powerDOJO

Tag: hip flexibility

  • Strained Groin? | MED for HFS [ASK ERIC]

    Strained Groin? | MED for HFS [ASK ERIC]

    In today’s QnA video, I answer the following questions:

    Any suggestions for strained inner thigh muscle?

    Strained it doing side stretch after doing kick boxing.

    – Patricia MacKinnon [00:20]

    =======================

    Hi Eric, I’ve been playing around with HFS for the last couple of months.

    I started doing a full month of HFS by the book and got great results.

    However, as a former athlete now turned desk jockey, I have plenty of areas that need additional corrective work (ankles, knees, rotator cuff & upper thoracic, etc) and between all of the corrective routines I am doing, its taking up a lot of my time.

    Is there a “minimum effective dose” for HFS?

    I was leaning towards trying to get 3 of the main routines in a week (2 kneeling/ 1 standing or vice versa) as well as 2x per week of core & ASMR.

    Thanks again, and I’m looking forward to Shoulder Flexibility Solution.

    – Jason Vaughan [04:24]

    If you’ve got a question about training for MMA or martial arts, nutrition, injuries or anything else that you’d like me to answer in a future QnA video, submit it here.

  • Bench Dips | Exercises for SI Joint Instability | Get Strong Not Tight [ASK ERIC]

    Bench Dips | Exercises for SI Joint Instability | Get Strong Not Tight [ASK ERIC]

    In today’s QnA video, I answer the following questions:

    Triceps Bench Dip – Yay or Nay? (no name) [00:37]

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    Hi Eric, I suffer with a hypermobile sacroiliac joint and periodically visit an osteopath to ‘click’ me back into place.

    It’s very painful and when the surrounding muscles tighten I really struggle to even walk!

    Can you give me any stabilisation exercises to help me?

    Thanks – Nic x Nicola, Carden-Nowell, Northwich UK [01:49]

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    I follow 5/3/1 revolves around squat bench deads and shoulder press.

    I notice a decrease in shoulder range of motion as my bench goes up.

    So basically I want to know which exercises should I train for mma, which should I throw away.

    Keeping good posture is important to me, I have trouble squeezing my shoulder blades together at all, have very tight lats upper traps and chest.

    – Daniel Zwinger, Naugatuck, Connecticut, US [05:41]

    If you’ve got a question about training for MMA or martial arts, nutrition, injuries or anything else that you’d like me to answer in a future QnA video, submit it here.

  • 2 Keys to Combating New Baby BACK PAIN

    2 Keys to Combating New Baby BACK PAIN

    My little girl recently turned 5 months.

    It’s been amazing watching her learn and do new things and I’ve been trying to copy all of the new movements that I see her do.

    One of her latest moves is to bury her head when she’s on her tummy, lift her butt up, then push off and “crawl” one step. It’s pretty cute. 🙂

    This movement is kinda like the Push Plank exercise that I teach in this video, except with the exercise you don’t scrape your face across the ground.

    Give it a shot and if you want to do it like Livia, push off with one leg instead of two and alternate what leg you push off with each time or switch after 5 or 10 reps on one leg.

    She’s also been steadily putting on weight and its crazy how heavy she feels now compared to when she was born.

    With the added weight and all her extra squirming, it’s become increasingly more difficult to put her down to sleep in her crib at night and for naps, and I can see why many new parents complain about back pain, especially of the low back.

    A couple of months ago I started to feel some LBP myself and it started as just a moderate ache and soreness….

    Luckily, I was able to nip it in the bud and I’ve discovered that there are 2 keys to combating new baby back pain, which actually apply to back pain regardless of the source, so if you’ve got LBP, pay close attention:

    #1. Being diligent at maintaining neutral spine and hinging at the hips vs. flexing the spine.

    Because of the position of the crib, it’s easy to try and flex and bend over the rail when placing her down.

    But this will put excessive strain on the discs and ligaments in your spine, which will first result in tightness and soreness in the low back muscles because they’re trying to prevent you from flexing your spine.

    If you continue to move like this, the discs and/or ligaments may get damaged, which will then result in a sharper type of pain in the low back.

    So if you feel tight and sore, take it as a sign that you’ve got to start HINGING at the hips and keeping your lumbar spine in neutral.

    When you hinge at the hips, you’ll likely feel muscles from your hamstrings up to your rhomboids working and this is good because that means you’re taking some of the load off of your spine and the low back muscles.

