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basics here
| What it’s good for | Strengthens all the “sitting and standing” muscles of the leg and buttocks. Especially good for knee muscle conditioning. Improves balance and teaches the brain and body how to correctly position knees and ankles when bending |
| How often to do it | Daily |
| Equipment you’ll need | A chair-back or wall for balance support |
- Stand side-on to a chair-back or wall, with one hand lightly touching it for balance support
- Lift the leg farthest from the chair/wall
- Squeeze the buttock muscle on your standing leg and keep it squeezed
- With foot pointing directly forwards, bend your knee and push your bottom backwards to lower down
- Keep your knee in line with your big toe throughout – don’t let it point inwards, outwards, or wobble around
- Hold for a count of 5 at the lowest point, then carefully and slowly push back up to start point
- Rest briefly and repeat
Aim to do 8 squats on one leg, then turn around and repeat on the other leg
TIPS
♦ If you can’t control your knee, only lower down half as much – even if it’s a very small squat you will be doing valuable work. Over time you will be able to lower down further and keep control
♦ Avoid tucking your bottom under when you do this movement. Your back should be neutral (see neutral spine)
Cannot do this at all? This is quite an advanced exercise, needing good balance and control of your leg joints. To prepare for it, try squats first
Varying the exercise for more challenge
Once you can do 8 slow, steady repeats on each leg, you need to make the exercise harder. Try the progressions below:
The progressions
- Increase the number of repeats to 15 each side without rest
- Increase the length of hold to 10 seconds per squat
- Lower the depth of the squat. When you do this, drop back the number of repeats and length of holds to start with, and build up again at the deeper squat level
- Place your hands on hips and go back to the first level, but this time with no balance support.
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