Your glutes are strong.
Your quads are strong.
And your hips are strong.
But you're still struggling with your squat?
I'm going to show you today the exact reason that might be.
What's up guys?
Jeff Cavaliere, ATHLEANX.COM
Coming to you from a new environment here, my home.
Because we're going to utilize a hardwood floor to show how you can overcome a weakness
in your squat,
even when you've got strong quads, strong hips and strong glutes.
So what could we be talking about today.
The Adductors.
The Adductors are the muscles that run on the inside of your legs that are responsible
for one of the hidden secrets in squatting power.
And also happens to be one of the most overlooked muscle groups in areas when it comes to training
the lower body.
Now before I'm going to tell you to go run and jump on the adductor machine at the gym,
you know this one.
That's a little bit more suited for the OB/GYN office guys and not for somebody who's functionally
trying to get stronger.
No as athletes or even guys that want to look like one, where we want to be is with our
feet in contact with the ground, close chain as always.
That said, let's take a look at why this is where we're going to focus and why this is
so important.
If you think about the adductors, they actually attach from the inside of our pelvis down
to the inside of our leg, ok down near the knee.
If we are going to squat and we squat down and our knees travel out, you're actually
going to be putting that muscle on more of a stretch as you go deeper into your squat.
So first and foremost it's really important to have good flexibility in your adductors.
Good groin stretching left to right, lunge stretching, all that's going to help.
If you have adequate flexibility there when you get to the bottom of your squat, you're
going to create a stretch reflex that's actually going to help power you out of the hole.
So I'm going to show you a way that you can actually start to improve this from a functional
position.
Something that's going to carry over a lot more likely than again sitting on some adductor
machine that doesn't really do much to translate to when you actually put your feet on the
ground.
So let's take a look on how you can improve this.
Watch this clip here.
I'm doing it with my socks on, on a hardwood surface, right so I can have some movement
and sliding ability of my feet.
And I'm just doing some real small, letting my legs slide out and then squeezing them
back with adductor activation.
Sliding them out and then squeezing them back with adductor activation.
When we want to take it to that next level though, you're going to want to let yourself
slide out.
Then as you see here, drop down into a mini squat.
Which is going to again force the knees out, keep your knees pushed out, that's going to
get that stretch reflex to then squeeze your legs and come up out of it.
So you want that simultaneous contraction of your quads, your glutes and now your adductors
to power yourself out of that hole.
Watch again as I do this.
I'm out, then I'm down, then I slide in together as I pull all those muscles together at once.
Ok, activating and firing everything at once.
Guys, try this move.
Get in here, onto a hardwood surface, somewhere you can get your feet to slide.
Tiles fine too.
Or if you don't anything and you're on the rug, you can put some plates on the ground
with your feet on the plates and the plates should be able to slide.
But the key thing is, don't overlook your adductors.
They're extremely important muscle group when it comes to squatting power and essentially
all lower body strength and power.
Because again, everything originates down below in our kinetic chain and it travels
up to allow us to do everything more powerful.
If you're not sure what the contribution of your adductors is, or what your current strength
level in you adductors is, do this for me.
The next time you squat, make sure that when you're going down you keep your knees inline
with your toes and out.
Ok, your knees should travel out as you go down.
Do not fumble a workout and then tell me what's sore the next day.
Is it your glutes, it could be.
Is it your quads, yeah probably because you hit them in the workout.
But most likely you're going to find an all new soreness in your hamstrings, on the inside
here, your adductors, ok.
So you're going to feel a groin stiffness and tightness that you've never felt before.
If you do, most likely you've got some work to do.
Guys, if you found this helpful make sure you leave your comment below and a thumbs
up.
And again, let me know what it is that you want to see and we'll keep making them.
Here as we head into 2014, ATHLEANX two times a week all the time.
I want to make sure that I'm covering the things you guys want to see.
In the meantime, if you haven't already, start training like an athlete.
Head over to ATHLEANX.COM and grab the 90 day training program.
Where we don't overlook muscle groups that are extremely important to getting you the
body and the function that you want.
We integrate everything into one 90 day program.
Alright guys, I'll be back here again soon.
Meantime, start working on these and let me know what you want to see.