How to Do The Clamshell Exercise With Perfect Form
Here's a step-by-step guide for how to do the clamshell exercise. Try this simple exercise for strengthening the hips and protecting your knees. Plus, discover what muscle groups they work. And the #1 mistake to avoid while doing them.
The other day, I was helping a client perfect their form with this powerful exercise when I told them:
'There are powerful corrective exercises floating around all over the internet but people aren't doing them correctly.There are so many distinctions in even simple exercises that if you mess up - you no longer get the benefit.
That's why I wrote this brief instructional guide.
Not so you understand this exercise, but so you can master this exercise. So you know how to do it and recognize the little mistakes 90% of people make.
Before we get into how to do them - let me share with you a quick metaphor so you understand why this exercise is needed in the first place. Because you always want to know the purpose of a "tool" before you use it.
In the 1920s, the gray wolf population in Yellowstone nearly vanished.
Early park managers viewed them as causing “wanton destruction” to livestock, deer and elk. To protect these “desirable” animals they nearly exterminated the gray wolves from the area. And sure enough, over the next 70 years, elk herds grew larger and larger.
These elk herds overgrazed the land which caused willow and aspen trees to dwindle. Fewer trees meant beavers lost their primary building mater for their dams. With less dams, streams started eroding and becoming deeper which hurt the native trees even more.
Just like the gray wolves were wrongly blamed for problems in the ecosystem, the same goes for certain joints in the body.
The knee is one of them.
Over the years, people have asked me countless times how to strengthen the knee or how to stabilize the knee.
The problem is they are going after the wrong suspect.
They assume that since the knee is frequently injured, that something is wrong with it. But the symptom of the pain is usually not the source of the pain.
Of course, there are exceptions to this.
For example, if you’re blind-sided by a linebacker, chances are your knee can’t hold up to this force. But outside of these collision injuries, we can prevent many types of knee injuries. And in many cases, the hips are the true culprit.
When the hips are functioning correctly, the knee tends to stay healthy. When the hips are functioning correctly, the back tends to stay healthy as well. And one of the best ways to keep the hips functioning is with something called the clamshell exercise.
So What Is The Clamshell Exercise?
Clamshells are a side-lying exercise for strengthening muscles in the hip. It’s a deceiving little exercise that doesn’t look like much but it’s doing quite a bit including:
Strengthens your Glutes When you do clamshells you’re activating your glutes (which are your butt muscles). These are important for walking, running, climbing stairs, picking up objects from the ground or even standing up. When these muscles are not activating correctly, the lower back tends to compensate. When it comes to the clamshell exercise, it works not just the largest glute muscle (glute maximus) but also a smaller one called the glute medius.
Knee Stability In seminars I’ve had audiences stand up and put one hand on their glute. Then gently move their knee side to side. When you do this you should feel muscles in your hip activating. That’s because muscles like the glute medius actually help stabilize your knee. Like I mentioned before, many people want to point their finger at their knee not being strong enough, but in many cases it’s the hips (and glute medius) that aren’t strong enough to control the knee.
Hip Health Muscles along the outside of the leg (such as TFL-IT Band) tend to get stiff. If you’ve ever had a massage or foam rolled this area, you know what I mean. When this area gets stiff it can actually rotate the hips and cause your femur not to move correctly in the hip socket. This can cause hip pain and restrictions in movement.
However, when you strengthen the glute medius, this helps guide your femur so it moves smoothly in the hip socket. And clamshells do exactly that.
Despite it's simplicity many personal trainers, group exercise instructors and workout buffs tend to do this exercise incorrectly.
How to Do a Clamshell Correctly
Set-Up: Start in a side-lying position with your legs stacked on top of one another and your knees bent at about a 45 degree angle.
Movement: Keeping your feet together, you’re going to open your knees without rotating at the spine. Then return to the starting position. You should feel this exercise working the glute muscles. Do 10-15 repetitions each side.
Common Mistake with Clamshells
Rotating The Spine: This is the most common mistake. You want to make sure that only your leg is moving. Your hip should not move either. Sometimes it helps to have your hand on your hip to monitor this. Once again you should feel this exercise working the glutes.
What If I Can’t Activate My Glutes?
Maybe you don't feel it in your glutes at all. Maybe you feel it along the side of your leg (IT band area).
In some cases it’s because these muscles have not been used in a while and are extremely weak. In other cases, it’s because your alignment is off which makes these muscles harder to activate.
Here are a few tips to help:
Tip #1: Hand on the glutes Place your hand on your glute when you do the exercise. Believe it or not, when you touch a muscle, it helps activate it.
Tip #2: Bring the legs back Another tip is instead of bending your legs forward at a 45 degree angle, you would bring them backwards. Meaning: You would do the clamshell with your upper legs in-line with your torso.
Tip #3: Pillow underneath you Another way that’s worked for some of my clients is to have a pillow underneath them (right above the hips). This can help put the spine in better alignment – especially for those with larger pelvic bones.
How to Make Clamshells More Challenging
After you get the hang of clamshells, here's a little variation to try out. In this video by physical therapist Mike Reinold - you'll see the band resisted clamshell.
This is a sure-fire way to get your glutes working way more! You'll find even a small amount of resistance can make this exercise much more difficult.
Just make sure you don't rotate from the spine (or the hip). All the motion should come from the leg.
When Should I Do Clamshells in My Work Out?
Clamshells are a great exercise to squeeze in at the beginning of a warm-up.Why? This is going to activate the glutes and other important hip muscles. That way you are more likely to use them during the rest of your workout.
Meaning: your activated glutes are going to help you when you do squats, deadlifts, lunges, step ups, tire flips or other leg exercises. And ultimately that's going to allow you to get much more out of those exercises.
Do 10-12 repetitions on each side.
Conclusion
It’s easy to overlook such a simple exercise like the clamshell.
However, it is a powerful injury preventing exercise. It will improve not just how well you move but how well and stabilize your knees. Plus, it will positively impact the rest of your workout. Try them out and see for yourself.
What's been your experience with the clamshell?
P.S. If you need an extra nudge to keep yourself motivated to crush your fitness goals in 2022 - join my monthly "coaching session" in print and you'll instantly get a free chapter of the "Breakthrough Fitness Strategies Program" (valued at $97). This 14-page sample will help you quickly unleash a new level of motivation. Find out more here.
