Side Lying Hip Abduction with Elongation at the Wall

To strengthen the Left Gluteus Medius:

• The patient is lying on their right side with their shoulders and hips up against a wall and the right knee bent with the right foot flat against the wall.
• Patient places their left hand flat on the floor in front of them for support.
• Keeping the left knee straight and the heel of their left foot touching the wall instruct the patient to slowly lift the leg up the wall.
• To further facilitate the gluteus medius, have the patient reach away with their left leg (elongate) and turn the left knee slightly up towards the ceiling while lifting the leg.
• They hold for 10 seconds and repeat 3-5 times initially.
• The patient is instructed to avoid hiking their left hip up when raising the leg and to keep their left heel against the wall throughout the exercise to avoid substitution of hip flexion and IR by an overactive TFL and hip hiking by the quadratus lumborum.
• Side lying hip abduction with both legs extended and not lying up against a wall was reported to produce the highest % of MVIC for the gluteus medius out of 12 exercises that are commonly prescribed for gluteal strengthening (DiStefano et al. 2009).