Poor single-leg stability and strength can play a big role in contributing to the niggles and injuries we may encounter throughout our life.
As you can imagine, a lot of the tasks we need to perform throughout the day require us to be on one leg. Walking? Running? These tasks and many other functional movements demand appropriate strength and stability in each individual leg! Despite this, single-leg strength and stability training is often forgotten or neglected in our typical gym routines.
Why is it so important though?
Good question. Apart from single-leg movements being present in many activities throughout our day-to-day life; if we lack the strength, stability and control required on one leg, we may start to re-direct load and stress to areas of the lower limb or body that are not always prepared for it. Over time, this can lead to pain and niggles we would rather not have.
In addition to an increase in pain, there may also be a decrease in performance. Take running for example, if we lack the strength and stability in one area of the body, we may be unnecessarily exerting force in directions we just don’t need to! In other words, our technique isn’t as efficient and more effort is required to propel us forward.
But, how do we improve it?
There’s a range of effective exercises to begin improving our single leg stability and strength.
Below are a couple of exercises to get you started. These particular ones are effective in targeting single-leg hip strength and stability, which is crucial for maintaining low back and lower limb health throughout life.
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