A Strength Exercise You Should Be Doing!

-January 26th, 2012-

Here is one of my favorite strength exercises. This is great for increasing the strength of your Glutes and Hamstrings and reducing your risk of injury in the future.

It’s called a Shoulder Elevated Single Leg Hip Lift. I love this exercise for a few reasons.

First it’s easy to teach and requires minimal equipment, meaning my athletes can perform it right away no matter what their lifting experience is.

Secondly it focuses on the main weakness I see in almost all my athletes, lack of strength in the Glutes and Hamstrings. Your Glutes and Hamstrings are the main muscles used when sprinting.

Lastly it’s a single leg exercise, which means it will help even out any imbalance you may have between strength in each leg.

I know I might make this look easy in the video, but I assure you it is not.

Key Points: Always push through the heel, never the toes and do not extend from the lower back. Only raise up by squeezing your glutes.

Almost all of my pro guys had to start without any weight and even then some felt their hamstring starting to cramp because it was too difficult.

Add this in to your lower body training program to improve your Glute and Hamstring strength and lower your risk of injury. Start with bodyweight only and work up to 12 reps per leg before adding any resistance.

Tags: glutes, hamstrings, injury reduction, lacrosse exercises, shoulder elevated hip lift, single leg strength