Learn how to strengthen your hip by strengthening your glute muscles with clamshell exercises.

Video Transcript:

So this is a quick video on how to do a clamshell exercise.

I like to do this exercise with my head supported on a pillow because I have neck pain, and it’s not comfortable for me to hold my head up or to support in on my arm.

In this position, what you want to make sure you are doing is that your shoulders are in line with your trunk.

When you’re lying on the floor, what’s going to happen is your trunk is going to sink down into the surface that you’re on. So, you’ll want to gently lift up, engage your abdominal muscles so you’ll have a little bit of a space just under your trunk area. That also will allow your pelvis to be stacked so that you’re not dropping into this position.

So, get your pelvis stacked and your shoulders stacked. Your knees are supported on top of each other.

You’re going to again engage your abdominal muscles and what you’re going to do is ever so slightly lift your knee up. Keeping your feet together.

As you do this, where you should feel this is back in your glute muscles. If you’re feeling this in your inner thigh or in your knee and its painful or uncomfortable anywhere along that top leg, one of the ways you can modify this exercise is you can actually put a pillow in between your legs, so that your legs start a little bit more separated.

Again, engage your abdominal muscles, lift your heel up.

And you do this, again, using your glute muscles.

So this is an exercise that is targeted at the glutes. Best way to do this would be to repeat, hold for 3-5 seconds, and then down nice and slow. And you’ll repeat about 10-15 repetitions in an episode, or number of experiences, or number of repetitions at one time.

So just like that. And that’s how you do a clamshell exercise.

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