Recently one of our guest bloggers Alex Price was asked to shoot a video about injury prevention for 220 Triathlon Magazine (Australia/NZ).

Alex is a triathlon specialist physio with AIS and NSWIS triathlon teams.

Why Include The Clam Exercise?

There will inevitably be cries of:

‘No…! Why include The Clam?’

These days it’s certainly fashionable to favour ‘functional’ exercises, those which mimic the demands of an athlete’s given sport… but sometimes the athlete needs to nail the basics first.

It’s not ‘cool’ to say so, but I do still think non-functional exercises such as The Clam and it’s progressions have a key role to play in rehab and prevention.

Non-weight bearing, isolated exercises such as The Clam enable an athlete to feel what it is to activate Gluteus Medius, and initiate the correct muscular engagement – before then importantly transferring this improved kinaesthetic awareness into an integrated functional exercise such as a Single Leg Squat.

Tom Goom’s article on Gluteus Medius rehabilitation does a great job of discussing current research surrounding the tradeoff between functional vs non-functional exercises in Glute. Med. rehab – well worth a read!

Last updated on March 2nd, 2021.