The monster walk is a walk with small steps performed with a loop band around the legs, in a mid-squat position. Physiotherapists and strength coaches have used it for years for two different purposes: waking up the glutes before training, and training the muscles that control the hip while standing.
It looks trivial, after all it is just walking, and that is exactly the problem: with very little change, the work shifts from the glutes to other muscles, and you end up doing an exercise that tires you without training what it should.
In this article you will find the technique, the three mistakes that make it useless, the dosage I use in the clinic and, above all, what the studies really say. Two very widespread claims circulate about this exercise that the evidence does not support, and it is worth dismantling them before talking about sets and repetitions.
Before you continue. What you read here is general guidance: every clinical history is different, and an exercise suited to others may not suit you. If you have pain at the moment, get it assessed rather than choosing exercises on your own. You can also start with the questionnaire: you sign up and see who will follow you, a physiotherapist registered with the Albo chosen for your case, whom you can write to in chat. If you would rather hear a voice first, the first consultation is free.
What the movement is and what it really does
It is a strengthening exercise for the hip abductors performed under load, that is, standing, with the body supporting its own weight while moving sideways.
The band resists the opening of the legs. To take a step you have to move the limb away from the midline, and that is exactly the job of the lateral glutes: gluteus medius and gluteus minimus.
There is, however, a second thing happening, less obvious and clinically more interesting. While one leg steps, the other has to keep the pelvis still on a single support against the pull of the band. That stabilisation work, not the step, is the most demanding part of the exercise.
You can see it in the data. An electromyographic study of lateral band walking measured activation of the gluteus medius on the supporting leg (on average 52% of maximum voluntary contraction, standard deviation 18) compared with the stepping leg (35%, standard deviation 16).
The gluteus maximus is also more active on the supporting leg, but at much lower values (19% against 13%). From this the authors draw a practical indication: in rehabilitation it is best to have the affected limb work as the supporting leg, that is, to move in the opposite direction to the side you want to train.
The name, instead, comes from the gait: wide legs, bent knees, stiff steps. It recalls the walk of a monster, and seen from the outside it is rather comical.
How to do it, step by step
- Place a mini-band, that is, a loop band, around the legs: just above the knees if you are doing it for the first few times, at the ankles if you want more selectivity.
- Take a half squat: feet shoulder-width apart, knees slightly bent, pelvis slightly back, back in a neutral position.
- Take one step to the side with one foot, without pushing it too far: the step should be short and controlled.
- Follow with the other foot without bringing it fully back next to the first, so the band stays under tension at all times.
- Keep the toes pointing forward and the knees over the feet for the whole set, even when you start to tire.
- Change direction and repeat in the opposite direction, or alternate forwards and backwards on the diagonal.
One rule sums it all up: if at any point the band goes slack or the knee gives way inwards, the step is too long. Shorten it.
Where to place the band: knees or ankles
It is the choice that changes the result the most, and it is not only a question of difficulty.
With the band just above the knees the version is easier to control. You can see clearly where the knees go, feel the movement, and the technique settles sooner. It is the starting point when the exercise is new or when the knee tends to collapse inwards.
With the band at the ankles or the forefoot the lever arm lengthens and the work becomes more demanding.
A narrative review from 2025 devoted precisely to monster walk and lateral band walk reports moderate to high activation of the gluteus medius and gluteus maximus, especially with the band at the ankles or forefeet and in a half-squat position, with less compensation from the tensor fasciae latae.
It should be said that this is a narrative review, not a meta-analysis: it included 13 studies, only 4 of which were devoted specifically to these two exercises. It is the lowest level of evidence, useful for orientation but not for declaring certainties.
In practice: if you are learning, start above the knees. If you want selectivity on the glutes and want the right muscle to work hard, move the band lower.
The mistakes that switch the exercise off
Almost all the cases in which the monster walk "does not feel" in the right place are explained by three technique errors.
Band too strong. This is the mistake I see most often, and it comes from a good intention: if it resists a lot, it trains a lot. The opposite happens.
