The Band-Reinforced Creature Stroll

Pressure Cascade · Mechanism

Lace up your shoes and wrap a band around your ankles, because the Monster Walk is about to turn a simple stroll into a glute and abductor workout that makes walking feel like you're navigating through waist-deep mud while two invisible creatures try to push your legs together. This beginner exercise is deceptively simple and brutally effective for building the muscles on the outside of your hips.

You place a resistance band around your ankles — or just above your knees for an easier variation — and you walk sideways, stepping out against the band's resistance with each step. You take a wide step to the side with your lead foot, then bring your trailing foot in without letting the band snap your legs together. You keep going for a set number of steps in one direction, then reverse and go the other way, maintaining a slight squat position the entire time. The band fights you on every step, pulling your legs together while you force them apart, and your abductors — the muscles on the outside of your hips — have to fire constantly to keep your knees from caving inward.

Monster walks are essential for anyone who squats, deadlifts, or runs, because strong abductors keep your knees tracking properly and prevent the kind of valgus collapse that makes orthopedic surgeons nod knowingly and reach for their appointment books. They're also great for building the kind of hip stability that makes you move like an athlete instead of a newborn giraffe. Walk like a monster, feel the burn on the outside of your hips, and build abductors that could crack a walnut — if walnuts were located on the outside of your pelvis, which they're not, but you get the idea.