6 Best Abduction Exercises for Strength Training

Hip abduction exercises are some of the best isolating glute exercises you can do to feel that burn in your glutes.

When people work their glutes, they often focus on just one muscle: the gluteus maximus or the butt muscle. While it is essential to focus on a balanced upper body strength training plan (including your core) to maintain overall fitness, another muscle often goes overlooked: the gluteus medius.

Best Abduction Exercises for Strength Training

1) Fire Hydrant

The fire hydrant is a straightforward abduction exercise that focuses on the gluteus medius.

Here's how to do this exercise:

Start on your hands and knees, with your hands just beneath your shoulders.
Lift one leg out to the side, ending at hip height while keeping your leg bent.
Return to the starting posture by squeezing your gluteus medius.
Repeat!

2) Lying Jacks

You should do the lying jacks if you want to work on hip extension and abduction or if you want to indeed train your gluteus medius and gluteus maximus at the same time.

Here's how to do this exercise:

Place a tiny band just below your knees and lie face down on a bench with your hips just on the edge of the bench to complete Lying Jacks.
Place the mini band over your knees to make the maneuver easier. Move it down toward your ankles to make it more difficult.
Then, with your legs together, engage your glutes to bring your legs up to about parallel to the ground.
Don't overextend your lower back by pressing your hips onto the bench.

3) Clamshells

Clamshells are an excellent warm-up or cool-down exercise for your leg day regimen since they prepare your hip abductors. Abduction workouts also provide a unique motion that most lower body exercises lack.

Here's how to do this exercise:

You must lie down on your side to get into the beginning position. This workout will be more comfortable if you use a foam roller or a yoga mat.
Clamshells won't give your arms much workout, but you can use your lower arm to prop your head up. Lay your upper arm against your top leg.
Keep your knees bent at a 45° angle and your heels in line with your buttocks.
Slowly lift your knee, starting with your glutes.
As your knee raises, make sure your hips don't shift. After a few reps, you should feel it in your gluteus medius.

4) Side Leg Raises

For those who prefer a simpler activity than fire hydrants or clamshells, the side leg lift may be a better option. In an ideal world, you'd include all three exercises in your weekly program, but if you have hip or back pain that makes the positions for the first two exercises difficult, these side leg lifts provide many of the same advantages.

Here's how to do this exercise:

Lie down with your legs straight on either side.
Like the clamshell exercise at the start of this tutorial, you can hold your upper body with one elbow.
Elevate your top leg as high as you can, and then gently lower it back to the starting position. Check to see if you're raising your hips.
You should feel the burn in your glutes and, eventually, in your hip flexors, just like you did with the fire hydrants.
After 10 or so reps, go to the opposite leg and repeat for a couple of sets on both legs.

5) Side plank (Leg Lift)

Working out your hip abductors is also an excellent way to work up your core muscles. Targeting both muscle groups with this technique is smarter and more efficient because both are needed for body stabilization.

It's a lot like the side leg raise.

Here's how to do this exercise:

Start in the same position as you would for a traditional side leg raise.
That is, on one side, with your legs straight out in front of you and your upper body supported by your lower arm's elbow.
Lift your hip off the ground with your core muscles before raising the top leg.
The full side plank position is when you have a straight line running down the lower side of your body.

6) Resistance Band Deadlifts

Deadlifts are one of the best abduction exercises available since they allow you to target both your upper and lower body muscles, such as your glutes, hamstrings, and quadriceps. When you don't have access to a barbell or even smaller dumbbells, a resistance band can be used to perform a few deadlifts.

Here's how to do this exercise:

With your legs roughly shoulder-width apart, stand in the center of a resistance band.
Hinge forward at the hips so that you may hold the band's ends. To accommodate the forward hinge, you'll need to bend your knees.
Pull your shoulder blades back and then straighten your knees to complete the lift once you hold the band in each hand.
To complete one rep, reverse the movement back to the starting position.

Takeaway

Abduction exercise is only part of the equation and can give you strength, but you also need to eat right and take the right supplements. Picking the right abduction exercise is the key, though, so always consult your doctor and make sure to read reviews before you buy anything.

Edited by Piyush Bisht