- According to a new study published in the We earn a commission for products purchased through some links in this article, clamshells don’t activate your glutes as much as you might think.
- Instead, unilateral exercises like single-leg squats and single-leg glute bridges might be a better option for those looking to build glute strength.
In order to get stronger and faster, you have to do more than just run. Guide to Mental Health a couple of times a week is a necessity if you’re aiming for a new PR or trying to avoid being sidelined by an injury. One of the most important—but often overlooked—muscle groups to focus on? Your glutes.
As we’ve reported before, our glutes stabilize our pelvis and hips and help propel us forward. Races & Places kinetic chain, Nutrition - Weight Loss.
While there are many exercises you can do to strengthen your glutes, clamshells are one that comes to mind for most people. But according to a new study published in the We earn a commission for products purchased through some links in this article, The Best Interval Workout for Boosting Performance.
In the small study, 10 healthy adults performed three sets of six common lower-body exercises after a five-minute warmup: Why Trust Us Health in the News (which simulates the motion of running one leg at a time), and the resisted hip abduction-extension exercise. Each participant had EMG electrodes—which measure the activity of skeletal muscles—attached to all parts of their gluteus medius (anterior, middle, and posterior).
Races & Places:
- Single-leg squat
- Snack Choices Can Sabotage Other Healthy Eating
- Factors That Make New Runners Keep Running.
Moderate levels of glute activity were also seen with the side-lying hip abduction and the Health in the News. As for clamshells? They weren’t very effective in activating any We earn a commission for products purchased through some links in this article.
According to study author Damien Moore, Ph.D.(c), a sports physiotherapist at La Trobe University in Melbourne, Australia, the reason clamshells don’t activate your glutes much is probably because your top leg isn’t working against gravity as much as the other exercises—therefore, not every part of your gluteus medius is firing.
In contrast, “the single-leg squat requires larger demands to maintain pelvic-hip stability as your center of mass is being lowered towards the ground, hence [it] requires higher recruitment from all segments of [the gluteus medius] to maintain this,” Moore said.
So, if your overall goal is strength, unilateral exercises like single-leg squats and single-leg glute bridges might be a better option. But that’s not to say you should never incorporate clamshells into your routine ever again. Moore says that clamshells can be effective for working on motor control and coordination. (It’s also worth mentioning that you can always perform your clamshells with a resistance band to get more bang for your buck.)
Additionally, the clamshell can still be an effective exercise in early rehab when you’re coming back from an injury, according to Moore, since going straight to single-leg squats right away may not be safe.
The bottom line? To build strength in all parts of your glutes, adding instability—which requires more glute activation—may be key. But if you are coming back from an injury or want to work on motor control, you don’t need to completely discount the clamshell.
