I’ve witnessed hip mobility literally save some of my client’s abilities to lift, play sports, move pain free, get leaner, build more muscle, get really strong, and the best one yet… Live life without constantly struggling on daily tasks or suffer from reoccurring back pain.
In fact, I’m an excellent example of this. See I’ve always had tight hips, even as a younger soccer player growing up. I was never super flexible and because of that I got more and more back pain as I grew up.
I was that guy who blew my back out every couple months doing some heavy squats or deadlifts and the worse part about that, I was also the youngest guy in the gym. Having back and hip issues from age 19-24 has NOT been a fun or good thing to have.
In fact, it started well before then. See when I was 16 I tore my meniscus in soccer… Then at 17 I tore my ACL, again in soccer. So when I was 18 and going into my freshman year at college I was recovering my knee injury and trying to lose the 40-50lbs I added since the injuries happened.
But the reason I tell you this, is because the reason I tore all the ligaments in my left knee was NOT from weak knees. It was from LACK of ankle and hip mobility.
See the body is stacked my stable and mobile joints and they alternate all the way from head to toe. If your ankle or hips are immobile, one of two things will try to make up from it – your knees or your lumbar spine, the two “STABLE” joints above and below. In my case, it was my knee that tried to make up for the lack of hip mobility and because the knee is supposed to be stable (“not move”) it blew out the ligament over and over again.
Guess I should’ve learned…
Well I did, and that’s why I ended up studying this stuff in college and making a career out of it.
The fact is, I see many people suffer from knee and lower back pain and injuries all the time and although it can be from different things – weak core, weak/non-active glutes, tight hip flexors, bad ankle mobility, or a combo of many – one of the more common ones I see and what helped me personally be able to get rid of the issue, was improving my hip mobility.
Now I can play soccer again in men’s leagues, sprint at an all out pace, skateboard for hours, deadlift at maximum efforts, and squat as heavy as I can – ALL which I was not able to do for a long time after the injuries.
So let me help you by giving you exactly what you can do to fix YOUR issue as well. And if you’re anything like me and HATE warming up for too long… You’re in luck!
I had my brother from another mother Theo Bowie provide me with a hip mobility circuit I could do to fix the issue all within a 5 minute flow. Yup – just 5 minutes and you’re done. The video is longer than 5 minutes, BUT understand that is because we need to specifically describe how to perform everything properly.
After you watch the video, scroll below and see the different reps and time schemes to implement into your personal programming so you can get it done in 5 minutes or less.
Before implementing ALL of these exercises and movements, it’s important to understand what and where you need the most work on. So when implementing these things, test first!
What you can do here is test a body weight squat, ideally with overhead reach (you can just lock elbows out over your head or even better, hold a broomstick horizontally overhead while you perform the squat).
While doing this, test your range of motion and notice where you’re feeling the most “tight” and where your lack of ability to squat deep comes from.
Then implement one or two of the exercises, for example: maybe you notice your ankles feel the tightest and lack movement the most. Roll the feet and mobilize the ankles using the techniques from the video above, then retest your squat.
If it improved your squat a lot, make your focus those while incorporating just a few of the hip mobility drills. If it didn’t change the squat, test the squat with the hip work and utilize those exercises more often.
Maybe you’re like me and you’re feeling pretty damn tight in all of the above! Well, then your best bet is to invest a little longer than 5 minutes on this. Work 90-100% of what Theo showed us in the video above and spend 10-15 Minutes working on this. The benefit of spending the extra 5-10 minutes will be that after doing so consistently for a while, you’ll need less and less time to immobilize your joints – so eventually that 15 minutes DOES become 5.
Putting it into your training!
Two ways to do this, you can use one or both.
#1 – Use Directly Prior To Training.
Each exercise in this video needs to be done with 3-6 reps per side and per movement, or 20-30 seconds per movement, deciding on the rep range will be dependent on you personally listening to your body cues and seeing what works best.
For the movements you need most, go with upper limit of reps. For the movements that don’t benefit you as much, go with less or none at all.
The key here is assess what you DO need and focusing on those, if you have the extra time – apply the rest because they will benefit us all, regardless.
#2 – 5 Minute Morning Flow
This is what I will be implementing every single morning going forward as I am setting a specific goal regarding my mobility.
What you do here is pick about 50% of what was shown in the video, the stuff that applies to your needs most, and work them first thing in the morning for 5 minutes each morning. The key is becoming fluid and natural with those movements and being able to “flow” from one to the next with ease.
I say “with ease” as something to strive for, it won’t be easy at first! But we work to make it easy and then we switch the movements in our flow.
Now it’s your turn, figure out your flow and holler back at me! Let me know how it goes, any questions you have, and how much better your mobility becomes.
I can guarantee you all out there that if you perform this on a daily basis for just a few weeks, you will notice significant reduction in your lower back pain, increased range of motion in all of your lower body movements, and all around better feeling in your joints.
I can also guarantee that if you implement this consistently for a couple months or more, you will notice significantly better results in your body composition and strength measures.
If you’re struggling to lock down a program or simply stay accountable to the one you’re on, Click Here and Apply for 1 of 5 spots opening up for my Online 12-week Fat Loss Program, which starts January 1st this 2017.
In the program you’ll receive direct coaching, individualized training and nutrition programs, 24-7 access to my coaching service, weekly assessments, and more…
