kick exercise.
• For this exercise, you have to come on all four limbs, with your palm directly below your shoulder joint and knees directly below your hip joint.
• Your neck and spine should be neutral, your arms should be extended, core engaged, and knees flexed up to 90 degrees, elevate your one knee off the ground and lift until it is the same line with trunk, then slow down your knee with drawing a circle with your foot. when your foot touches the floor, bring your knee towards the chest, hold for 2 seconds, and move out to the initial position.
• Do this for 10 to 20 repetitions on both legs for 5 to 6 sets.

Resistance band donkey kick

How to do it?

• For this exercise, you need a resistance band to hold the resistance band handle in your hands directly under your head, and elbows in a flexion.
• Hook your left foot into the other end of the resistance band.
• Your back should be straight, push your left leg out and upward.
• Then move the knee towards your chest for complete one repetition.
• Do 10 to 15 repetitions for 3 to 4 sets on both legs.

Smith machine donkey kick

How to do it?

• If you want to grow the size of glutes muscles, add some weight to your exercise.
• For this exercise, you have to visit smith’s machine.
• Adjust the smith machine bar so you can get the starting position on all four limbs under this machine and your face is in front of the machine. Your arch of the foot is placed underside of the bar and your moving leg and thigh parallel the ground.
• Push from your buttocks to the arch of your foot, straighten your knee in a slow and controlled movement.
• Return to the initial position and do 12 to 15 repetitions for 3 to 4 sets on both legs.

One-legged kickback on the cable machine

How to do it?

• For this exercise, you need a cable machine with an ankle strap attachment.
• You have to attach the ankle strap at the end of the pulley. you have to stand 2 feet away from the machine, stabilize your body on the frame. engaged your core muscle with hip and knee slightly in flexion then you have to stretch the ankle strap backward sides high as possible by you.
• Slowly release the pressure to get into the initial position.
• Do 10 to 15 repetitions for 4 to 5 sets on both legs.

Weighted Donkey Kicks

How to do it?

• For this exercise, you have to come on all four limbs, with your palm directly below your shoulder joint and knees directly below your hip joint. your neck and spine should be neutral, your arms should be extended, core engaged, and knees flexed up to 90 degrees, put dumbbell or any weighted cuff on right knee crisis, elevate your right knee off the ground and lift until it is the same line with the trunk.
• Slowly lower our knees to the initial position.
• Do this movement for 40 to 50 seconds on both legs or you can do it until you feel fatigued.

Donkey Kick Extension

How to do it?

• For this exercise, you have to come on all four limbs, with your palm directly below your shoulder joint and knees directly below your hip joint.
• Your neck and spine should be neutral, your arms should be extended, core engaged, and knees flexed up to 90 degrees, raise your knee off the floor up to torso level then hold at this position then move your heel away from the glute region.
• This movement utilizes your hamstring muscle, Do this movement for 40 to 60 seconds on both legs.

Donkey Hover

How to do it?

• For this exercise first, you have to come in a quadruped position Hover your weight-bearing knee off the ground with this you have to lift one knee and lower the other leg.
• Do this movement 15 to 20 times on each leg.

Lateral Donkey Kicks

How to Do it?

• This variation is also known as a Donkey Kick Knockout.
• You have to come in all four limbs, put your hands and knees firmly on the floor with shoulder-width apart. your core muscles should be engaged and glute squeeze as you lift your leg towards the lateral side before straight it outward.
• Your balance should be maintained on your hips and shoulders. then straighten your leg and try to hold this position for two seconds then slowly return to the initial position.
• Do this movement 20 to 30 times in both legs.

When did you not do this exercise?

• If your healthcare provider suggests you take some rest.
• If any arm and leg bone is fractured.
• If you feel pain or discomfort during this exercise.
• If you are not comfortable in a quadruped position(weight on all four limbs).

Author: Priti Tirgar