Unilateral Shoulder Press

A functional exercise is one that incorporates natural body motions and involves multiple challenges simultaneously (ie balance and strength, coordination and speed, etc). The unilateral shoulder press is an example of a functional exercise due to the fact that a natural sway motion is employed with the hips. This motion is beneficial for a variety of reasons. It teaches your body to work in a coordinated fashion and encourages proper muscle firing sequences. Also, it greatly decreases strain on the shoulder. In fact, I will often show this exercise to my patients who have previously suffered a shoulder injury and want an alternative to the standard push press. The goal of this exercise is to serve primarily as a Deltiod strengthening exercise.

Proper Squat Form

Poor squat form is one of the most common causes of back and knee injuries I'll see over the next month or two. In an effort to prevent some of these injuries, I've posted a video on proper squat form this week. You may use this in combination with the other 2 glute exercises shown to create a progression. For example, you may begin with the clam for 1-2 weeks, the progress to squats, then running man. Enjoy and happy exercising!

"The Clam" glute exercise

Welcome back! This week, we’ve posted an exercise with a similar intent as last week’s “Running Man.” Although this looks very easy, it’s deceptively hard when done correctly. The keys to this exercise being effective are: 1) Not letting the hips roll backward as you raise the leg (if you feel like you could do 100 of these with no problem, you’re probably doing this). 2.) Make sure you have only a slight angle at the knees. 3.) Don’t let the feet separate as you raise the leg. 4.) Do the entire movement slowly, with a 1 count while raising the knee and a 3 count as you bring the knees gently together (don’t let the knees “crash” together and keep the muscle tensed throughout the whole movement). Have fun!

"Running Man" - Glute Strengthening Exercise

This challenging exercise works on glute strength in multiple planes, one legged balance, and body awareness at the same time. Here I am demonstrating only sagital plane motion (pure front and back), but this can be done with the toe touching in different directions. For example, straight back, back at a 45 degree angle, and straight to the side. This is fairly advanced and must be done with proper form to achieve the desired results. When performing this exercise, there should be very little knee bend, and you should feel it primarily in the upper outer portion of your glutes. A less challenging yet still effective exercise is the "Clam", which will be featured on our next post!