I was told recently by a sports physiologist that I have relatively weak inner hip muscles (possibly glutes not really sure). He did a test where I laid on my back, put one leg up, and he pushed down on the leg. No problem resisting but when I turned my foot either inward or outward it was very easy for him to push down.
He said this was due to some muscle that I can’t remember the name of and that it effects me most on the upstroke (and over) of cycling and when pulling my leg up (and over) when running. Does anyone know what muscle(s) he was talking about and what I can do to strengthen them? I’m a novice cyclist but I’ve been running for some years and it hasn’t fixed itself apparently so I’d love some advice on how to improve this.
Lay on your side. Take your top heel about 6 inches behind the bottom heel. Raise your leg up quickly and then slowly down, heel first. Repeat 20 times. Put your top heel in front of your bottom heal by about 6 inches. Lift your leg up quickly, and then slowly down. Repeat 20 times. Put your top leg over your bottom leg with your heels stacked on top of each other. Raise your leg up quickly, and then slowly down, heel first. Repeat 20 times. Now, flip on your other side and repeat. Doing each position 20 times will absolutely kill your hips and you will probably be sore the next day. Keep doing it and then work up to doing each position a total of 3 sets of 20 reps.
I had a problem where I had weak hip muscles which caused my hips to rock back and forth when I would run. This put pressure on my knees and caused knee problems. I did the exercises above and now I’m running faster, with less hip swaying, and I have fewer knee problems.
Hope this helps.
hip flexors?
piriformis?
ilipsoas?
glutes
glute medialis
hamstring
there’s a few more. try this site for lots of good info: http://www.sportsinjurybulletin.com/
better yet, call the guy and ask?