What's up guys? Jake Hutton from Fitness Culture. Today we're gonna be talking
about hip mobility. So, we like to give you actionable items for things to do, so
we're gonna give you a roller routine, a couple mobility routines, and then our
favorite warm-ups that we like to do before leg day. Let's get into it.
Alright guys, so when we think about hip mobility, the things people normally think about
are gonna be your hip flexors, which you're also gonna want to mobilize the
quad to basically get deeper into your hip flexor, and then obviously your hip rotators.
So usually you're gonna be trying to mobilize your your glute on
this one. I usually just start off just nice and straight, just working back
and forth through the glute right here, and then once I feel like it's opened up
a little bit, you can either just do a figure-four, roll back and forth and
through the muscle, or I usually like to crank on it a little bit and get a lot
of tension, and then roll back and forth through the muscle as well. So once
you're done there, flip it over to the quad, and then usually just start by
relaxing the quad a little bit. If this is super painful then you can just
stay there. I'll work up into my hip flexor, and then after that I try to add
more tension, so I'll grab my foot and then roll through it, just really get
deep into the quad and hip flexor on this one. So I usually spend about a
minute on each area. So like I said, we're trying to give you actionable things to do.
We don't want to spend 30 minutes every day, so hit the glute, spend about a
minute there, a minute on the quad and hip flexor, do that on each leg, and then
we're gonna move on to the mobility routines. All right, I said this on past
videos, but I like try to find things that I can use minimal effort to get into and
just hang out there and relax for a little bit. And so that's where I found
basically the most success in actually gaining mobility. So the first thing that
we're gonna go over, I like to do a two box set up, so if you have some soft boxes,
you can also set up against the wall, you don't need the second box,
but just at least one box, and you get into the couch stretch. So what you're gonna do is set
your knee as close as you can to this back box, and then what I like to do is
just slide this box into my hip, and then I can just relax in the box. If you're a
person that works at a desk all day, this is a great place to get your laptop and
just switch between legs. But if you're in the gym, what we normally do is spend
about a minute on each leg. And what I like to do is relax for a minute,
let the muscle release, and then for the next 30 seconds try to squeeze
my back glute through, posture up, squeeze through, and actually work some
contract and relax. So I'll contract for about six seconds, pull the box a little
closer, and then just relax for a minute. And then I'll contract again, squeeze
that back glute through, and then relax. So it's been about 30 seconds to a
minute just relaxing, and then contract and relax for another minute about,
so you'll get two sessions. So you contract for six seconds, rest for 30 seconds, and
do that twice, and we'll do that on each leg. So after we use the couch stretch
to get the hip flexors and quads, then we're gonna work on the hip rotators,
and what we do here, the thing that I like to do, slide the box kind of close, I'll step
my front leg off to the side right here, and then we'll go into
a figure four stance. So just drop right in between the boxes here.
Being so close to the box lets you just sit up and relax. So you can sit up
in this stretch for a long period of time, same thing, if you're someone that
works, you can easily just work on a laptop in this position and increase
your mobility. But if you're in the gym, same thing, you can just relax for a
little bit, and once you feel like you've gotten a pretty good stretch, then you can
try to start thinking about posturing up a little bit, trying to get your chest up,
and really put some tension into that hip capsule. Spend a couple minutes on
each leg. After those two stretches, stretch the hamstrings a little bit,
and then get into our warm-up for the day. Guys, our next mobility routine is
gonna be a band distraction routine. So, using the band to distract the joint a
little bit is going to give you a little extra room in that joint.
So you're gonna get the band, get it right up to that glute and
hamstring tie in, and then from there I like to set the band up somewhat high on
this one, just because it allows me to lay forward into the band, and take off a
little bit of my body weight. And then I grab a second band and just put it on my
foot like this, and then I use this band just to add tension to the movement.
So if you're not very mobile, you might not want to add this band. You can just add
tension this way, and then basically just lean forward, and I like to
relax into the band like this. And this is one where you can just hang out and
not put a lot of effort into it. So usually I spend a minute or two in this position.
Let it open up. You could even get the band tighter and
basically do some contract by flexing your quad, and then pulling the band
tighter and getting deeper into the stretch. Same thing, you can posture up,
squeeze that back glute, and press through to really get some more tension
in your hip. So a couple minutes on each leg here, and then what we're gonna do is
work on the hip rotators. So I pull the band down a little bit, and then we're
gonna distract the hip laterally. So basically the band's gonna be in the
same position, and we're going to go into a pigeon stretch, like in yoga.
