digest
Daily Hip Mobility Routine
Details, FAQs, and downloads
(No transcript text provided for this chapter.)
Lying Hip Rotations
Supine leg rotations, external or outside rotations. Really good warm up to start this hip series. Simply lie on your back, bend both knees, bring the other foot across to your other leg, and you notice he's going at a relatively quick pace. What you want to do is just move into and out of the stretch. Then about after about 10 or so, then you use your hand to push in into the right amount of stretch. Hold about 15 to 30 seconds. You can hold a little bit longer. If it's too easy, what you do is you bring the knee that's bent on the ground closer to you.
Piriformis
Next up, we have Ryan doing stretch for primarily the piriformis. You're going to have some other hip rotators in there as well. It's just obvious, but primarily for the piriformis, which is tight in a lot of people. What we're looking at is he's going to be in the same position as the lying hip rotations. But now he's going to cross the leg fully and pull the knee across again in and out. Don't worry about keeping your back flat on the ground. Just go ahead and pull your whole lower body across. The angle is towards your opposite shoulder. So if it's your right leg, you're going to try and pull your knee towards your left shoulder. Again, hold for about 30 seconds or so.
Butterfly
After about 10 dynamic repetitions here, Ryan is sitting up with the feet together and the knees down at the side. It's the pretty common butterfly stretch. What you'll be doing is moving your knees up and down dynamically with your hands behind you. What you can do with that is shift your butt forward so that they're closer to your heels. Then one at a time press your hand down to further stretch. You can work on both elbows. Again, dynamic rotations about 10, and then hold the position 15 to 30 seconds, upwards of a minute depending on how you feel.
Frog
Here we have the frog. You're going to start on your hands and knees. Bring your knees far apart, as far apart as is comfortable for now, with the balls of your feet on the ground. Then you're going to rock back and forth in that position. Spread your feet out so that the inside of your feet are on the ground, your toes pointing outward. Rock back and forth. Again, real gentle, move in into the stretch. Then after a few repetitions, 10 or so, sit back and hold.
Kneeling Lunge (hip flexor stretch)
Here's the kneeling lunge. Great overall position for the hip flexors. You want to make sure that your foot on the ground and the knee on the ground are about hip-width apart, shoulder-width apart. Keep your chest up tall. Rock into and out of the position by shifting your hips forward. If you want to make it a little bit harder, Ryan shows how to bend your back knee behind you. You don't need to do this, but as you improve, this is a great way to advance the movement.
Traveling Butterfly
Here's an interesting movement. What you're going to do is sit in what's termed long sitting. So, you're sitting on your butt with your legs straight out in front of you. I'm calling this the traveling butterfly. You start in the position where you're in long sitting. Keep your heels together, be on your hands, and push your hips forward to go into the butterfly stretch. With this, you're just moving back and forth. You can pause in between to do a stretch in the long sit and a stretch in the butterfly, but it's primarily a dynamic stretch.
Squatting Internal Rotations
Here we have Ryan in a full squat position performing hip internal rotations while in that squat position. This can be fairly advanced. You definitely don't need to do this right away, and you don't need to force yourself to do this, but it is a great way to loosen up the hips if you already have a decent squat. What you can do is sit on a small stool with your butt up higher and then work those rotations. Again, it's dynamic. You can hold a bit at the end.
Pigeon
Next up, we're doing modifications into the full pigeon. Brian will also demonstrate the pigeon stretch. You don't need to do this fully if you don't have it. What you want to do is work within your capabilities. The main thing is that the bent knee in front: that shin should be at about a 90° angle to your knee. What you're going to do is shift your weight from that bent right thigh and roll it towards the back leg behind you. That's the dynamic movement, about 10 times. As you improve, you're going to be able to straighten that leg behind you and work up into the full pigeon. It's important to keep your chest up tall and bear weight just as much as is comfortable.