The Abductor muscles (gluteus medius and minimus) are important for stabilizing the hips during heavy squats, in addition to forming the "shelf" of the upper glutes.
Basically, if you want overall larger, stronger glutes with better shape, these muscles are the unsung heroes of the hips.
Abduction is the biomechanical term for moving a limb AWAY from the centerline of your body...in this case, moving the leg outwards.
In general, if you can find an effective way to load the STRETCHED position of a muscle, you're going to get a stronger growth stimulus. And that's EXACTLY what this exercise does.
You're going to perform what amounts to a cross-stretch for your glutes...with a plate loaded onto your lower leg for targeted resistance on that stretch.
How to Perform Plate Stretch Abductions
To do this one, I recommend a decline bench and a bumper plate. You could potentially do it on the floor, but I found I got a much better stretch when my hips were elevated on the bench because it allowed me to "reach" more with the lower leg (you'll see what I mean in the pictures).
If you don't have a decline bench, you could use a Step riser with one end elevated to get an angle.
You also could potentially use a regular plate, a dumbbell, kettlebell or an ankle weight as resistance, if you don't have bumpers plates. I find bumpers to be the best way to go, though.
Start with a light plate...10 lbs or so. I'm using a 25 lb plate here and it's very challenging. You want to learn to do the exercise and find the stretch before you move up in weight.
Set yourself on your side with your left hip on the lower end of the bench.
Use your right hand to get the plate in place... you'll want it to be resting on the outside of your foot and lower leg.
Set your other hand on the floor but keep your fingers on that plate to stabilize it and keep it from sliding off at the bottom. This is not a "balancing" exercise...you don't need to do any circus stuff here. The plate is the most effective way to get resistance but the challenge should be on the stretch, not on holding the weight.
Raise the right leg up.
Now bring your right leg forward, across and down. THIS is the position that puts the best stretch on the gluteus medius and minimus muscles. This is what I was talking about with "reaching" with the leg...if you were on the floor, you can't get this full of a stretch as the plate hits the floor too soon.
IMPORTANT!!
Keep your hips oriented vertically here...we want to keep rotation OUT of the lower back and put all the stretch on the glutes.
If you allow the lower back to rotate, it not only puts torque on the lower back, it defeats the purpose of the exercise by reducing the amount of stretch you're putting on the muscles.
You can see in this picture why I'm holding onto the plate edge...without that grip, the plate would slide right off.
Hold that stretch for a few seconds and really let the weight pull on the gluteus medius and minimus muscles.
Now, with a smooth movement, bring the leg up and back.
You only need to bring it up until the thigh is back to the start position, thigh in line with your body...no need to bring it up and way back.
Because of how gravity is oriented here, you won't get a whole lot of backwards resistance to focus on the peak contraction...you can work that with a different exercise like glute kickbacks.
This exercise is all about the stretch.
Once you've done your reps on side (I like to stick with 5-8 reps per set in order to use enough resistance to get that strong stretch effect), switch to the other side.
This is a side view so you can see the orientation from this angle.
This is the stretch position.
And this shows you how far back to bring the leg at the top (in line with the body).
This exercise is literally THE best exercise I've ever found for targeting the gluteus medius and minimus muscles with a loaded stretch.
Beyond the muscle-building effect of this one, it actually FEELS really good to stretch those muscles in a way that you normally couldn't. I find it works even better than cross-body cable kickbacks for hitting that stretch because of the cross-body leg position.
So bottom line, this is not only a great way to build the glutes, it's a great stretch for tight hips.
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