FitTips for leg strengthening
The lower body is only as strong as its weakest link. Whether it’s the ankle or the hip, the two are connected and if the ankle and the foot are not moving the way they are supposed to, neither is the hip, or the poor knee which is caught in the middle, says personal trainer Kevin Murray, an expert in corrective exercise for pain relief and an instructor with the NAIT personal training program.
“The body doesn’t work in isolation. The brain does not say, ‘I’m only going to use this muscle and this muscle only. It just doesn’t function that way, so in terms of strengthening a certain area you have to take into consideration the entire body and what that movement will have on the rest of the body.”
If your focus is on strengthening the inner thigh muscles known as the adductors, for example, you also have to strengthen the outer thigh muscles known as the abductors, because with every step you take, you use both of those muscles equally, as well as the other parts of the leg, Murray explains.
A corrective exercise he calls the Active Single Leg Stance with Pelvis Rotation works everything from the hip to the ankle.
Stand facing a wall with the foot of your stance or support leg pointing straight ahead. Place both hands on the wall for balance. Lift the knee of your other leg approximately four to six inches off the floor. From here, rotate your pelvis and thigh toward your stance leg, causing movement through your hip joint but with the chest relatively still facing the wall. The rotation of your pelvis will produce a shift in your centre of gravity, and cause the ankle to roll to the outside. This is normal and is something that is supposed to happen. Next, rotate this time away from your stance leg, allowing the arch of the foot to drop and ankle to roll inward. Again, chest stays relatively straight. Do two sets of 10 rotations in each direction. Switch legs and repeat. Eventually, you want to become strong enough to do this exercise without having to put your hands on the wall for balance. With regards to how many repetitions and sets of repetitions you should do of an exercise, the two sets of 10 repetitions suggested here, are just that, a suggestion.
“If you’re goal is to do 10, but by the sixth, seventh or eighth repetition you’re starting to tire, your technique will start to get sloppy as your body starts to compensate. You’ve reached your threshold,” Murray explains. “We don’t want to see many compensations, so it’s about quality of movement rather than quantity of movement. Build up your tolerance over time.”