With excessive resistance the body looks for the easier route: the trunk leans towards the side of support, the pelvis rotates, the knee collapses inwards. The load leaves the glute. The right resistance is the one that lets you finish the set without changing the shape of the movement.
Trunk compensating. Related to the first. At each step the torso shifts sideways over the supporting leg, so the weight falls almost directly over the hip and the glute has much less to do.
The trunk must stay upright and the pelvis level: the 2025 review in fact identifies trunk and pelvis control, adequate depth of the half squat and constant band tension as requirements of good execution.
Steps too long. A wide step gives the feeling of working harder, but to take it you have to throw the leg, and at the moment the feet come back together the band goes slack. Better short steps, many of them, with tension never lost.
There is a fourth one that sits among all of these: standing too upright. With straight legs the load moves elsewhere, and the half squat has to be maintained to the last step.
There is also a variable you cannot control but should know about: anatomical factors such as femoral torsion, differences between men and women and postural variations can change the quality of the movement. This is why the very same instruction does not work for everyone, and why an outside eye is sometimes needed.
Muscles involved
- Gluteus medius: the protagonist, responsible for hip abduction and for controlling the pelvis on single support.
- Gluteus minimus: a deep stabiliser, working in pair with the medius.
- Gluteus maximus: takes part, but with activation levels that are decidedly lower than in exercises on one leg.
- Tensor fasciae latae: contributes to abduction, and it is the muscle that tends to take over the work when technique is approximate.
- Quadriceps: comes into play to hold the half-squat position for the whole set.
Overall it is an exercise for hip control under load, more than an exercise for pure strength. If you want to see the same muscle group trained at rest and in isolation, the natural comparison is the clamshell, which works lying on your side and without load.
How many steps and how many sets
Here I need to be transparent: the optimal dosage of the monster walk is not established by studies. There are no solid comparisons between different sets-and-repetitions schemes for this exercise. What follows is clinical practice, that is, what I use and see working, not a proven protocol.
- As activation, in the warm-up before squats, running or sport: 2 sets of 10-15 steps per direction, with light resistance. It should leave you ready, not tired.
- As strengthening, when it is an exercise in its own right: 3-4 sets of 15-20 steps per direction, with a resistance that in the final steps forces you to concentrate so as not to lose form. The fatigue should be in the glutes, not in the back or the knee.
- Frequency: two or three times a week if it is part of a strengthening programme, daily if you use it only as light activation.
- Progression: first increase the steps while keeping form, then the band's resistance, then the position of the band towards the ankles. One change at a time.
If you use it in the warm-up, the monster walk is one of the possible building blocks of a glute activation routine before training.
Variations and progressions
- Band above the knees: the basic version, to start from when the exercise is new.
- Band at the ankles: same movement, longer lever, more demand on the lateral glutes.
- Diagonal monster walk: forward progression is added to the lateral steps, walking on the diagonal forwards and backwards. It changes the working angle of the hip.
- With a squat at every step: increases the effort on quadriceps and glutes, but requires a solid basic technique.
What the studies really say
The monster walk is a useful exercise. The two claims with which it is usually sold, however, do not hold up.
The most widespread myth: "weak glutes, so painful knee"
The version you read constantly goes like this: weak glutes make the knee collapse inwards, a collapsing knee causes patellofemoral pain, so strengthening the glutes prevents knee pain. It sounds logical. It is not what the data show.
A systematic review with meta-analysis from 2014 separated the two questions, and the distinction is the heart of the whole matter. In cross-sectional studies, that is, those that take a snapshot of a group of people at a given moment, there is moderate evidence that adult men and women with patellofemoral pain have lower isometric hip strength than people without pain.
In prospective studies, those that measure strength first and then follow people over time to see who develops pain, the authors report moderate to strong evidence of no association between isometric hip strength and the risk of developing the condition.
Taken together, the two findings lead to a conclusion that the authors state explicitly: the reduced hip strength may be a consequence of patellofemoral pain, rather than its cause. An association observed at one moment is not a causal relationship, and this is the most common error across the whole glutes-and-knee topic.
