Clamshells

How to do it

1. 1

   Lie on your side with hips stacked directly on top of each other and knees bent to 45 degrees.

2. 2

   Keep your feet together throughout the entire movement.

3. 3

   Rotate your top knee upward toward the ceiling like a clamshell opening.

4. 4

   Stop rotating when you feel your pelvis begin to roll backward, that is your range.

5. 5

   Lower with control, resist gravity. Do not let the knee drop. Repeat.

Benefits

• Strengthens the gluteus medius through isolated hip abduction
• Corrects hip drop and lateral pelvic instability in walking
• Reduces knee valgus and IT band syndrome risk

Common mistakes

• Rolling the pelvis backward to get more apparent range of motion
• Moving too fast, which reduces gluteus medius involvement
• Feeling it only in the hip flexor, reposition until the outer glute engages