Unlock Your Hips With These 3 Moves

3 Hip Moves you probably aren't doing that could be a game changer

Everyone is out in these internet streets promoting some dynamic exercise that will change your hip mobility or some tool that’s “guaranteed” to “open your hips”.

I’m here to tell you that the idea and concept behind these quick fixes is a false narrative and it flies in the face of what we know about human adaptation.

Your body adapts in a many different ways, but often times the quick fix gurus are playing on a neurological window created for the short term. The thing is, these movements that provide a window are not inherently bad. The movements often times give relief or make someone feel like they got some gains.

The issue that I have with a lot of these recommendations is that they’re things you must do in order to create this window every time. In essence, you aren’t creating a long term adaptation.

What I typically do with my clients, is I allow them to continue to do the things that create these windows. If you like foam rolling and digging a ball into your tissue, then great. What I teach is that there are many tools and specific tools do specific things.

Applying physical force into tissues can create a neurological moment of relief.

What you do with that moment within that window of relief is what matters.

The universe gives us nothing for free. Energy must be put into the thing we want to change and passive energy inputs don’t create long term adaptations. Passive tools like, stretching, using rollers, balls, massage are detached from the mechanisms that our body relies upon for movement. So if we aren’t putting any of our own energy into creating adaptations then we are missing a huge component.

This is why we must train within the window and capture the space.

Capturing the space requires connecting that tissue that we can not use within that window created to our neurology.

The only way to do this is by providing force. Force is the language of our cells. Our cells adapt because of their relationship to forces.

Our muscles get bigger when we apply force and load. Our connective tissue gets stronger as we spend more time under tension. Our tissues adapt to create power and quick response when we manipulate the rate of force production or absorption.

So for this reason, we must think of the adaptations we want to make with our specific joint tissues in terms of all the concepts of Strength & Conditioning.

So here are 3 basic moves you should be doing if you want to create long lasting changes and adaptations that will improve your longevity.

Isometrics at End Range focused on Rotation (PAILs/RAILs)

Rotation is the fundamental movement of the joint. Your Hip’s rotational tissue is what allows for movement of your joint into all of it’s ranges. For example, in order to achieve Hip Flexion, your Femur (large bone of the lower leg) needs to have space in the posterior capsule to glide. See this short Instagram clip explaining the Rotation of the Femur.

Yielding Isometrics - Training Control of Your End Range of Motion (Passive Range Hold)

In these movements we want to work to capture the end range space. We are accessing our passive range and then asking our nervous system to contract the tissue that would hold this range. We are demanding that our neurology and our muscle tissue build a stronger connection so that we can own this space.

Concentric Capture of Range (Lift Offs)

In these movements we are attempting to use our active range of motion. The available range of motion that we have is a use it or lose it system. If we do not use this range, we don’t retain this range. It is imperative that we utilize it in order to maintain our strength throughout our ranges.