A Move You Should Do MONDAY – Wide Stance Alternating Floor Touch

The wide stance alternating floor touch is a simple exercise that strengthens some major muscles of the legs: gluteus maximus, hamstrings and adductors. Here’s how to do it:

Stand with feet wider than shoulder width apart and toes pointed straight ahead
Hinge at your hips until your trunk is parallel to the floor. You should feel your glutes and hamstrings working
Alternately touch the floor with each hand. As you reach for the floor you may notice activation of your adductor muscles on your inner thigh
Perform 10-12 repetitions with each hand

Why do this?

In order to load the biggest muscles of our legs when we squat, it is important that our knees line up with our second toes.

The picture on the left is a correct squat. The picture on the right is known as a valgus squat, where the knees fall in. This is often caused by weakness of the hip abductors (gluteus medius and minimus) and/or tightness of the adductors. The wide stance alternating floor touch teaches the adductors to work in a long position, correcting the valgus squat.

So give the wide stance alternating floor touch a try. Is it harder to touch one hand to the floor than the other? Does one adductor feel tighter than the other? By mastering this move, you will strengthen your legs and protect your back during squatting, lifting, stair climbing and running. Take a few seconds and give it a try.

Because nobody has time to be in pain.

Until next time…