It has precise practical consequences. If you have "weak" glutes but no pain, there is no reason to believe that training them is protecting you from knee problems. You can do it for other sensible reasons, but not for that one.
"Activates the gluteus medius": what electromyography really measures
The second typical claim is that the monster walk is superior because it "activates more" the gluteus medius. Here too a clarification is needed.
Surface electromyography measures the amplitude of a muscle's electrical signal during an exercise, usually expressed as a percentage of maximum voluntary contraction. It is useful information for comparing exercises with each other. It is not a measure of clinical outcome: it does not say whether pain will fall, whether function will improve, or whether the muscle will get stronger in the weeks that follow.
And the numbers, when you look at them, also scale down the comparison between exercises. One electromyographic study that compared twelve exercises measured for the lateral band walk an activation of the gluteus maximus of 27% of maximum contraction, against 59% for the single-leg squat.
For the gluteus medius, in the same study, the highest value does not belong to the monster walk but to hip abduction lying on the side: 81%. Also notable is the spread of the data, with a standard deviation of 42 percentage points on that 81%: the variability between people is huge, and a group average says little about what happens in your case.
The practical message is twofold. First: as a tool for activation and control of movement under load, the monster walk works well. Second: on its own it does not make a weak glute strong, because the load levels are modest. It serves as a complement to work on one leg and with progressive loads, not as a substitute.
Where the evidence holds: pain that is already there
On the treatment of patellofemoral pain, that is, when the pain is already present, the picture changes.
A systematic review with meta-analysis from 2023 concluded that strengthening the hip abductors and external rotators improves pain and knee function in adults with patellofemoral pain, in the short and long term, with results better than those of quadriceps work alone.
The international consensus statement of 2018 on patellofemoral pain points in the same direction: it recommends exercise therapy and, in particular, the combination of exercises focused on the hip and exercises focused on the knee.
Note what was actually studied, though: hip strengthening programmes as a whole, not the monster walk on its own. None of these studies says that four sets of band walking cure the knee.
If that is your problem, it makes sense to understand how patellofemoral syndrome works and to build a complete programme.
Prevention: the weakest part
Here the gap between how popular the exercise is and the evidence available is at its widest.
A randomised study of 720 novice marathon runners tested a 10-minute strength programme, three times a week for 12 weeks, targeting the quadriceps, the hip abductors and the trunk muscles, against an observation-only group. The programme did not reduce the incidence of overuse injuries severe enough to prevent completing the marathon.
The result has to be read for what it is: a self-managed programme, with injuries reported by the participants, in a specific and high-risk population. It does not show that strength training is useless in general, and the authors themselves conclude that prevention strategies need better testing.
It remains, however, a good antidote to the easy promise that an exercise with a band will keep injuries away.
Putting the three parts together: the monster walk is a good control exercise, it has a role within programmes that work on pain that is already present, and it has no evidence supporting an independent preventive effect.
Where it makes sense in rehabilitation
Beyond the knee, there are two situations in which work on the hip abductors, of which the monster walk can be part, has reasonable support.
After an ankle sprain, and in chronic instability. A systematic review with meta-analysis from 2026 of 9 randomised trials and 306 participants found that adding hip strengthening exercises improves dynamic and static balance and the self-reported function scores of the foot and ankle in people with chronic ankle instability.
Two honest qualifications: the number of participants is small, and the outcomes measured are balance and self-reported function, not recurrence of sprains. The authors' recommendation to include hip work is sensible, but "prevents a new sprain" is not a result that study measured.
The full picture of the pathway is in the article on ankle sprain.
In gluteal tendinopathy, that is, pain on the outer side of the hip. A randomised study from 2018 of 204 people, with a diagnosis confirmed also by MRI, compared three routes: education on load management plus exercise, a corticosteroid injection, and waiting.
At eight weeks the education-plus-exercise group achieved better results than both the injection and waiting, for global improvement and pain intensity, and at one year it was still ahead of the injection for global improvement.
