Essential Strengthening Exercises for Better Balance

This video demonstrates a series of strengthening exercises for your gluteus medius and gluteus minimus muscles - these muscles lie on the outside of your hips and serve to stabilize your pelvis as you're standing or moving on your feet.

You need a surface to anchor your trunk to as you're lying prone. Here, I am using an exercise ball. You can use an ottoman, a weight lifting bench, a plyometric box, anything that is stable enough to allow you to anchor your trunk to. Since I am using an exercise ball, I am also using the base of a heavy chair to hook my hands on in order to work my hip abductors without my upper body flipping up.

With each progression of strengthening exercises described in the audio of this video, the key is to have your legs extend back and away from the midline. If you don't take your legs 30 to 45 degrees away from the midline, you will be training more of your hip extensors (the larger gluteus maximus muscle).

As always, be sure to value quality over quantity.

For an overview of exercise progressions that you can work at to improve your mobility and balance in a systematic way, please feel free to visit our Mobility Exercise Progressions page here:

Mobility Exercise Progressions

For some suggestions on how to set up a simple workout area at home, please feel free to view:

Suggested Resources for a Home Gym