Exercise Obsession: Single Leg Deadlift + Knee Bend

I want to share my current exercise obsession: Single leg deadlift with a knee bend.  

Uncreatively (but aptly) named, the SLDL + knee bend is exactly what it sounds like. You do a single leg deadlift, and you bend your knee.

But before I say more about how and why to do this exercise, check out the video below, and give it a try.

So… Did you try it? That was the complete (7ish min) clip of the demo of this exercise from my Movement and Strength Training Foundations class a few weeks ago.

WHY AM I SO OBSESSED? 

Quick back-story, my foot has been hurtin’ since feb 18th and I haven’t been able to stand and walk comfortably since then (a journey I’ve been documenting on the Instagramz if you fancy a look).

This exercise brought my awareness to some key mechanics that my right hip struggles to perform, and now I’m walking again. Slowly, but walking. Booyah!

Many folks, myself included, struggle to cleanly flex their hips. One main benefit of the SLDL + knee bend is that it helps awaken dem posterior chain muscles (glutes and hamstrings) by systematically accessing your bestest hip flexion, on one leg.

The knee bend add-on is an amazing way to challenge yourself to maintain and deepen your hip flexion, without cheating it by rounding your back. 

All-around great exercise for strengthening and improving your hip and knee flexion, and your awareness of any asymmetries right and left. 

You can totally stop reading now with no FOMO, but, me being me, I couldn’t stop writing here. There’s more!

THE STEP-BY-STEP CUES:

1. Hinge at your hips from two feet (send your butt back to 6 o’clock). You should feel your hamstrings go on stretch. Slight pelvis anterior tilt (tailbone pointing out like J Lo, no tucking).
   
2. Shift your weight all the way onto one leg without losing your hip hinge (tucking under), or twisting your pelvis. 
3. Reach your other leg behind you. Your toes can stay in contact with the floor for balance, or lift your whole foot off, if you’re feeling dangerous.
   
4. Keep spine completely still (don’t round), and bend your standing knee, reaching your hands to the floor. See if you can touch the floor. 
   
5. I repeat: DON’T round your spine or tuck under (posterior tilt) your pelvis to touch the floor- All the bending is from your hip and knee joints. Make your leg do the work.
   
6. Straighten your standing leg back towards the start position, and stand up on one leg (with grace…)
   
7. Repeat, and enjoy the glute and hamstring burn.

As I expressed in the video clip, I didn’t think I would even be able to do this exercise on my right leg. But in the class I was like, “Oh what the heck, let’s try standing on my right foot”. 

And oh man am I ever glad I tried. The rest of the day, my foot felt about 50% better. 

The following day, I was actually able to walk around with minimal pain (in 5x slow motion, mind you, but still… Big success). 

What is the magical power of the SLDL + knee bend? Its not magic… It’s just biomechanics accessed cleanly. But magical things happen when you unlock your missing biomechanics.

SLDL + KNEE BEND KEY MECHANICS 

Ok, here’s the part where I liberate the movement nerd in me. In the SLDL + knee bend, your body needs to be able to:

1. Flex your hip and anterior tilt your pelvis (the hip hinge part).
2. Adduct your hip (the get your weight entirely onto one leg part)
3. Internally rotate your standing hip with a relatively balanced foot tripod (i.e. not rolling all the way to the inside or outside of your foot, or losing your heel contact)
4. Flex deeper at your hip when you add in the knee bend (differentiating your hip and knee from spinal motion. I think that’s what people call “core stability”?).

The reason I suspect the combination of those three hip motions (flexion, adduction, internal rotation) were so beneficial for my foot is how they contribute to opening the space where the sciatic nerve comes through in the sacral/hip area. 

Look at that big green thing. 

FOOT-HIP CONNECTION VIA SCIATIC NERVE

My working theory is that my foot pain (nervy, burny, tingly, throbby sensation in my heel and sole of foot) is at least in part related to entrapment and/or tension at different parts along the sciatic nerve, as it weaves its way from lumbar spine, through the hip, down to the foot.

For me, one area of entrapment seems to be at my posterior hip joint, i.e. under my butt. 

Here, the sciatic nerve can get easily squished by the hamstrings (biceps femoris) and the piriformis muscle, unless the hip can flex and internally rotate well enough to open up some space and move those muscles. Things my right hip sucks at.

Nerves don’t like when they don’t have space to slide and glide because they are squished by reduced joint spaces and muscles getting in the way.

Using the SLDL + knee bend to access hip flexion and internal rotation in particular seem to help open space for my sciatic nerve to move through, and eccentrically load (lengthen) the muscles surrounding the nerve, so it can slide and glide more freely.

CONCLUSIONS?

You should try this exercise. Just kidding. Do what you want. It’s your life, your body, don’t let me tell you what to do with it.

Disclaimer: I’m not saying that this is THE exercise to fix issues with YOUR sciatic nerve. It’s not. If you suspect you have problems related to your sciatic nerve (or any nerves) you should always be properly assessed by a movement/therapy professional before diagnosing yourself on Google and making up DIY solutions. 

However, for me, the SLDL + knee bend was a big AH-HA moment. Not because it “fixed” me, but as I fumbled with the technique, I was able to observe the differences between my right and left sides. 

And it was illuminating how stark the difference was… (I’m so glad I caught it live on camera).

I’ve been practicing a modified, smaller scale version of this exercise everyday, several times a day, and now, two weeks later, my foot is virtually pain free. Not 100% better, but I’m grateful that I can walk again and stand long enough to wash my dishes. My kitchen was becoming a hazardous area…

Thank you SLDL + knee bend. My butt and hamstrings have new life. And my foot doesn’t feel like a wet rag anymore. 

I’m not old, but as I get older, my attitude towards exercise is changing. Having been sitting on my butt not doing anything exercisey at all for the past 2 months, I’ve had a lot of time to rethink my intention for exercise. 

Yes, strength is important. Challenging our muscles intensely at times is important. But the SLDL + knee bend is not just a strength builder. Done slowly, with awareness, it is also an opportunity to observe and optimize movement mechanics.

In fact, any exercise is an opportunity to observe and optimize. And I think this is a lovely philosophy to apply to any movement practice to make it more meaningful, enjoyable, sustainable, and healthy (read more about that HERE). 

Give the SLDL + knee bend a try. Go slow. Notice if you are doing cheats like me that work-around your hips actually moving cleanly. If it feels bad, or unsafe, don’t do it, and seek help to undestand what’s happening. Let me know how it goes, and if your butt loves you (or hates you) for it 🙂 

FYI, the class in which I showed this exercise was of the April 2022 theme: I Get Knocked Down (But I get Up Again). We spent the month working on exercises with the intention to develop/maintain the ability to move up and down from the floor with ease and grace. Being able to deeply flex the hip and knee are a part of that.

If you enjoyed today’s snippet, and want to try a full M&S class, you can try one for free here: www.monikavolkmar.com/free-class, or get access to all weekly classes and the complete archive of everything I do online HERE, in my monthly membership.