I have really focused on strengthening my hips and knees this year, and discovering the kettlebell hip march was a breakthrough.

Why. Like many other runners, my hips and knees are where I feel the most pain when running. For a long time I assumed this was due to my height. I told myself that the taller I was, the longer my limbs were, and that this added to the strain. But this was simply ignoring the fact that working on strengthening these areas would prevent injuries and make me a better runner overall.

Then I found a wonderfully challenging exercise known as the kettlebell hip march. You put your foot through a kettlebell and lift your leg while standing strong with the other leg. It's a little tough, but I think it helps with hip flexion.

After doing 24 kettlebell hip marches every day for a week, I discovered that it wasn't just my hip flexors that were getting a workout. So I asked NASM-certified fitness instructor Wendy Butts for a walk-through to learn a little more about this exercise and how to do it correctly.

According to Butts, the kettlebell hip march is a great exercise for challenging multiple core, hip, and leg muscles.

"The cool thing about the kettlebell hip march is that it works not only the muscles of the leg you are lifting, but also the muscles of the leg you are standing on," she tells me. On the side of the leg you're lifting, you're working primarily the tibialis anterior muscles on the front of the lower leg/shin, the hip flexors, the abdominal muscles and obliques, and the quadratus lumborum muscles."

In short, while we are talking about muscles, these are all very important areas that should be targeted in training, plus what this one exercise can do for you. The kettlebell hip march is as follows.

Note that if you have trouble maintaining balance or cannot find a kettlebell that your feet can pass through, you can instead hold a kettlebell in front of your chest and lift both legs in the same marching motion to achieve the same effect. [If you train at home with an adjustable kettlebell (I use a Bowflex Selectech 840 kettlebell) with a weight of 8 pounds/3.5 kg, the lightest kettlebell you can get at the gym, with a weight you can get your feet through, 4 sets of 12 marches daily The goal was to do.

Especially with balance-based exercises like kettlebell hip marches, strength levels vary, so be sure to practice without weights and use lighter, more manageable weights once you are confident in your form.

Single leg exercises are unforgivably more difficult than bilateral exercises. It is embarrassing to be wobbling on your feet on Bulgarian split squats or single-leg deadlifts in the gym. The same was true the first time I did kettlebell hip marches. Not only does it look a little odd to put your feet through the weights instead of your hands, but it requires a basic level of balance and stability to stay upright and in good form while lifting your feet throughout the movement. If you are trying this discipline for the first time, don't be afraid to let your ego go and remember that everyone else in the gym is so busy focusing on how you look that they don't notice what you are doing.

As with anything, the more I practiced kettlebell hip marches throughout the week, the more consistent I felt.

While doing the weighted hip march, I felt a real tension in my hip flexors, but not in a detrimental way. It was more like I could tell that this hip joint needed this kind of strength and conditioning. I felt this most when I raised the leg to be worked as high as possible. As Butz taught me, doing this emphasizes the deep hip flexors, like the psoas major, which are involved in stabilizing the hips in addition to bending the hip.

However, as the kettlebell hip march weeks progressed, I also began to feel that I was working on my core and stabilizing legs. [Since the psoas major is deep in the abdominal muscles, you can feel it in your lower abdomen when you do this exercise correctly," he explained, "Conversely, in the stance leg, the stabilizing muscles of the foot and ankle, the quads, the outer hip and butt muscles, to maintain a stable and strong base for performing the hip march movement work hard," he explained.

It is no surprise that a week of kettlebell hip marches did not create an indestructible hip flexor. However, he feels that his experience with this exercise has improved his sense of balance, making it easier for his body to react when he stumbles or bumps into someone while running or hiking, thus reducing the risk of falls and injuries.

She also feels that performing this movement regularly increases muscle strength and joint support, which can reduce the stress and pain felt in the hips when running or walking long distances.

This is a really helpful exercise that I have found to have many benefits. It is not something that I would continue to do every day, but it has been a great exercise to finish off my strength training sessions.

Whether you are looking to improve your posture, improve your yoga practice, or build a body that can compete with seniors, the kettlebell hip march is an exercise to consider.