Daily Tip #21 - Hip Mobility Progression

0:01 - Intro

Hello out there. Happy Monday. Monday means we're back for another week of our Week-Daily Tips with me, Shane, from MATRIX. If you were tuning in last week, we did a Tip on hip tension by working on a stretch-squeeze sequence to help restore the proper muscle tone to, hopefully, take away some hip discomfort and hip tension that you might be experiencing. Today's Tip, we're going to approach that from a different angle. We're going to approach it through mobility. You may have noticed that I'm back on the floor again with my mat. This is where Today's exercise is going to take place. If you want to take a moment, go grab a mat or find a comfy spot on a carpeted floor. Then you'll be all set to give this one a shot.

0:48 – Moving Is Mentally Important

In today's Tip, I'm going to take you through a progression of hip movements that build, and build, and build to create full mobility until you're able to actually get yourself up and up off of the ground. Which is super important. A big part behind doing this is that when we have reduced mobility, we have reduced ability to express ourselves in the world. And that's usually a cause of depression, anxiety, all those types of things that we may be feeling during this time that we're in. I'm sure that you can remember back to a time where you were hurt or injured, and you were unable to move as well. It just doesn't do well in your psyche. So, if you think about it in reverse -- even if you are moving while right now -- if you could move better, you would probably also feel better about yourself. And that's how this Tip is going to help today.

1:45 – My Personal Example

You can see here, I have my knee taped. That's because about five months ago, six months ago, I tore my MCL. And it's been a while since I've been able to actually do these movements. So I'm very excited about the fact that I can do them. And it's also a good reminder for the things I just said. Back then -- when I couldn't do all the things I love doing -- life just wasn't as great. Being able to move again, is awesome!

2:10 – Hip Exercise Basics

Hopefully, if you needed to grab a mat, you went ahead and did it. Let me take you through the progression, now. We're going to have -- we'll call it -- four different levels of work. The basic setup is to have your hands behind you, your feet a little bit wider than your hips, your hips draw back and your hands are helping you keep your chest up. If you have a lack of mobility in the hips, setting up the position is a challenge. So, the very, very most basic thing that you can do is just work on starting to let the hips rock back and forth. You can see that as I'm doing that, I'm rolling onto the outer edges of my feet. And this is just creating some internal and external rotation through the hips themselves.

2:58 – Level-1: Two-Hands

If that's no problem, then you can get into the more specific setup by coming into 90-90. You'll notice that both of my knees are at about a 90-degree angle. Again, my chest is tall, and for Level-1, my hands are on the ground. All we're going to be doing here is now is taking the legs up and over to the other side, so they fall in the same position with the knee pretty much right in the arch of the foot. When you're doing this, what feels really good to do is to drive the pelvis forward as you're rolling in. If you have that ability to get the knee down, you'll feel a nice additional little stretch through the hips as you do that. That's Level-1.

3:45 – Level-2: One-Hand 

Level-2 is just simply removing one hand. You'll be switching hands back and forth. But now it takes a little bit more work to stay upright and stay balanced. But notice the movement of legs is the same.

4:03 – Level-3: No-Hands

Pop quiz! Any idea of Level-3 is? You got it. No hands. Now, not only are we required to mobilize the hips, but the hip musculature and the core musculature also has to work to keep your body upright. So, it becomes much more challenging to find yourself going back and forth. When you take the hands away, what you might notice is your hips start to walk up towards your heels as you rock back and forth. That's normal. It just means that you might have to readjust the positioning of your feet to keep that same distance. Alright, so that's the basic mobility part of this. Your three levels -- two hands, one hand, zero hands.

4:50 – Level-4: The Challenge

Now comes the challenge piece. Can you use this to get yourself up and off of the ground? I'll take you through how that would work. With or without hands -- I'm going to do it without -- we would come into the rock. And then once we rock in one direction, we now have to shift the bodyweight forward and use the strength of the legs to pop the hips up. We can sit back down with control. Try not to plop. That's part of the skill. Roll around to the other side. And again, lift the body up. Sit back down. Rotate to the other side. That's just the beginning of getting yourself up to standing. Once we've done our rock, the next thing to do is lift the hips. Once you've lift the hips, the back leg steps around to bring you into a lunge. And now you're standing. Ideally without having used your hands. To do the other side. We step back, set the knee down. Here's where a big challenge comes in. Can you balance as you bring the leg back around? Sit down slowly. Windshield wiper to the other side and do it again. Lifting. Swinging the leg around. Stepping up through your lunge. The leg the step forward. The opposite leg stays back. Knee sets down. Swing around. Sit. And then, if you wanted to repeat, up and over to the other side.

6:30 – Summary  

That's your hip mobility drill and challenge for today. Again, we have four different levels. Level-1: Two hands. Level-2: One hand. Level-3: No hands. Level-4: Lifting and getting yourself standing up again. Give that a shot. See what level you're at. And remember, it doesn't matter. Your just setting a baseline for your current level of mobility. If you then start practicing this windshield wipering, this hip lifting for just a couple minutes every day, you'll see your mobility really start to increase over time. And you'll hopefully begin to move a lot better, feel a lot better through your hips, and in turn, your overall level of happiness and enjoyment to the world should increase too.

7:24 - Farewell

That's it for today. Tune in again tomorrow, 11 o'clock for our next Tip. We'll be doing something a little out of the ordinary for that one. I hope to see you there.