Exercise of the Week – Single Leg Hip Lift
There are a lot of exercises that look too simple to be any good but the reality is a lot of them are essential to the long term progression of your exercise program. For example, most people simply do not know how to recruit their glutes to help power lower body movement and this results in a lot of bad things. This makes mastering the single leg hip lift a priority early on in a program.
For those who want to look better, getting your back side toned up is usually a priority. However, if you do not know how to recruit your glutes then you will never use them enough with other lower body exercises to notice a difference. This is why you have people with nice, toned legs but a saggy butt. Taking the time to get strong with this exercise and learning how to apply the lessons from it to all of your lower body exercises will help eliminate this problem.
If you are an athlete then this exercise is indispensable. Strong hips are the key to running faster, cutting quicker, jumping higher, hitting further and basically dominating your competition. Without having strong, functional hips you are not only cutting down your performance potential but also opening yourself up to hamstring and groin strains/ injuries. In fact, one of the most common sources of injuries in athletes is an inability to powerfully contract the hips like they are supposed to be used.
In other words, if you have not taken the time to learn and master this exercise then you are leaving a lot of results on the table, no matter what you training goals are. Watch this video to learn how to use and progress this great exercise.
-James Wilson-
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GyJPxZ1foIQ]
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