Simple Band Exercises for the Lower Body
💪 Recovering from a knee, ankle, or hip injury? Or just looking to strengthen your lower body? Exercise bands are a game-changer! 🎯
Strengthen Your Lower Body with Exercise Bands: Four Effective Exercises
If you're recovering from a knee, ankle, or hip injury, or looking to strengthen your lower body, exercise bands are an excellent tool to include in your routine.
If you only have a long exercise band, no problem! You can easily turn it into a round band by tying it in a knot. Make sure the loop is about shoulder-width apart to start and adjust as needed.
Let’s dive into the exercises!
1. Side-to-Side Shuffle
Place the band around your shins, about mid-shin level. Step carefully into the band and position your feet hip-width apart with a slight bend in your knees. Begin by shuffling side to side:
Take a step with your right leg, followed by your left.
Keep the band taut by pressing outward, avoiding inward bounce of your legs.
Switch directions, shuffling the other way while maintaining the same form. This exercise strengthens the glute medius, located in the upper hips, which is key for supporting knee injuries and improving walking or running mechanics.
2. Squats with Resistance
Move the band up so it sits just above your knees. Stand with your feet hip-width apart or slightly wider, then:
Sit back into a squat.
Press your legs outward into the band as you rise back to standing.
This activates the outer thighs while resisting inward movement, which also strengthens the inner thighs. This dual engagement makes squats with resistance an excellent exercise for overall lower-body stability.
3. Glute Bridge
With the band still above your knees, lie on your back. Bend your knees so they’re close to your hips and press your legs outward until the band feels taut. Here’s how to perform the glute bridge:
Rest your arms on the ground.
Push through your feet to lift your hips into a bridge position, maintaining outward pressure on the band.
You can either hold this pose for about 30 seconds or lower and lift repeatedly. This exercise targets your glutes and hamstrings, while the band helps maintain alignment and engages the outer thighs, areas that are often underused.
4. Donkey Kicks
Start on all fours with your hands under your shoulders and knees under your hips. Keep the band above your knees, and follow these steps:
Kick one leg straight back, keeping your pelvis level.
Lower your leg and repeat, either on the same side or alternating between legs.
This exercise strengthens the glute maximus and hamstrings, providing excellent support for the lower back. Focus on keeping your hips stable to maximize the benefits.
Customize Your Routine
If any of these exercises feel uncomfortable, or cause pain, or if you’re unsure whether they suit your specific injury, don’t hesitate to reach out. At Willowbrook Chiropractic, we’re here to help you tailor a program to your needs.
Book an appointment online at http://willowbrook.janeapp.com/ . If you have questions, feel free to ask me, Dr. Robin Armstrong, or Dr. Jody Freedman. We’re always happy to help you achieve your health goals!
If you have any questions about this video or need some help feeling better, feel free to reach out to us, Dr. Robin Armstrong or Dr. Jody Freedman. We’re always happy to help. You can book with us online or give us a call.
If you're recovering from a knee, ankle, or hip injury, or you're wanting to strengthen your lower body, an excellent tool you can use is one of these exercise bands. My name is Dr. Robin Armstrong. I'm a chiropractor at Willowbrook Chiropractic in Langley, and today I'm going to show you four simple exercises you can do using one of these round exercise bands.
Now, if you only have the long one, you can actually turn it into a round one by just simply tying it in a knot. It's going to be going around your leg So when you tie it you're going to want it to be about shoulder width apart to start with and you can always adjust it if you need to So first, let's start with the band around our shins.
So you're going to carefully step into it So it's about mid shin, I would say. You're going to take your feet hip width apart, slight bend in the knees, and we're going to shuffle side to side. So I'm going to take a step with my right leg, and then my left, and I'm not letting that leg bounce in with the band, so I'm still pressing out so there's some resistance.
Then I'm going to change directions, shuffle the other way, keeping my feet hip width apart. about hip width apart when I'm coming back to that starting position. This is great to strengthen our glute medius on our upper hips, which is really helpful for returning to walking or running. Great to support knee injuries.
The next one we're going to do is squatting. So we're going to take our band a little bit higher so that it is above the knees. And then, same thing, feet hip width apart, maybe a little bit wider. And you're going to sit back in a squat and then straighten up. So we're pressing the legs into that band as we squat.
So again, we're activating the outer thighs and we're resisting the legs coming in. So we're strengthening both the inner and the outer leg. Next we're going to go down to the ground. We can keep our band. At our thighs, you're going to lie on your back, knees close to your hips, press your legs out so that they're hip width apart, you're feeling the resistance of the band, your arms can gently rest on the ground, you're going to press into the feet, lift the hips up to a bridge pose.
You're keeping that press out into the band. Now you can stay here and hold it for say 30 seconds, or you can do repeats. of lowering and lifting. So now we're involving our glutes and our hamstrings, but the band helps us get good alignment as well as still activating those outer thighs and glutes that tend to be weak.
The next one we're going to do is on all fours.
Hands and knees, so hands are underneath our shoulders, knees underneath our hips, Knees are hip width apart, band is still on our thighs, and we're going to do a donkey kick. So, we're going to try and keep the pelvis level, we're going to kick one leg back behind us, and then lower down. You can repeat it on one leg if you like, or you can alternate sides, going left to right.
Trying not to rock from side to side with the hips. This is really getting into the hamstrings and the glute max, which is also excellent for supporting you if you experience lower back pain. Now, if you're finding that some of these positions are uncomfortable or causing you pain or you're not sure if it's right for you and your specific injury, then you can book online with us at willowbrookchiropractic.com
If you have any questions about what I've talked about here today, please feel free to ask myself, Dr. Robin Armstrong, or Dr. Jody Freedman. We're always happy to help.
