Lateral banded walk exercise: Muscle worked, Health Benefits, How to do?
What is a Lateral Banded walk?
The lateral band walk is a great exercise to improve hip stability and strengthen the hip abductor muscles also improve the stability of the knee joint. This is a fantastic exercise for a daily workout. This exercise will help to improve your back stability and posture-related problems. This is a great way to strengthen your gluteus minimus, medius, and Maximus. This exercise will stabilize your hip and knee joint and prevents lower limb injuries.
Which muscles is used to perform lateral banded walk?
Gluteal muscles mainly
- Gluteus Minimus
- Gluteus Medius
Health Benefits of the banded walk.
- Helps to strengthen the hip and glute muscles
- Helps to keep the lower back straight.
- Helps to Maintain proper body alignment
- Helps to Coordinate dynamic body moves.
- Helps to Reduces back and hip pain.
- Helps to Improves back posture.
- Helps to increase the range of motion of hip and knee joints.
- Helps to Reduces knee valgus
- Helps to Improves athletic performance.
- Helps to improve hip mobility.
How to do banded walk in perfect form?
- For this exercise, you need a resistance band with different colors. Different colors indicate the progression of exercise. Yellow color is easy, green has moderate resistance and blue is hard resistance and black has the hardest resistance.
- Most athletes person can initiate with the green (moderate) band and may or may not progress over time. If this exercise gives you more challenges for you, then use an easy band.
- Keep the resistance band flat, not bunched, wrap the resistance band above the ankle and wrapped around both lower limbs.
- Stand with shoulder foot width apart. a resistance band is taut but not stretched. flexed your knees slightly and go into a half squatting position to activate the glute muscle. your body weight is evenly distributed over both legs.
- Now move your leg in and out, sideways, for 10 to 12 repetitions. your hip should be at the same level during the movement.
- Your back should be neutral throughout the movement.
- Smoothly shift your weight and switch the legs.
If you Need a Modification in lateral band walk?
- You may want to do this exercise in different ways depending on your abilities and level of fitness.
- If you are having trouble while doing the lateral band walking exercise, you may need to initiate with a less intense gluteus medius exercise like the side-lying hip abduction, which utilizes your gluteus medius.
- You can perform the lateral walk with or without a resistance band for easy doing.
- Then gradually progress to the resistance band with the least resistance (yellow color resistance band). There will also be less resistance on the band if you place it above the knee rather than your ankle joint.
Up for a Challenge?
As you improve the strength of your muscles, you can use bands that have greater resistance. You can progress in this order: yellow, green, blue, black.
There have different variations of lateral band walk
Monster Walks
How to do it?
- In this variation you have to use two resistance bands instead of one. one band wrap around the ankle and does warp just above the knee joint. with the two resistance bands, hips have to work double amount.
- Not flexed your knees slightly into a half squatting position. move your legs side way up to 10 to 15 steps. then move on another side
X-band Walks
How to do it?
- X-band walk variation has all the benefits like the lateral band walks, but this will also add some extra work to your core muscles.
- Hold a looped resistance band and step both of your feet side ward with hip-foot width apart.
- Hold the other end of the resistance band with both hands and grab it up to waist height. rotate the middle of the resistance band so that it makes an X shape.
- This will give more tension to your core muscles. when you are comfortable do this same a basic lateral banded walk For ten steps on both sides.
Resistance Band Lateral Leg Lifts
How to do it?
- Wrap a looped resistance band just above your ankle joint. Stand with feet to shoulder-width apart or until there is mild taut in the resistance band. Put both of your hands on your hip joint. When you are ready, breathe out and raise your left foot straight up and out from the hip.
- Maintain balance on your right foot by contracting your core muscles. raise your left foot as high as it can possible, then slowly lower it down to the initial position. Do 10 lifts with the left leg, then repeat with the right leg.
This Common Mistakes happen while performing the banded walk exercise. You should avoid these mistakes.
To get more benefits from this exercise avoid these errors.
Hips Not Level
you should avoid the tilting of hips up and down or side. If you are doing it correctly, you should feel your gluteus medius muscles. Your hip joint will be on fire.
Knee Position
In a half-squatting position, your knees should be bent and aligned over the middle of your foot. This ensures you are working on the right muscles and not stressing your knee joint.
Swaying or Bouncing
you have to do the smooth movement without swaying or bouncing, which will take more focus off the main muscles.
When did you not do Lateral banded walk exercise?
- If your hip, knee, the ankle is recently injured.
- If your physician advised you to take a rest.
- If you feel any pain or discomfort during this exercise then stop immediately and consult your physical therapist.
- If you are recently undergone any surgery.
