“Walk Like Frankenstein”

That’s how you do these.

You, “walk like Frankenstein”.

But Here’s The Thing:

People are pretty poor at walking like Frankenstein these days.

As usual its that whole weak hips/ core control thing. 

My best guess is too much sitting with the low back rounded and pelvis tilted forward (makes the lower back overactive) combined with weak hip external rotators makes the MiniBand Monster Walk a mini sh@t show sometimes.

Why The Mini Band Monster Walk? 

These actually train more than just the #booty.

Things like:

• Pelvic control
• Core control
• Ankle and Foot strength

Mini Band Monster Walks

Checklist:

• Start with a NEUTRAL pelvis (cylinder position)
• Begin with an “athletic stance”
  • Hips “open” (external rotation), glutes on
  • Shins vertical
  • Ankle vertical
  • Hard arch in the foot, big toe DOWN on the ground
• Walk without the pelvis moving or knees moving into the midline.
  • If the knee moves inward, you’re training INTERNAL ROTATION, activating the TFL and IT band. Making the problem worse.
• Shins and ankles stay “tall”/ vertical through the whole movement
• Whole foot contact when the foot is on the ground.
• Never allow your feet to get any closer together than the start position. <—-Don’t unload the band tension.

FEET STRAIGHT.

Pointing your toes out (external rotation of the femur) changes the line of pull and movement at the hip joint.

When this happens YOU’RE NO LONGER TRAINING THE HIP EXTERNAL ROTATORS because you’ve taken them off the line of pull. 

The external rotators no longer have to resist the inward pull of the band.

Keep the toes pointed forward during Miniband Monster Walks.

PELVIS NEUTRAL 

The belt buckle should NEVER move.

It shouldn’t rotate to the front with the leg as you’re reaching forward.

The hips shouldn’t rotate up and down (anterior/ posterior pelvic tilt) as you reach forward.

Again, making these compensations is taking the stress off of the hip external rotators and you’re not training what you intend to train.

The femur moving in a stable pelvis MUST be the motion.

Bro Tips:

• The lower the band is on the leg, or even the around the foot, the farther away from the moment arm and the higher the glute activation.
• Stop focusing on stretching the band and instead focus on Hip/ Knee/ Ankle position.
• Think about actively PUSHING the shin into the area of the band directly opposing the line of pull THROUGH THE WHOLE MOVEMENT.
• DO NOT allow the anchor foot to collapse/ roll inward as you reach across. I
  • If you find your back foot constantly rolled to the big toe, YOURE COLLAPSING.
• If you find your knee and/ or ankle angle changing during these, you’re probably doing it wrong.

When in doubt…

SLOW DOWN

“Walk like Frankenstein”

He’s slow AF.

Not like these modern day zombies.

He’s old school.

Be Like Frank.

Rushing or speeding the Mini Band Monster Walk up will 100% of the time degrade the movement from really valuable into virtually worthless.

BTW:

If you want to really blow your ass up.

Go Backwards. 

The rules are the same…just in reverse.

These are the bands I like:

Perform Better Mini bands

When in doubt, go lighter, most people don’t need anything above a green band.

Same, but different, exercise..

But the RULES are the same for both.