Heel slide exercise: Muscle worked, Health Benefits, How to do?
Heel slide exercise is an important easy to perform Home exercise to maintain range of motion of your Hip and knee joints and also increases blood circulation of leg.
What is a Heel slide exercise?
This exercise also known as heel drag. A heel slide exercise is a movement that activates your muscles from hip to heel. This exercise is used to improve the range of motion of the hip and knee joints. This exercise will help to improve circulation in the lower body. This exercise activates your leg from the buttock to the heel. Here, you extend the knee as much as possible and slide your heel from the maximum range back up till the buttocks. this exercise also helps to decrease hip and back pain.
Heel slides are simple leg exercises that involve extending your leg away from your body, bending your knee, and sliding your heel toward your buttocks. The purpose of heel slides is to increase the range of motion of your knee. They also help to strengthen and stretch the tissues around the knee and leg muscles.
To understand the value of heel slide exercise and the various types you can try for yourself.
Which muscles are used to do heel slide?
- Calf muscle
- Quadriceps muscle
- Hamstrings muscle
- Tissue around the knee joint
Health benefits of heel slides?
- Helps to increase tone in abdominal muscles and leg muscles.
- Helps to improve the range of motion in hip and knee joints.
- Helps to improve blood circulation.
- Helps to strengthen your leg muscles.
- Helps to strengthen knee and ankle ligaments.
- Most advisable exercise after hip and knee injuries.
What are the different types of heel slide exercises?
Here we describe the 5 different ways to perform heel slide exercises,
Lying heel slides
How to do it?
- For this exercise, you have supine lying on a bed or plinth and your leg should be straight in the initial position. then you have to move your heels towards the buttocks by bending your knees.
- Try to touch the buttocks with heels.
- One you reach up to maximum knee bending then hold for 5 to 7 seconds, then slowly straighten your knee and slide your heels to fully extend the knee.
Chair heel slides
How to do it?
- For this exercise you have to sit in a chair, your hand should be put on the armrest. then extend your leg as much as possible by you in front of your body to get the initial position. slowly slide the right heel towards the chair by flexing the knee joint.
- Hold at this position for 5 to 10 seconds then release it to the initial position.
- In this same manner, you have to complete 10 to 15 repetitions of 2 to 4 sets on each leg.
Seated heel slides
How to do it?
- For this exercise, you have to sit on a flat surface with back support.
- Then straighten your right knee to get the initial position.
- Now you have to slide your heels towards your buttocks in a smooth movement.
- Hold at this position for 5 to 10 seconds then slowly return to the initial position.
- In this same manner, you have to complete 10 to 15 repetitions of 2 to 4 sets on each leg.
Wall heel slides
How to do it?
- For this exercise, you have to lie down in front of the wall with your hip joint a few inches away from the wall.
- Put your affected leg on the wall and fully straighten it on the wall. then slowly move your heels downside by flexing your knees as much as possible.
- Hold at this position for 5 to 10 seconds then slowly slide your heel upward.
Heel slide exercise video:
There have some tips for doing heel slides.
- Giving more pressure to complete the movement can worsen the situation, especially during advanced age.you have to do Warm up before doing any exercise.
- Use a warm pad if you can not move your heel freely
- Use a napkin to assist the movements
- Use plastic bags or socks to help your heel move freely
- Don’t rush, but do every movement with control.
When did you not do this exercise?
- If your physician advised you to take a rest.
- If your leg bone is fractured and your doctor advised you to not do any movement on your leg.
- If you have a total hip replacement and need to follow the 90-degree rule, don’t lift your foot off the bed with this exercise.
FAQs
What are heel slides good for?
Heel slides are used to extend the range of motion in your knee. Additionally, they aid in stretching and strengthening the tissues surrounding the knee and leg muscles. This aids in the healing process and helps prevent subsequent damage.
What are seated heel slides?
Heel slides on seated in a chair
A stretching exercise that is done while sitting on the floor is called seated heel slides. They concentrate on the lower back and hamstring muscles. Start with sitting while keeping your legs straight. While maintaining the straightness of the opposite leg, bend one knee and glide your heel towards your buttocks. After feeling a light hamstring stretch for a few seconds, straighten the bent leg. Keep switching between the legs.
How many heel slides should I do a day?
Depending on your individual fitness level, flexibility objectives, and any specific advice from a healthcare or fitness professional, the amount of heel slides you should perform each day may change. In general, you can start with a small number of repetitions and progressively increase them as you get more flexible and at ease.
The usual advice is to work each leg for 2-4 sets of 10-15 repetitions. Accordingly, you would perform 10-15 slides with your right leg, followed by 10-15 slides with your left leg, and repeat this for 2-4 sets.
How do you heel slide after meniscus repair?
Actively slide your heel backward to bend your knee while lying on your back or with the use of a towel. Continue bending the knee until the front of the knee stretches. After five seconds of maintaining the bent position, carefully relax the stretch by straightening the knee.
