Hip Mobility Week 10 - Pigeon Pose to Adductor Rock-Back Mobilization
By David Drinks
You can tell just from the title of today’s post that our hip mobility drill for week 10 will be a doozy! Since we’re doing a progressive series, however, it’s time to get to some more advanced hip mobility training!
Sometimes, I think we get too myopic in our exercise choices because we’re too concerned with what muscle or body part each exercise is targeting.
In real life, though, our bodies don't ask, “which muscle do I use to pick up this pencil off the floor.” Instead, your body coordinates just about every muscle into a functional movement to move through your environment and get the job done.
I believe that we should think more in line with how our body works in real life with most of our exercise choices since the goal of any exercise routine is to transfer what you do in the gym to real life so that you can move better, perform better, and maybe even look better!
To do that with our mobility drills, we’re going to advance from just doing drills that work on one specific muscle group or quality of hip mobility, and work toward moving with both legs in multiple planes of motion.
Now don’t get me wrong, there is a time and place for focusing on one joint, one muscle, or in our case, one quality of hip mobility. For many people, starting with a narrower focus on your specific limitations – whether you have limited hip flexion, extension, rotation, etc. – is the best way to set yourself up for long-term movement success.
Once you improve in some of the more focused hip mobility exercises that we’ve already gone over, however, it’s time to move on to putting it all together. That’s just what we’ll do in the last couple of weeks in our hip mobility series. We’ll show you how to start putting all of this together into coordinated movement using different planes of motion and a full range of motion.
How we'll begin to put it all together in today's mobility video is what is known as a “movement flow.” That may sound fancy, but all it means is that we’re trying to move (or flow) seamlessly between different postures, exercises, or stretches. This can be a great way to add some challenge to not only your hip mobility but also the stability around the hips and core as you must maintain control of your body while moving from one position into another.
Now, you can build a “movement flow” out of any combination of exercises or movements, but we’ll keep it rather basic today and start by combining two excellent hip mobility drills – The Pigeon Pose Hip Mobilization and the Split-Stance Adductor Rock-Back.
Check it out here and give it a try:
Combining these two exercises into one movement can really up your hip mobility game! Here are some of the benefits:
Both legs are stretching in different planes of motion on each rep.
In one move you get an excellent posterior hip stretch (glutes) on one leg and a great adductor stretch on the other leg.
Throughout the movement, you get to work on hip flexion, hip rotation, and hip abduction – lots of bang for your buck!
You more efficiently mobilize your hips and legs without having to do a bunch of different stretches.
You get the added benefit of working on core and hip control/stability as you move from one position to the next.
So, once you master the basics and start working toward better hip mobility, it’s time to begin expanding your hip mobility by combining different movements and moving through larger ranges of motion. Today's mobility drill combination is a great place to start!
And don’t forget, this is just one option! You could begin combining any number of movements and hip mobility drills into an awesome hip flow mobility experience!
For example, check out this hip flow that Dean Somerset picked up a number of years ago and shared on YouTube. The full version is not for the faint of heart, but for those of you with excellent hip mobility who want to up your game a bit and avoid boredom in your warm-up routine, this will do it for you:
How Much?
For the Pigeon Pose to Adductor Rock-Back, I usually like to work it into the warm-up routine. Since it’s a combo exercise, you probably won’t need to do a ton of reps. Anywhere in the 5-10 rep range on each side should be more than enough to get your hips ready to move!
A quick note, however, is to make sure that you are ready for this one, so you don’t put yourself in a bad position. If you don’t have enough hip mobility to move through your hips without rolling your back, then it’s best to back up to one of our early hip mobility drills to work on hip mobility without losing control of the spine.
Likewise, if you have any kind of knee pain or previous knee surgery, then the rotation in this movement may be tough on your knees. If you feel any pain at the knee while doing this, then you either need to adjust how you’re performing it or move to a different mobility drill that doesn’t compromise your knee health.
As always, if you need help with this drill or figuring out whether or not you should be doing this mobility drill, let us know!
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Whether you come into the gym or work with us via Med Gym Online, we can help you get on the right track with your movement and fitness.
Contact us here to talk about how we can help you develop an exercise routine that improves your hip mobility and so much more!