“It’s All in The Hips, Happy. It’s all in the hips.” – Chubbs Peterson
There is not an athlete on this planet that does not need to be relentlessly working on their hips. It does not matter if you are a professional golfer, high school football player, or a weekend warrior.
Every movement, in every sport, involves the hips…
Think about it this way…
Hips are the axis of power generation and the driver of sprint ability. Lackluster hip mobility and stability leads to a decrease in ability to extend the hips, transfer force, and powerfully rotate.
Now that we’ve established just how vital the hips are here are the Top 5 Movements for Hip Mobility and Stability. I believe these should be done 4-5 times per week.
The thing I like about this sequence is that it goes from slow to fast and can be used as part of your pre-activity prep.
Think about your hip being the ball and socket joint that it is. Allow it to move freely as you rotate around. Maintain good posture and take your time. This will get easier the more you do them.
2: Banded Hip Internal Rotation
This is a small movement that will have a big impact. Think about limiting your movement exclusively to the active leg and get a long pause at the end range of the stretch. Your hip may cramp…don’t freak out…that is normal and will go away with time. If you have a band available, great! If not, just do without it.
3: Down Dog to World’s Greatest
This is a movement that hammers on the hips and provides both mobility and stability. You should feel a stretch in the hip flexors, adductors, hamstrings, glutes, and low back. Do not short change the elbow to instep portion of the stretch. Focus on keeping your back leg fully extended and maintaining stability in your front knee. The eyes should follow the hand in a smooth manner.
Making a 4 with your legs (scientific names, i know) lift the front leg and allow it to articulate around into almost a pigeon position. Try and keep the ankle above the knee as you drive your chest down. As with the Shin Box, your hip is a ball and socket joint. Allow it to act like one.
This needs to be done slowly focusing on – 1: maintaining good posture so you don’t cheat. 2 – force your leg to work at the absolute end range on the motion so we get absolutely everything out of it that we can.
These 5 movements should be completed in around 6-7 minutes and can work as the start to any warmup you are doing. If done right, they will start you with an increased core temperature, greater mobility, and solid activation in your hips and lower body.
Remember, just like my man Chubbs said – “It’s all in the hips”. My guess is that ole’ Chubbs was hitting these 5 movements daily.