“A monster walk a day keeps the physio away,” goes the famous saying.
Well, it doesn’t, but I like to live by that mythical motto, anyway. And I know I’m guilty of neglecting my lazy glutes in my workout programs, so I recently dedicated myself to three minutes of monster walks every day for one week to help get myself back on track.
Unfamiliar with the monster walk? It simply involves looping one of the best resistance bands or mini bands above your ankles, then stepping forward and sideways, one leg at a time, across the ground. You can move forward, backward, or both.
The monster walk movement pattern engages your hips, glutes and legs and fires up your core to keep your torso stable as you move. It's the perfect exercise for lower-body mobility routines and leg day strength programs, and works as an excellent activator.
Here’s what happened when I added it to my daily routine.
How to do monster walks
Keep your core engaged and chest proud throughout; avoid overly hinging forward at the hips. Here’s how to do the monster walk:
- Stand with your feet hip-width apart and fix a mini loop band just above your ankles. How many and how thick is up to you
- Softly bend your knees while keeping your torso tall
- Take a big step forward and out to the right with your right foot, then repeat with your left foot forward and over to the left
- Keep moving forward for reps, then reverse and continue backward without turning around.
- You can opt for reps and sets, or, like me, time it.
I tried 3 minutes of monster walks every day for one week — here’s what happened
Here’s what I learned after one week of monster walking my way to stronger hips, adductors and glutes.
1. It hits many muscles in the lower body at once
I rarely program specific leg day routines in the gym for myself anymore, given I aim to train at CrossFit three times a week, attend hot yoga diligently and throw a short run in for good measure every week. Because I don't zone in on leg days, I sometimes neglect warming up my glutes properly before workouts.
I have pretty lazy glutes, so firing them up alongside my hips before a leg-heavy routine is crucial, as it can help protect my lower back and give me better feedback from this large muscle group while exercising.
Enter, monster walks: one of the best resistance band exercises to strengthen your lower body and improve hip mobility.
Given that the muscles worked — primarily the glutes, hip flexors, hamstrings, quads, adductors and core muscles for stability — are key in protecting your posture and lower back, this exercise is worthy of consideration.
Performed solo or as part of a lower-body mobility routine before a workout, the monster walk is the glute and hip engager everyone needs to know about. The slight step out to the side, as well as forward, helps engage the gluteus medius known as the “outer glutes,” which assist with abduction of the hip and lateral-based movements.
Strengthening these muscles will also improve your ability to perform exercises using this plane of motion. Think about soccer players or any sports or activities that use multi-directional movement.
Win-win.
2. 3 minutes feels like eternity
Three minutes a day might not sound like much, but it was certainly enough to get my legs fired up — the pre-activation my glutes need — and serve as a fiery finisher if you enjoy that sort of thing post-workout. If you plan to include heavy squats, lunges, or deadlifts in your program, I recommend adding monster walks before or after.
Each day, I performed 30 seconds of walking forward and backward to test coordination, balance and stability, then took just 10 seconds of rest between each round. I repeated this until I’d accumulated three minutes of work overall.
Across the week, I either switched to thicker bands after a few warm-up sets or used several bands to really turn the heat up. Three minutes felt like a treadmill minute, which, as we know, feels like eternity.
3. I didn’t look different, but I felt different
This isn’t the type of exercise that will produce mad lower-body gains like a sculpted butt or thick quads the way hip thrusts, squats, or deadlifts might. But you’ll feel the difference; over time (we’re talking about at least a few months), you should notice improvements in glute, hip, hamstring and quad activation and stability, too.
It’s different for everyone; you may feel stronger, more stable, taller in your posture, or experience less pain or discomfort in your lower back. Whenever I drill down into mobility routines for a few months, the target muscle groups feel more active and robust, more able to withstand resistance when I loop a band on.
The most troublesome areas of the body contributing to back pain include tight and weak glutes, hamstrings and hips, so I recommend strength, stability and mobility work in these areas several times a week.
4. It’s easy to lose form, but also easy to correct
If you can, I’d perform monster walks with a mirror in front of you. Typically, if the band is too thick and the resistance too heavy, you’ll notice your knees caving inward or your step distance restricted.
Opt for a resistance that allows you to take a pretty large step forward and slightly outward while powerfully pushing your leg against the band to open the hip and groin.
From here, ensure your foot sits stable on the ground and pause for a moment before you repeat on the other side. Only add speed when you have enough strength and range of motion to progress the exercise further.
You’ll feel a spicy burn through the lower body, and perhaps (like me) some shaking, too, which stays with you for a while after you’ve packed monster walks away for the day.
Remember to keep pressing your knees outward in line with your toes. Avoid over-leaning forward — a slight lean is fine and can help engage your glutes better, but not too far — and keep your stomach switched on. Think tall and proud through the torso, and you’ll feel the benefits of this move for years to come.
I did 3-minute monster walks every day for one week — my verdict
This one ticks all the boxes for me: it strengthens the stabilizer muscles of the lower body, helps protect posture and your lower back from injury and is highly accessible to most people. What’s not to love? Perhaps I won’t be performing it every day going forward, but I’ll certainly feature it in more of my workouts from now on.
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