What are you activating with your miniband?

I currently do consulting and contract work, and one of the things that I notice as I move from clinic to clinic are small differences in performance of certain exercises.  I am of the belief that there is a right way to do everything, but that the rules can always be broken for an appropriate reason.  One of the things that will vary from clinic to clinic or gym to gym is the placement of Theraloops or bands for “Monster Walks” or banded side stepping (the names vary as well, of course!).  Some folks place them at the knees, others at the ankle, and still others around the forefoot.  I have always liked the forefoot placement, for two reasons:  The first is especially helpful with clients with a history of ankle sprain: the band will attempt to invert the foot, which is then naturally counteracted by an eversion force.  It gives us double bang for the buck: training the peroneals while also involving the gluteus medius, two muscles that tend to demonstrate weakness in people who have suffered inversion sprains.  The second reason is to add an internal rotation moment to the lower extremity, which must be counteracted with an external rotation force in addition to the hip abduction we are looking to activate.  My assumption regarding the second reason was the this would de-emphasize the TFL while emphasizing the posterior portion of the gluteus medius, and a recent study has confirmed it:  an NIH study performed at Boston University recently found just that.  

"As you go from knee to ankle to toe, the gluteals all increase," reports Cara Lewis, the author of the study.  "The TFL increases from knee to ankle, but not from ankle to toe." Other findings included one that won't be a surprise to advocates of single leg training: that the trail leg, which is supporting the body, does more work than the stepping leg.