0:00 This is Brent coming at you with gluteus medius progressions, but, in reality, this 0:04 is just a video to kind of lay out some of the new techniques that I've found, 0:09 that I've been working on, to help keep progressing gluteus medius activation. So, 0:15 we're going to talk about a smattering of techniques, to ensure we're getting 0:18 the most out of these exercises. I'm going to have my friend, Leanne, come out 0:20 and help me demonstrate. So the trick with all gluteus medius activation, I'm 0:25 sure some of you guys have already found this out, is trying to get the TFL to 0:28 calm down. Now that starts doing good, we need good release, stretching, and 0:33 mobilization techniques, and hopefully you've done that before you get somebody 0:36 on the table, but, we still need to refine our techniques as much as we can to 0:42 ensure that we're getting the most out of our gluteus medius, and TFL isn't 0:46 creeping its way back in. So I'm going to have Leanne go ahead and lay on her side. 0:50 One thing that I've found pretty effective, although I honestly have to admit that 0:54 this is a progression, as soon as Leanne backs her body off the wall, it's going 0:59 to take her a lot more lumbo-pelvic hip stability and control, to get this 1:04 exercise right. So hopefully you've started somebody on the wall, now we can 1:09 progress them a little bit, move them away from the wall, and then we get to 1:11 use this little trick with a stability ball. If I have Leanne go into her side 1:17 lying leg raise, but this time I have her do a side lying leg raise by pressing 1:26 this ball into the wall. Just by pressing the ball on the wall and holding it 1:30 there I've got glute activation, which is going to help reciprocally inhibit my 1:35 TFL, and then we get an added benefit, that, literally the shape of the 1:39 stability ball, allows her to go into extension and external rotation as she 1:45 goes up, which of course is all the joint actions that the gluteus medius will do, 1:49 and further reciprocally inhibits the TFL. Is that pretty tough? -Yeah. If I wanted to 1:55 progress this exercise, of course, I could use an ankle weight. Ankle weights 2:00 started here above the knee, and then I can move it down to the 2:04 ankle. Start light, it doesn't take much to resist. I do find that I prefer 2:08 ankle weights to bands. Obviously with bands, they start with almost no 2:13 resistance, and I think what you will find, is if you go to muscle test to 2:17 somebody who's been doing band gluteus medius work, that you'll get them here in 2:22 the neutral position where they need that gluteus medius strength for gate 2:24 and sprinting, and they actually test weak. So, ankle weights, to me, they create a nice 2:30 even resistance through the whole range so I tend to use ankle weights more, and 2:34 tend to have better results. Now, I do have those individuals who have really, 2:39 really, really, stubborn TFLs. That even this jacks up their TFL. So what I've 2:45 started to realize, is we can use a little bit of an activation circuit to 2:48 calm the TFL down further, improve hip mechanics, as almost a warm up to our 2:54 activation exercise. So I'm going to show you a couple of things I use here. Leanne's 2:58 going to go ahead and sit up. How many of you have probably done glute sets? 3:03 Well glute sets, in a long sit position, this is just food for thought for you, if 3:08 I can really get Leanne to squeeze her quad, start with a quad set, good, and then 3:13 really squeeze her glute by pressing her leg down into the table, her glute in 3:18 this position, posteriorly glides her femoral head, and her acetabulum. 3:24 So her femoral head, glute tight, femoral head is slowly gliding this 3:32 way, that's exactly what we need, right? We know that femoral head has a propensity 3:36 to do an anterior and superior glide. That anterior superior glide further 3:43 increases the tenacity of our TFL. So I use this, having her do 15 to 20, this is 3:48 not one of those things that has to be super, super, super hard. It just has to be a little 3:51 warm-up for her glutes, and getting that femur to move right. If I did want 3:56 to resist it, I could throw a band around her foot, then we have tibialis anterior 4:04 activation, right? So I'm going to have her dorsiflex with her toes curled 4:09 down, quad and then glute. That's tough. So now I'm getting a lot 4:16 involved, but I'm also resisting that posterior from wall glide, again 4:21 improving those joint mechanics. Her glutes have to work really hard to keep 4:26 that moving the way it's supposed to. From here, from this exercise, I could 4:32 have her then lie on her side, and I could have her do clams. Some of you 4:38 might be like, 'well why are you going to do clams if you're already 4:41 going to do side lying leg raises?'. Well, clams are an easier exercise, and the 4:45 only thing I'm thinking about right now is trying to warm up her glute medius, 4:49 get it a little bit active, before I do the hard resistance training and 4:54 reconditioning that the side lying leg raise is. So, little key point though, if 4:59 they have a really stubborn TFL, you're going to want to take this foot, and let 5:04 it internally rotate. Remember your TFL, via your iliotibial band, is an external 5:09 rotator of the tibia. So a lot of people who have a really stubborn TFL, you'll 5:13 also notice when they go to do clams, they externally rotate their tibia, 5:18 this foot comes up with their leg. So what I'm going to have Leanne do here is put 5:22 her foot down, and then do her clam, and I'm going to just have her do 15 to 20 reps. 5:28 This isn't looking to kill her, this isn't where the resistance training is 5:32 happening, that's going to be the ball. So once again I did glute sets, you could 5:38 progress that to glute sets with a band and then turn it into dorsiflexion, quads 5:42 set and glutes set. I'm then going to have her do clams, and we could go ahead and add an 5:46 ankle weight to her knee. Once we get all of this warmed up, we get that posterior 5:51 femoral glide, we get a little bit of gluteus medius activity, then I'm going to 5:58 go back to the ball, and if I can get her pelvis position set up so that she's not 6:03 rotating back, and turning this back into hip flexion, I think what you 6:07 will find, is one very active gluteus medius. All of a sudden this exercise 6:14 becomes really, really, tough. How does that feel? Feel better than the first 6:19 time we did it? -Yes. So there you go. You've got the ball exercises of gluteus medius 6:24 progression, and a couple pointers for a stubborn 6:26 TFL: glute sets, followed by clams, followed by your side lying leg raise. I hope you 6:32 enjoy this stuff!