So you're gonna step out and try to square your hips up as much as possible. And then you're just going to
lay down into it. You'll find with the band distraction, I mean, it's up a little bit,
so it's taking a little bit of your body weight off, but for most people this is
gonna significantly increase their range of motion into this stretch or if you
didn't have the band. If you've gone to yoga and felt completely defeated doing
this stretch, using the band's gonna help you out a lot and allow you to get
deeper into this position. We usually finish this with some hamstring work,
so I'll just show you guys that real quick. So you're just gonna keep the band
right where it is, and then from there put your feet together and push back,
and that band's gonna help pull you back into a good position. Alright guys, now that
we're done mobilizing, we're gonna go into one of our favorite warm-ups.
So, the first part of this warm-up, we usually go through about three different movements
and just go through them two or three times. So the first part is gonna be, we call
the bulldog circuit. So you're gonna be on all fours. From here, what I try to
think about is, a lot of people on this one will make a mistake, the first
movement's going to be straight out to the side, but you want to avoid just
completely opening your hips, like this. You want to put a lot of tension in that
hip capsule, so try to focus on staying square to the ground.
That might mean that you're only getting this high, but that's fine.
The goal is to, every rep, to actively work further into your hip.
That's how you're gonna increase the mobility here. So you're gonna be here, you're gonna
work up, once you hit the in range of motion, press up and then come back down.
So we usually do five on each leg of that one. And the next one's gonna be a
kick back. So you're gonna kick back, and then you're gonna rotate
as high as you can all the way to your armpit, and then back down.
Keep your core tight.
It should be nice and slow, really the whole time, working to get as high as
possible, core tight. Rotate, and then back down. All right, so
we'll go five each leg there. From there we're gonna go reverse of that.
So we're gonna kick out to the side, kick up high as you can, and then press back as
far as you can, and then back down.
So five each way on that one.
And the very last one is just gonna be your leg straight out to the side, and straight up
and down. It's gonna be right here, core tight,
press up, come back down. Really get as high as you can.
Alright, so we'll go through that whole routine,
five each leg on every exercise. Alright, so the next one's
gonna be a reverse lunge and reach. And this one's really good
to basically actively open up your hip flexor. So you're gonna put your
foot on a carpet slider, and then from there you're gonna think about doing a
single leg squat on that front leg, so you're not gonna push back a lot.
The goal is gonna be to come straight down basically,
but then the biggest thing to think about is to try to keep that back leg as
straight as you possibly can, and squeeze your back glute, so it should be turned
on the entire time. So from there you're gonna come down, under control, back leg
straight, squeeze the back glute, get to the bottom, really work on keeping
it straight. And then you're gonna reach up, open up, and then come back up.
So take your time, really keep that back leg straight, squeeze that back glute,
and then reach up to open it all the way up at the bottom. On that exercise we usually
do about six to ten reps on each leg, slow and controlled, really focus on
keeping that back leg as straight as you can and turning that back glute on.
Alright, the last thing we're gonna do is just going to be a kettlebell squat.
And the goal here is going to be, you're gonna come down with
the kettlebell, chest up, you're gonna pause for five seconds at the bottom,
and then drive your knees out on the way up. So it's gonna look like this. Kettlebell's gonna be
in the goblet position. I usually go a little bit wider than my
squat stance just to really work mobility. Sit down on the bottom, drive your chest up.
Keep those knees out. Glutes on, straight back up. So really focus on
those knees are pushing out the entire time at the bottom, chest is up,
and try to turn your glutes on and pull your knees apart actively as well.
So you're really gonna feel this in your glutes and your groin to open up before
we start squatting for the day. We usually do however many sets were going
through, but we usually do about 10 reps with a 5-count pause at the bottom.
Alright, the last thing we're gonna do is some glute activation to finish up the warm-up.
So we're just gonna get down on our back, and then depending on
your mobility and your level of fitness, you can start with just a regular glute
bridge, and just really push to get your hips all the way through, squeeze it up
at the top, make sure you come to full extension, and back down. So really,
the focus here, since we're warming up, is really maximal contraction in the glutes,
drive those hips through, squeeze, and then come back down. If you want to move
to a more advanced version, you can just do a single leg glute bridge, and it's gonna
be executed the same fashion. You're gonna drive up, squeeze that back glute, nice 2-3
count squeeze at the top, and then come back down. So if I'm doing a double leg
glute bridge, I usually do 20 reps, and then the single leg I usually do 10 reps
on each leg. Alright guys, that wraps it up for our hip mobility and activation routine.
So if you guys want to see exactly how we would lay this out, basically all
the sets and reps and the times that we would hold each stretch, you can click
the link in the description, and we kind of laid it all out for you, if you want
to actually use it before your next leg day. I hope you guys enjoy the content,
and leave me some questions below for the next video that
you want us to do, and please like and subscribe. Thanks again.