Are you doing this one exercise?
Do you want a nicer butt?
No, not like a friendlier butt, but..let’s say…a stronger butt?
Sure you do, even if you don’t know it.
Aesthetic qualities aside, strong glutes and hamstrings can help improve posture, alleviate lower back, hip and knee pain, and, perhaps most importantly, can take your Pickle Ball game to the next level.
Boom.
And if I had to choose one exercise that almost everyone can benefit, it would be the single leg Romanian deadlift - or - in technical terms, the Drinky Bird.
This guy does a single leg deadlift flawlessly.
First of all, the Drinky Bird is a unilateral exercise (one leg at a time), and there is a ton of benefit for including single leg work in your workouts.
Walking, running, and taking the stairs all require single leg movements, so aside from training your posterior chain (back of your body), single leg work is also very functional. Training one leg at a time can also help us address movement and muscle imbalances, which can sometimes lead to poor compensation patterns.
The trouble for many clients though, is that single leg work can often be irritating on the knee. While split squats, lunges, and step ups might aggravate an already grumpy knee, the Drinky Bird requires only a slight softening of the knee, so even people with chronic knee pain or discomfort can perform some variation of the movement.
This exercise also gives you a lot of bang for your buck, as it is a full body movement that makes your obliques (part of the core) work very hard as well. I’ve never met anyone who couldn’t benefit from more core work, especially core stabilization (think plank versus sit up).
And lastly, though I could go on and on, the Drinky Bird forces you to work on balance. When you try this exercise for the first time, you’ll want to hold on to a bench or a squat rack - and don’t be surprised to find that one leg feels more stable than the other. That’s part of the imbalance that you’re working on with this exercise.
Ready to give it a shot? Ok - here is a variation to get you going - it’s called a braced SLDL.
In this variation, here are a few cues to get you started:
Squeeze your armpits hard enough to hold a piece of paper in them - this will keep you from rounding your shoulders.
Maintain a flat back - you don’t want to round through your lower spine.
Engage the core. Suck that belly button towards your spine and keep it there.
Allow soft knees. While this exercise is a hip hinge (movement initiated through the hips), it’s okay to bend the knees a bit.
Press the knuckle of your big toe into the floor to help use the muscles in your feet - which will help you maintain balance.
You may want to perform this exercise in a minimalist shoe or even barefoot. If you are working out in a thick soled running shoe, you might find yourself struggling against the shoe as you try to maintain balance.
In many cases, clients find it a struggle to maintain a straight lower back and straight leg throughout the movement. If you want to be sure that you are performing the exercise correctly, adding a foam roller can help keep your form in check:
And finally, if the above two versions are too easy for you, check out this variation that I picked up from my co-worker Trent last week.
The pause at the bottom really forced my hamstrings to work harder, and I found that I was able to keep both hips square to the ground. And the next day, but but and my hamstrings were fried, but you know, in a good way.
Cheers.