Tag: tight hips

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

Read More

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

Read More

Improving Hip and Shoulder Internal Rotation WITHOUT STRETCHING!

Having shoulder and hip internal rotation is kind of a big deal. What if you could get it as quickly as possible without a single stretch? That’s exactly what we did in this case. I work with someone who is unfamiliar with my techniques, and in 3 moves (1 of them a failure), we were able to increase shoulder and hip internal rotation. Watch the video below to learn what we did. Case overview The “patient” is my nephew, Brad. He’s a football player and wrestler who is just a stiff bro. No pain. Objective findings Brad’s main initial findings were the following: Test Left Right Infrasternal angle narrow Shoulder flexion 155 155 Shoulder external rotation 95 95 Shoulder Internal rotation 90 50 Hip flexion 95 95 Hip external rotation 60 60 Hip internal rotation 10 10 Straight leg raise 65 65 Intervention selection Given the findings above, are major keys to focus on were making the infrasternal angle dynamic and restoring internal rotation. Brad appears to be a classic narrow infrasternal angle. Lewit tilt I chose this move because the 90 degree angle at the hips biases internal rotation. The supine position promotes lateral ribcage expansion, which is great for narrow infrasternal angles. If you want a super in-depth reasoning for this move, check out this post. After performing this move, B’s test results were as follows (improvements are bolded): Test Left Right Infrasternal angle narrow Shoulder flexion 155 155 Shoulder external rotation 95 95 Shoulder Internal rotation 90

Read More