More on Clamshells and the Gluteus medius. Great article written by one of our Facebook followers: Andy Du Bois

He talks about specificity of exercise:
“In simple terms it says that the strength gained in a particular exercise is only relevant to other exercises that look and feel similar to the original exercise. For example the strength gained in doing a bench press will make you better at push ups but wont improve your ability to throw a cricket ball, or the strength gained in doing small range squats will help skiing but wont help you to kick a ball further.
If the body positions, loads, speed of movement and range of movement aren’t similar then the body wont transfer the gains from one exercise to the next.”

Nice job and a good, quick read:

http://www.mile27.com.au/strengthening-your-gluteus-medius-2/

• Reader: Thanks for posting this. So, focusing on GM muscle activation is an incomplete, spot-weld patch. It’s really all about the whole ship. The captain needs to get data on joint position, velocity, speed, and load to integrate glute med into the whole syst…
• The Gait Guys you now are seeing the whole picture. Perfect!
• The Gait Guys we are not saying clams have no merit; we are saying the research shows they do not effectively strengthen the g med
• Reader:  Local and global Stability muscles respond to low load activities not strengthening activities. Also their primary function, especially the global stability muscles, is eccentric control of motion. As a result classic concentric activities are ineffective. These exercises work the global mobilizers reinforcing a already faulty movement pattern. The clam shell is not about gaining glute strength. it is about improving control and then applying that control to more functional exercises. We start with the clam because it allows for activation without substation if done correctly. And that is the key. They most be done correctly with the appropriate focus.

• The Gait Guys surface EMG can be a valuable tool here, to see what and hhow much you are activating

  Reader: I am not an expert but what I think this article means is you need to RELATIVELY get the glut med working more than the TFL. Not just get your glut-med to work. You want it to grow stronger than TFL if you have those problems, so dont do exercise that strengthens your TFL as much as glut med 
• Reader: The issue with EMG is crosstalk and if not placed correctly you will pick up other muscles. An example is picking up levator scap when testing upper trap.
• Reader:  it is not about leg position:http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22488226, it is about the muscles the exercise really activates..? (I still agree: it should be more specific also. what about a single leg deadlift?)

  Hip muscle activity during 3 side-lying hip-strengthening exercises… - PubMed - NCBI  J Athl Train. 2012 Jan-Feb;47(1):15-23. NCBI.NLM.NIH.GOV|BY MCBETH JM , ET AL.

• The Gait Guys how about a single leg squat with weight? deadlifts tend to create increased shear in the lumbar spine (when performed improperly) and that creates other issues

  Reader: You cannot lift that much with one leg i think. At least not very soon after starting. Squats with single leg are probably just as good, you cant load too much so easily. With pistol squats, need to take care of technique (pelvic control). Squats for concentric and (romanian, single leg) deadlifts for eccentric strength i would suggest. Those two different types of muscle contractions need different training for optimal performance…
•