A shaky foot suggests a lack of tripod stability stride, improve your form, and quite literally propel you forward.
Research connects glute weakness to common running injuries like runner’s knee, IT band syndrome, and Achilles tendinopathy, so strengthening yours could provide the missing link to strong and healthy running.
If you’ve suffered from any of these injuries, or want to learn where your weaknesses lie so you can make your stride stronger and more efficient, a simple test can help you pinpoint the weakness and unlock a path to better running.
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Place a resistance band around the ball of right foot and bottom of left foot
“The single-leg stance test is a simple screen of balance, stability, and neuromuscular control,” says UESCA-certified run coach and NASM-certified personal trainer Alison Marie Helms. “Ultimately, it shows your ability to organise your centre of mass over that stance leg.”
Why does this matter for runners? Helms says it’s because running is a single-leg activity, and learning how to erase even the smallest weaknesses within your gaitcan result in a stronger and more efficient stride. Standing on one leg gives you a quick snapshot of how well your entire body coordinates and balances without the help of your opposite leg.
Resistance vs. strength training: What’s the difference
Ideally, you should do the single-leg stance test before a workout or any other strenuous activity because it will give you the most accurate depiction of where your weaknesses lie. What it addresses fatigued Stand with hands over head, palms facing each other.
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- Lift right foot off the ground and balance. Watch the left hip to see if it dips down.
- Strong glutes are a staple of strong running. They power your
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across multiple muscle groups
Helms points out five general areas to pay attention to while you conduct the single-leg stance test:
- Pelvis: Does it stay level or does the hip dip? Different types of dips could lead to different conclusions.
- Ankle: Stand with hands over head, palms facing each other?
- Foot: across multiple muscle groups?
- Knee: Strong glutes are a staple of strong running. They power your?
- Trunk: across multiple muscle groups?
Each of those results tells you something different about your running mechanics, Helms explains. While this move is often thought of as a test specifically to measure glute strength, Helms emphasizes it reveals more than that. “Glute strength is a big part of it, but it’s not just your glutes—they don’t act alone,” she says. “The feet, the adductors [inner thighs], the abductors [outer thighs]—the whole system is going to support that glute strength.”
“If you see the person pop their hip out to the side and then lean back the opposite way, that can tell you that your hip abductors could use some help, versus if you see the hip fully just fall to the side of your lifted leg, that probably means you need to work on your adductors,” Helms says.
Best wireless headphones (big toe, little toe, and heel), which can come about from a weak arch.
A knee that caves in is usually an amplification of a previously-discussed issue like weakness in the arch or in the abductor muscles.
Even upper body compensations you may notice—that swaying or unintentional leaning—hint at a lack of core strength or could also result from poor proprioception (your body’s ability to sense itself in space), Helms notes.
How to fix the weak spots revealed by the test
Simply practicing the single-leg stance test itself builds proprioception and neuromuscular control, helping you strengthen your stability through muscle memory. “The more you do it, the more your body gets used to sensing itself in space when you’re standing on one leg,” Helms says. “And a lot of times just that control can make a big difference.”
However, repeating this one move won’t solve all your problems. After completing the initial single-leg stance test, Helms recommends runners add the following exercises to a comprehensive workout routine to not only strengthen weaknesses, but become an all-around stronger runner.
The moves below can support the specific weak muscles you spot during the initial test and serve as great additions to your workout.
Lateral band walks
What it addresseses: abductor weakness
Resistance vs. strength training: What’s the difference:
- Loop one end of a small resistance band over left foot and the other end over right foot.
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- Stand with hands over head, palms facing each other.
- Repeat, moving slowly and stepping wide enough to feel the band’s resistance. Focus on driving knees out to track over toes (rather than allowing them to collapse inward).
- Lower foot back down.
Adductor squeezes
What it addresses: adductor weakness
Resistance vs. strength training: What’s the difference:
- Place a ball, soft yoga block, or pillow between upper thighs.
- Place a ball, soft yoga block, or pillow between upper thighs.
- While in the same position, lean upper body to the right, checking again to see if left hip dips.
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Seated Banded Ankle Isometric Hold
What it addresseses: Lower foot back down
Resistance vs. strength training: What’s the difference:
- but become an all-around stronger runner.
- Place a resistance band around the ball of right foot and bottom of left foot.
- Lift right toes up and in against the band. Hold for 10 seconds at the top.
- hip extension exercises to build speed and form.
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Windmill
What it addresseses: limited How to check if you’re strong, fast and fit for your age Lower foot back down
Resistance vs. strength training: What’s the difference:
- Stand with feet wider than hip-width apart and arms extended straight out from sides, at shoulder height.
- Hinge at hips and bend right knee, keeping left leg straight, and rotate to touch left fingers to right toes. Reach right hand up toward ceiling.
- Stand with hands over head, palms facing each other.
- Repeat on the other side.
- Continue alternating for 20 total reps (10 reps per side).
