How much “dip” in the coronal plane is in your single leg squat?

“In conclusion, the Single-Leg Squat is a reliable tool to identify patients that would need to improve their hip and trunk muscle weakness and dysfunction (by strengthening and neuromuscular coordination retraining). ”

Crossley et al., Am J Sports Med 39 (2011) 866 - 873.

Performance on the single-leg squat task indicates hip abductor muscle function. - Anatomy &…

Clinical assessment of performance on the single-leg squat task is a reliable tool that may be used to identify people with hip muscle dysfunction.ANATOMY-PHYSIOTHERAPY.COM

How do your gluteus maximus and gluteus medius exercises stack up?

Looks like side planks (DL=dominant leg) and single leg squats scored big, as did front planks and good old “glute squeezes”

Check out this free full text articlehttp://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3201064/

Yes, we know it was surface emg; yes we know they are not necessarily testing functional movements. The EMG does not lie and offers objective data. Note that the one graph is labelled wrong and is the G max, not medius.

Kristen Boren, DPT,1 Cara Conrey, DPT,1 Jennifer Le Coguic, DPT,1 Lindsey Paprocki, DPT,1 Michael Voight, PT, DHSc, SCS, OCS, ATC, CSCS,1 and T. Kevin Robinson, PT, DSc, OCS1 ELECTROMYOGRAPHIC ANALYSIS OF GLUTEUS MEDIUS AND GLUTEUS MAXIMUS DURING REHABILITATION EXERCISES Int J Sports Phys Ther. 2011 Sep; 6(3): 206–223.

How to (and how not to) do a single leg squat, CORRECTLY !

Here Dr. Allen has one of his elite marathon and triathletes demonstrate how to correctly and incorrectly do a single leg squat. The single leg squat can show many of the pathologic movement patterns that occur in a lunge. The single leg squat is more difficult however because it requires balance and more strength. Many people do not do the single leg squat correctly as you will see in this video. Many drop the opposite hip which means that there is an inability to control the frontal plane pelvis via the stance leg gluteus medius and the entire orchestrated abdominal core. Most folks will drop the suspended hip and pelvis and thus collapse the stance phase knee medially. This can lead to medial knee pain (tracking disorder in the beginning) , a driving of the foot arch into collapse and impingement at the hip labrum. We know that when the knee moves medially that the foot arch is under duress. This problem is often the subliminal cause of all things foot arch collapse in nature, such as plantar fascitis to name a common one. Remember, optimal gluteus medius is necessary here. And the gluteus maximus is working to eccentrically lower the pelvis through hip flexion. So, if you do not consider the gluteus maximus a hip flexor then you are mistaken. Everyone thinks of it as a powerful hip extensor and external rotator. But do not be mistaken, in the closed chain it is a powerful eccentric controller of hip flexion and internal hip rotation.

Tomorrow we will look at this same case and look at her feet and discuss those as a problem, predictor and limiting factor to long term optimal function.

We are The Gait Guys,

Shawn and Ivo (visit our blog daily at www.thegaitguys.tumblr.com)