Here too the detail matters: the effective intervention was a programme of 14 sessions over eight weeks, guided by a physiotherapist, with education on load and progression of the exercises. Not a band and that's it.
In these cases, by the way, the dosage has to be calibrated to the symptoms: a resisted abduction exercise is not automatically indicated in the most irritable phase.
When to stop and get it checked
The monster walk is low risk, but there are signs that have nothing to do with the exercise and need to be recognised. If one of these appears, the way forward is not to push the glutes harder: it is an assessment.
- Groin pain under load, in someone who has recently increased their activity. The picture to take most seriously: a femoral neck stress fracture gives groin pain with gradual onset, without trauma, that appears with load and eases with rest. X-rays are often normal, MRI is the reference test, and this is a high-risk site.
- A swollen knee that gives way or locks. Swelling and a sense of giving way point to a joint problem to be assessed, not a strength deficit to be trained.
- Night pain or pain at rest that does not depend on what you do during the day.
- Fever, general malaise, redness and heat around a joint.
- Real loss of strength, tingling or numbness that follows a precise path down the leg.
It is also worth adding a risk factor that is often overlooked: stress bone injuries arise not only from too much training, but also from insufficient energy intake relative to what is being used, with a consequent reduction in bone density. In people who train a lot and eat little, bone pain needs to be looked at with double attention.
Online physiotherapy
Telerehabilitation lends itself well to an exercise like this, because almost everything needed is seeing the movement.
Remotely, a physiotherapist observes the technique, corrects the position of the knees and trunk, chooses the band's resistance and decides where to place the exercise within a programme. Above all, they can tell the cases in which the monster walk is the right choice from those in which it has nothing to do with the problem.
Conclusion
The monster walk is a simple and useful exercise, and it should be asked of it for what it can do: activation of the lateral glutes and control of the hip under load.
It is not a maximal strength exercise, it does not "fix" a weak glute on its own, and it has no evidence of an independent preventive effect on injuries. Where it really matters is inside complete programmes, when pain is already present. And the link between weak glutes and knee pain should be kept for what it is: an observed association, not a proven cause.
On technique, a few details make the difference: a band that is not too strong, a still trunk, short steps, knees over the feet and a half squat held to the last step.
If you are doing this for pain on the side of the hip, the full picture is in Trochanteric bursitis: what really works.
You will find this and eighty-two other exercises, each with execution, common mistakes and variations, in the exercise library.
Sources
- Optimizing Hip Abductor Strengthening for Lower Extremity Rehabilitation: A Narrative Review on the Role of Monster Walk and Lateral Band Walk - Journal of Functional Morphology and Kinesiology, 2025
- Electromyographic analysis of trunk and hip muscles during resisted lateral band walking - Physiotherapy Theory and Practice, 2013
- Gluteal muscle activation during common therapeutic exercises - Journal of Orthopaedic & Sports Physical Therapy, 2009
- Is hip strength a risk factor for patellofemoral pain? A systematic review and meta-analysis - British Journal of Sports Medicine, 2014
- Effect of hip abductors and lateral rotators' muscle strengthening on pain and functional outcome in adult patients with patellofemoral pain: a systematic review and meta-analysis - Journal of Back and Musculoskeletal Rehabilitation, 2023
- 2018 Consensus statement on exercise therapy and physical interventions to treat patellofemoral pain - British Journal of Sports Medicine, 2018
- A Randomized Study of a Strength Training Program to Prevent Injuries in Runners of the New York City Marathon - Sports Health, 2020
- Efficacy of hip strengthening on balance and function outcomes in chronic ankle instability: a systematic review and meta-analysis - BMC Musculoskeletal Disorders, 2026
- Education plus exercise versus corticosteroid injection use versus a wait and see approach on global outcome and pain from gluteal tendinopathy: randomised clinical trial - BMJ, 2018
- Femoral Neck Stress Fractures: An Updated Review - Journal of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons, 2022
- Bone Stress Injuries: Diagnosis and Management - American Family Physician, 2024
Last check of the sources: August 2026.
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