By VAHVA Fitness on July 30rd. 2019

Intelligent hip mobility training and hip mobility drills. Focusing on what actually works and produces results. 

In the last article and video we went deep into the function and anatomy of the hips and especially hip rotation. This time, it's time to go even deeper.

After being in the health & fitness scene for over a decade as a serious practitioner, we have tried pretty much everything when it comes to increasing the flexibility and mobility of the hips.

Foam rolling? Check.
Band distraction stretching? Check.
Yoga? Check.
All kinds of crazy exercises for the hips? Check.

Eventually, to get the results we wanted we had to get rid of lots of nonsense when it came to hip mobility. Now we would consider the typical training for the hips just mad.

It seems that very few know how to properly increase the mobility of the hips from the very ground up. 

Out of all the various disciplines that we have tried over the years, Pilates practitioners are some of the rare ones that do excellent hip mobility training. The founder Joseph Pilates was ahead of his time. 

Do people honestly believe that using massive elastic bands that pull the joint to different directions while you stretch the muscle is the "secret" to hip mobility?

Whether you are an absolute beginner or advanced, the basic joint articulations of the hip will work the best.

We covered these in the video: hip flexion, extension, abduction, adduction, transverse abduction, transverse adduction, internal rotation (while hip flexed or extended) and external rotation.

We recommend learning how to do these while you are standing up or lying on the floor because this way you will have the most control over the articulations. The purpose is to build mobility and you need active tension for that. 

Here is also a good article that covers many exercises for basic joint articulations. 

The main problem with the sitting and other twisting drills is that they are closed-chain movements and it almost always reduces the active tension of the joint movement. 

Moreover, the floor and the compensation/movement from the other parts of the body easily ruin the hip rotation. When a beginner does the exercise, they almost always do it wrong.

With the sitting exercises people are way ahead of themselves by working primarily on the end-ranges of the joint when most people (even many advanced trainees) lack sufficient mobility in the mid-ranges.

Metaphorically speaking, people are lifting heavy weights when they cannot properly lift the light weights yet. Somehow this exact same problem has found its way to hip mobility training.

It's also not something you mark off and be like "now I have enough mobility and only work on the advanced fancy stuff" – no, the levels of mobility can still be developed optimally with the basics.

Open chain movements like different leg raises / rotations with the correct methodology work the best simply because you will have the most control over the motions. Without control there is no mobility – it's just flexibility.

Next, you need to clear your mind, learn the right muscles to target and utilize the right principles. The incredibly important thing is to learn how to stabilize the rest of the body so nothing will interfere with the targeted area. 

This is what we call precision training and what Athlete 20XX is all about. The most complete leg and hip training to date. 

We also have a 100% FREE mobility class that covers the proper methodology and several excellent exercises to develop hip mobility. The purpose of this class is to introduce you to the intangibles. 

VAHVA Fitness