ONE Incredible Exercise for Strong Legs (50+)

There is one exercise that you almost certainly aren't doing that can improve your strength, mobility, and balance all at the same time. In today's video, I'm going to reveal what that exercise is and show you how you can do it at home. So the exercise we're talking about today is one that combines several key attributes. First, strength. It will strengthen up your quads, your glutes, and your core. Second, mobility. It will improve the mobility of your hips, your knees, and your ankles. And third, balance. It will improve your stability on your feet and protect you from falls. So I'm going to show you this incredible exercise now, but before I do, it's not suitable for everyone, and please avoid it if it causes you pain. The exercise I'm going to be showing you today is called the clock lunge. And I hardly see anyone doing this exercise, but it's so good for building strength, mobility, and balance. Here's how it looks. You just need a pair of shoes to do this, because for some people, especially with big toe stiffness, it can be tricky. But I'm going to show you barefoot. Here's what we're going to do. Imagine you've got four points of a square or a diamond either side of you and front and behind you, okay? So we're going to imagine we've got those four points, and you're going to move your leg to touch those four points and lunge into each position. We'll start from the front, and I'll show you how it looks. So you're going to go forward and lunge and step back, then to the side and lunge and step back, then behind you, lunge and back. And here's the tricky one. I'm going to go across you and lunge and come back, okay? So we're going to 12 o'clock, 3 o'clock, 6 o'clock, 9 o'clock in that lunging pattern. Let me show you again. So forward to 12, then to 3, then to 6, and then across you to 9. So that's the simple variation. And the reason this is so good is because every time you're going down like this, the quads on this leg have got to load up eccentrically. So they've got to get longer, which means they're absorbing your weight and they're almost acting like your brakes. So they will get stronger, but also your glutes are getting a brilliant workout with this. And again, they're loading eccentrically to keep your pelvis level. So that's the first stage. We can make this a little bit harder by making the lunge deeper. But before I show you that, if you love this routine so far, I've got tons more exercises like it to help you improve your mobility and strength inside my lifelong mobility program. You can find details of that to check it out in the description box below this video. Let's have a look at how to make this tougher. So I've got two ways to make it tougher. The first one is to go deeper into your lunge. So what you would do here is go forward and then really deep and then back up. We're keeping these lunges quite narrow. And then the second one would be to go down to three o'clock position, quite deep. Then you want to go back to your six o'clock, almost getting that back knee to touch the floor. And then across to your nine o'clock, almost so that your shin here touches the back of your calf there like that. That would be ideal if you can handle it. And I know this looks awkward, but this is actually a really good way to strengthen those quads and keep you balanced as well. So a slightly deeper lunge is a brilliant way to progress this. Obviously only go as deep as your knees will allow you. If you have knee pain, just stop before that knee pain starts. But going in that pattern can make a massive difference. I've got one more way to make it harder. Let's have a look at that now. So the other way to make this exercise tougher is to add some resistance. And to do that, I'm going to use a dumbbell and I'm going to hold it in a goblet position. So with palms up like this, with the dumbbell held close in towards my chest, I'm going to show you from this angle this time so you can see a different angle, but we want to keep our back up nice and straight right throughout this movement. So we're going to go forward and down. Then we're going to go out to that three o'clock position. And then we're going to go back to six o'clock and down, and then across the body to nine o'clock and back up. Let's try again. So forward to 12, out to three, back to six, and then across to nine. So this is quite an advanced exercise, but it is so good for improving your strength and stability. That's all I've got to show you today. I hope you've enjoyed this. If you're going to give it a try, drop a comment below and let us know. Make sure you've subscribed to the channel as well, because then you'll be the first to hear about our next ones. There's another video on the screen right now with a great exercise to help you build strength in your legs. Click on that if you're interested, and I'll see you next time.