Daily · no equipment beyond a mini-band
6 minutes, 5–6 days a week for six weeks, then 3 days a week.
This is the highest-value thing on this site and the easiest to skip. It needs no gym and no equipment beyond a mini-band. Do it in the evening, or after a run, or while something is cooking. Frequency beats intensity here — six honest minutes most days outperforms twenty minutes twice a week, because you are chasing a control and endurance quality, not a strength maximum.
Work the right side first and match the left to it, so the weak side sets the dose.
| Exercise | Weeks 1–2 | Weeks 3–6 | Week 7+ | Target |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Side-lying hip abduction | 2 × 15 / side | 3 × 15, ankle weight | 3 × 12, heavier | Glute medius. Top leg slightly behind the body and toe turned down, not up — that's what takes the TFL out of it. |
| Side plank, top-leg raise | 2 × 20 s / side | 3 × 30 s + 8 raises | 3 × 45 s + 10 raises | Glute medius under trunk load. From the knees if the full version breaks form. |
| Single-leg glute bridge | 2 × 10 / side | 3 × 12, 2 s hold | 3 × 10, weighted | Glute max. Hips level throughout — if the free-side hip drops, the set is over. |
| Banded lateral walk | 2 × 12 steps | 2 × 15 each way | 2 × 20 each way | Band above the knees, quarter-squat, feet never touching. Burn on the outside of the hip, not the thigh. |
| Copenhagen plank | skip | 2 × 15 s / side, knee version | 2 × 25 s / side, full | Adductors. Balances the abduction work and is the best-evidenced groin-injury insurance there is. |
| Single-leg step-down | 2 × 6, 10 cm step | 2 × 8, 15 cm step | 3 × 8, 20 cm step | The transfer exercise — this is the single-leg squat from the test, trained. Knee tracks over the second toe. Pain-free range only. |
Watch each one
As of 22 August the step-down is removed from this block for two weeks. A single-leg semi-squat on the right sharpens the pain — a positive Renne test — and the step-down is that exact movement under control, so at present it is provocation rather than treatment. Reintroduce it around 5 September at a 10 cm step; a 10 cm step is not embarrassing, it's a starting load. From then on, if it hurts, drop the step height before you drop the exercise.
The other five movements are knee-neutral and continue unchanged. They load the hip without taking the knee through flexion, and they are the actual treatment — the step-down is the transfer exercise, and transfer can wait until there is something to transfer.