After more than a decade in the fitness industry, I’ve developed a few nagging aches and pains. Most of my 20s were spent doing long runs and high-impact workouts, and now my knees are paying the price.
I decided to take a step back and address my chronic knee issues once and for all by strengthening the muscles around them.
Banded lateral walks are one of my favorite exercises to build lower-body strength and stability, and I knew that doing them regularly might reduce my pain. I added them to my routine every day for a full month, and the results were almost immediate.
How to do banded lateral walk
You’ll need a resistance band for this exercise.
Sets: 3 Reps: 10 each direction
- Place the resistance band on or just above your ankles and keep your knees soft.
- Step your right foot to your right, following with your left foot, maintaining tension in the band.
- Continue stepping to your right for 10 steps, or until you run out of room.
- Repeat the movement stepping to your left for 10 steps, or until you run out of room.
Is it safe to perform the same exercise every day?
While performing the same exercise every day can lead to overtraining, banded lateral walks are a little different.
“Resistance bands are incredibly effective at activating and strengthening the muscles that keep your femur and knee aligned,” says Stefani Wylie Crowley (MSPT, DIP, MDT), a physical therapist with mPower Physical Therapy.
“Stabilizing muscles are meant to engage during everyday movements, so it’s beneficial—and safe—to train them regularly.”
It didn’t take long for my hips, glutes and legs to start feeling stronger. Here are a few other things I noticed.
My knee pain diminished significantly
“Banded lateral walks light up your glute medius and other external rotators, helping to build the strength needed to keep your knees in better alignment during walking, squatting or climbing stairs,” explains Crowley.
It made sense then that after only a few days, my knees felt more stable than they had in years. I didn’t experience my usual ache while squatting and I was able to walk without any stiffness or pain.
I could squat with heavier weights
Speaking of squatting, my daily banded lateral walks allowed me to add 10 extra pounds to my squat. This was a welcome improvement as I had been stuck on the lower weight for weeks.
I was also able to add a few extra pounds to my lunges and deadlifts.
My hips felt tight
The only downside to my month of banded lateral walks was some residual hip tightness, which I noticed a lot while doing single-leg glute bridges and one-leg Romanain deadlifts.
That being said, there was a simple fix for this problem: proper stretching. This is something I neglected to do in the first week, but once I added in a quick figure four stretch, my hips felt a lot better.
