so this is a stretching and mobility routine with a little bit of strength
that is focused primarily on the hips you won't need anything i'm just going to do
this on the grass no special implements just a bit of space let's get into it
all right let's get nice and comfy on one bent knee here with the other leg out front with the
foot on the floor now if you can lift the back foot up off the floor and try and capture the back
foot with the hand of the opposite side if that's already too difficult go ahead and lay on the
floor on your side the same side as the leg you're holding that will make things a whole lot easier
if you are up on your knees you can either stay there or begin twisting away from the stretch
leg and use your spare arm to create a little bit of leverage there now the real secret here i'll
let you in on is to push against the hand with the foot so imagine you're pressing your back
foot away from your butt against your hand if you do that you're going to get a really nice deep
stretch in the quads and perhaps a little bit in the hip flexors all right let's do a little switch
route here so we'll switch to the left leg now so whilst we're holding the stretch i want you
to go through a couple of efforts of pressing the back foot against the hand maybe for five to eight
seconds and by doing that you should really feel the quads light up with a nice deep stretch along
the front of your thigh don't forget this isn't a passive stretch we're not just holding this here
we're actively pressing against the hand with the back foot and also simultaneously twisting around
with our upper body as we breathe out okay our next move is all about the adductors so that's the
inside of your thighs we're going to start with the right leg out sideways with the knee straight
and the foot planted solely on the floor from here we're going to slowly pan across
in this nice sweeping move where we're really just exploring the comfortable range of the hips here
it's important that you keep some body weight in that foot that is out wide so try and press
through that foot into the ground there especially as you move your chest in that direction
you can see throughout this move that i'm sometimes keeping my hand on my rib cage
that's a great way of reminding yourself not to cave through the ribs and your mid
back you want to keep that section of your spine as straight as possible
so follow along at least as slowly as me i'll leave you to focus now and do your thing enjoy
so
all right let's switch to the other side so we'll kick that left leg out now and let's
get into those abductors now you might be a little uncomfortable especially in the internal rotation
so i want to remind you that pain as a general rule is never good however pain is also relative
maybe what you're experiencing is a dull ache like muscular discomfort
in that case it's pretty normal so don't worry but if it's a sharp pinching you want to ease
off to a range where you're maybe still pretty uncomfortable but there's no sharp pinching
you also want to relax as much as possible so remember to breathe deeply
and slowly and pay attention to what you're feeling in the hips
okay we're gonna move up into stretching the groin now with this cossack hand walk cossack squats
aren't easy especially after a bit of a hike so what we can do to make things a
little more accessible is just walking the hands from side to side in order to take
some of that load off the hips so just let your hips guide your movement from side to side here
trying to get a little deeper into that cossack squat on each rep if you're feeling comfortable
you can take your feet wider and if you're feeling really tight in the ankles then it might be worth
just placing something underneath your heels for now that's going to make things a lot more
accessible you'll see that over the next few reps i rely less and less on my hands and i move into
a more upright position placing more weight and more load into my hips and my lower body so you
can either come along with me if you're feeling like a challenge or just keep doing what you're
doing that's great too keep walking those hands across from side to side and your cossack squat
all right we can relax there and this next one is going to be a bit of a rest for the body compared
to that last sequence but what this next one does require is a lot of mental focus because
we're going to get deep into the psoas or what's commonly referred to as the hip flexor so we'll
come down into this deep lunge position that you might be familiar with placing your hands
in front of you for support on the floor that back leg we want to get that as far
back as you can comfortably and for now you can just go ahead and rest the knee on the ground
the key with this mobility drill is to visualize lengthening the body from the top of your head
all the way back to your back heel so as you lift the knee gently off the ground think
about driving the heel backwards away from you while simultaneously lifting your hips slightly
lengthening through your ribs your torso and pushing your head as forward as far as you can
without the heel coming along for the ride imagine you're trying to push your head and your heel
as far away as they could possibly be from one another and that's really all that's it to it
it's a very subtle movement but we're going to practice a few times on each side to hopefully
tune in and stretch the psoas under a little bit more load but you should be feeling the stretch
right in the front of your hip and perhaps deep into the abdomen where the psoas attaches to your
lumbar spine and like i said this takes focus and a little bit of trial and error so with each rep
alter the position of the knee slightly and go exploring look for that psoas and you'll know when
you've got it it should feel really good because i can just about guarantee that this muscle is tight
all right let's switch to the other side and get deep into that right so us
so make those subtle changes to the height of the knee and when you think you've located the psoas
that's the time to start driving the heel backwards slightly and simultaneously lengthen
through the abdomen torso and think about driving the top of your head further away from the heel
so
all right for our final movement to tie all of this together we're going to perform the
kid sit so splay your feet out so your ankles are just about flat on the floor place your
hands on the ground and bend your knees send your hips backwards go back as far as you can
comfortably hold for a second or so and then rock forwards again for a little bit of a rest
as you gain more control and strength you'll be able to raise up and lower down without the eight
of your hands by pressing into the floor with the feet you'll be able to control this movement but
it does take a little bit of time and practice this is perhaps one of the best movements that
really demonstrates the full ability of the hips and the knees and it's a great benchmark to keep
for the health and the ability of those joints we're going to repeat this movement to gain
more hip and knee ability with the eventual aim of getting your butt to sit flat on the floor
between your ankles and knees i call this the kid sit because that's something that i used to
be able to do quite comfortably as a kid but as an adult i've lost this range of motion slowly over
time and it's time to get it back at the end of these 10 reps or so we're going to aim to sit back
as far as we can and a yoga block or a pillow underneath the butt here might be very helpful
but if you've been at this routine for a while and you feel like you're capable of
spending some time in that lower position then go ahead and gently move into it remember to relax
imagine breathing deeply into your hips and don't panic or force anything let gravity do its thing
and place some trust in your body if you do feel like this is too much simply press your
hands into your feet and lift yourself back up at any time okay so no matter where you're at
find a position in the kid's sit which gives you relative comfort with a little
bit of stretch and let's tune in and enjoy the sounds of nature for a minute or two
so i hope you enjoyed that it is not a beginner hip mobility routine it is something that you will
have to work towards but if you are struggling with this stuff even just getting into these
positions i would recommend doing the daily movement routine for hikers as a doorway to kind
of build up to this one your hips are absolutely going to love it just have patience we'll come
with time by the way how beautiful is this place i'm out here hiking for three or four days
there's no one around the tuesday is the best i got this whole place to myself
absolutely paradise check out the vlog that i did of this trip i'll leave it here peace