Why We Should Be Doing Single Leg Exercises
Whether you love a lunge or steer clear of squats - single leg exercises are very beneficial not just for strength but for stability too!
We’re breaking down exactly why they are important and how you can incorporate them into your training…
Improved Joint Strength
Not only do single leg exercises improve our muscular strength, they also improve our joint strength too. Many of them focus on movements that help our hip flexors, our knee and ankle joints as well as developing range of motion. This is especially important if you do outdoor sports such as running or cycling as you sport relies on these joints being strong to prevent injury.
Better Balance
Single leg exercises are a great way to improve balance. Exercises like lunges and single leg RDL’s make us concentrate more on balancing the body to maintain good posture and stability, so not only do we strengthen the muscles but our balance too!
Remember that it doesn’t have to be gym based. Yoga poses such as:
tree pose
warrior 3
eagle pose
standing splits
These are all great ways to improve flexibility on both sides of the body as well as improving balance.
Strengthening Your Weaker Side
Often we find that one side of the body is stronger than the other (This is completely normal) and so this leads us to over compensate on the stronger side to support the weaker.
Using single leg exercises means that your weaker side cannot rely on the stronger to help it - it has to do the work and this really helps to balance out both sides of the body, aiding stability, posture and flexibility!
Examples of single leg exercises:
single leg rdls
lunges
split squats
single leg squats
single leg calf raises
single leg step ups
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