Category: Lower Body 101

Hip Flexion Biomechanics

Why hip flexion is SO much more than a sagittal plane movement You may think hip flexion is as easy as bringing your knee to your chest, but there is SO much more going on. In fact, the act of hip flexion has various rotational elements about it, and better understanding these elements can greatly enhance our exercise selection, helping our clients move and perform better.garageband Don’t worry fam, we get into the weeds and come out with an easy understanding of hip flexion in Movement Debrief Episode 160!

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Hip Flexor Stretches Don’t Work – Try These 2 Exercises Instead

If hip flexor stretching is whack, what is better, Zac? It’s super common to feel hip flexor tightness from sitting or a bazillion other things. The problem is that your traditional hip flexor stretches don’t really work…At all. The reason why is NOT because your hip flexor muscles are this evil piece of your anatomy that hates you and cares little about your feeble attempts to stretch them. It’s because tight hip flexors are part of a bigger movement strategy that your body uses. And in order to get these muscles to let go, you have to teach your body a different movement behavior. One that takes into consideration ALL of the areas that influence hip flexor tension. What are they? Well fam watch the video below and read the blog to learn! What are the hip flexors? Are the hip flexors simply evil muscles that exist within your body to cause you all types of pain and problems? Uh, no fam. The hip flexors are several muscles that act to flex the hip (aka bring your thigh closer to your abdomen. If you’ve ever sprinted, walked, went upstairs, done marching exercises, or kneed someone in the gut (wild times in Vegas), then you can be thankful you have hip flexors big fam! For you anatomy nerds, some of the major players that complete this move include: Tensor fascia lata (TFL) Psoas major Iliacus Rectus femoris What other actions do the hip flexors perform? You’ll notice that the hip flexor

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All About The Pelvic Floor

A deep dive into pelvic floor biomechanics Breathing is super important you know, but the base of breathing is the pelvic floor. Well fam, what if you don’t have the biomechanics on point down there? Then you’ll need some help! We will sift through it in this post. Check out Movement Debrief Episode 157 below to learn more.

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Lateral Pelvic Tilt: Learn It All

If there is a frontal plane problem, you will want to check this out Are you someone who has a lateral pelvic tilt, a lateral spine shift, or Trendelenburg gait. If so, then this is the post for you, because we outline what is going on movement-wise, and what the heck you can do about it. Check out Movement Debrief Episode 156 below to learn more.

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Common Ankle Problems

Let’s navigate through compensations seen not just the ankle, but up the chain! Do you have ankle problems? Done a bunch of wall ankle stretches to no avail? Perhaps you have to look elsewhere. Namely, how ankle restrictions link up through the rest of the body. How are ankle limitations commonly seen manifested through common compensatory strategies? That’s what we dive into in today’s post. Check out Movement Debrief Episode 155 below to learn more.

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When Can I Run Again After an Ankle Sprain?

Ankle sprains are such a bugger and take some time to heal. But once you’ve let swelling and such run it’s course, when is it safe to run? We answer that in the video below. Here, you’ll learn my criteria and progression that I look for when having someone safely return to running. Watch and learn! Ankle sprain red flags The first thing you have to do after an ankle sprain is make sure you don’t have a fracture. There are these rules to follow called Ottawa Ankle Rules, which are a cluster of findings that would indicate getting some imaging done. These findings include: Inability to weight bear Pain within the viscinity of either malleolus If you have these findings, you most definitely need to get some imaging. Do not pass go, do not collect $200. But if you do not have these findings, move along to the next part 🙂 Returning back to running after an ankle sprain Running is merely a series of bounds (jumping from one leg to the other) for an extended period of time, so after an acute ankle sprain, we have to make sure components leading up to this go okay without any issues. To determine the course of action for this return, we can start from the most fundamental actions of the bound, then build our way up. The steps below are the progression that I use. You want to make sure that you have minimal increases in pain/swelling before moving onto

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When You Only Feel Quad During the 90-90 Hip Lift

The Lewitt postion (or 90-90 hip lift) is supposed to target hamstrings and distal glute to drive hip internal rotation all…day…every…day. But what if you feel quads only? Is that okay? Uhhh….no fam. Find out in the video/post below what is going on here and most importantly, what the heck to do about it! Why are quads contracting during the 90-90 hip lift? The quadriceps extend the knee, but there is no “pure sagittal” movement. There is a rotational action through the knee joint as you drive extension. That rotation is tibal external rotation and femoral internal rotatio. Since the lewitt position aims to increase femoral internal rotation, the quads can compensatorily contract to drive internal rotation, but attempting to do so at the distal femur. This cheat could be because you are asking the individual to posteriorly tilt the pelvis against gravity. But fam, we want internal rotation at the proximal femur, so this action is likely not going to get you a whole lotta femoral internal rotation and subsequent sacral nutation. In fact, quad activity is often paired with lumbar extension in this case. So what is one to do? I’m glad you asked!!!! Other interventions to use when you feel quads during the 90-90 hip lift Your first line of defense will be to coach the snot out of this move. Make sure they can create a pelvic tilt without engaging abs as well as keeping the lower back flat on the floor. That can help your

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When to Combine Pronation and External Rotation

Although external rotation and supination are paired, so too with internal rotation and pronation, sometimes you must drive pronation and external rotation. This need is especially common if you see a twist through the knee joint. In today’s post, we dive into when you have to do that. Steps for combining pronation with external rotation With these types of folks who present with hip external rotation loss and inability to pronate the foot, you have to untwist these folks. The first line of defense if you have manual skills is to perform manual therapy of the foot. I would look at restoring the following movements: Ankle dorsiflexion Calcaneal eversion First ray manipulations Cuboid manipulations If you don’t have manual skills, wedging the calcaneus laterally to drive eversion can work. You can also perform offset exercises, such as an offset wall squat, to drive rotation and further external rotation: Be mindful as you drive these motions, often people can cheat calcaneal eversion by plantarflexing the first ray even further!

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