    TIP: DO NOT stretch your low back muscles. While it may seem like a good idea or even provide some relief, you’re just causing further damage. See Point #2 on this page to learn why stretching your low back muscles is a bad idea.

    #2. Minimize the load on your low back by coming up with new movement strategies.

    It’s been a cold winter so far here in Toronto and as such, we’ve had to keep little Livia moisturized by lotioning her up 2-3 times a day.

    When we do this in the crib, the same problem applies in that we have to awkwardly bend over and reach to lube her up.

    This situation in particular was bothering me the most so instead of bending over, what I found helped was simply dropping to one knee.

    This position ensures my lumbar spine is in neutral and took all of the load off of my low back.

    Now, employing these 2 keys, my back is back to feeling as good as ever.

    Like I said before, these 2 keys apply to any situation that may put excess strain on your low back, so here are a few more examples to get illustrate this fact:

    [+] When grabbing groceries out of the trunk of your car, really focus on neutral spine and the hip hinge or you could even brace with one arm and basically do a 1-arm row to pull the bags out

    [+] If your job requires you to frequently pick things up off the ground, put some knee pads on and drop to one knee to get down instead of squatting or bending

    Just a couple of ideas to get your gears grinding in case your back pain isn’t caused by a new baby.

    Back pain is an all-too-common issue, so even if you don’t suffer from it now, keep these 2 keys in mind to prevent it from taking you out of action in the future.

    Hope this helps.

    Eric

    P.S. If you’re an athlete or if you train properly with intensity (you’re an athlete, too) and you’ve got LBP, this 4-phase, 16-week program will restore your core and retrain your movements so you can participate in your sport pain-free.

  • 2 Minute Sequence for People Who Sit Too Much

    2 Minute Sequence for People Who Sit Too Much

    This is a super powerful sequence to do to combat all of the problems associated with sitting too much, such as:

    – tight hips
    – poor posture
    – sleepy glutes
    – sleepy core

    If you work at a desk, do it throughout the day to ensure you’re preventing the ill effects of sitting.

    If you thought this video was helpful let me know with a Like/Thumbs Up and I’d appreciate it if you shared this video with everyone you know who works an office job or sits too much!

    And if your hips are a snarled up mess, then get the program below to fix them up:

    >> Click Here To Unlock Your Tight Hips

  • Sitting is the New Smoking

    Sitting is the New Smoking

    After a few hours in a row of sitting, do you feel really stiff and does it take a while for you to get moving and not feel like an old grandpa again?

    Unfortunately, if you’re like me and you sit too much (damn computers), I bet you feel it in the one place we need mobility the – your HIPS.

    When you sit, you do 2 absolutely horrible things for your mobility:
    1) Shorten and tighten your hip flexors
    2) Shut off and weaken your glutes

    While these are 2 of the worst issues that arise from excessive sitting, there are many more, which has resulted in our medical authorities to claim that…

    “Sitting is the new smoking!”

    Now, let’s not even talk about all of the athletic feats we could perform with loose, oily hips…

    … since being tight from sitting too much WILL lead to things like low back pain, poor posture and the resulting shoulder and neck issues, so you’ll never get the chance to perform at your potential.

    I’ve recently started doing a simple lunge combo every 30 minutes (I set a timer to remind me) that takes me 2 minutes to do that’s totally prevented that initial stiffness you get after sitting for too long.

    You can do it at the office or wherever you find yourself sitting to help prevent that initial stiffness. I’ll shoot that video for you and send it to you in a day or 2.

    Until then, if you sit a lot, you should check out this presentation on all the negative effects of sitting AND a comprehensive approach to battling them.

    Just like smoking, your body WILL breakdown from too much sitting.
    It’s just a matter of time.

    But because it happens gradually over years, you may not catch it until it’s too late.

    Stay loose my friend.

  • Common Groin Stretching Mistake (and solution)

    Common Groin Stretching Mistake (and solution)

    This is a common groin/adductor stretching mistake that is potentially damaging to your medial ligaments and meniscus of the knees.

    When you add the little tweak that I show you to this exercise, it not only takes the stress off these tissues but also activates glute and hip external rotator muscles.

    Kill 2 birds with 1 stone!

    Give it a shot and use this tip whenever you perform this stretch.

    You can even add some contract/relax and scouring to the stretch to make it more effective, for more on these advanced techniques, grab the Hip Flexibility Solution program at http://HipFlexibilitySolution.com.

    If you thought this video was helpful let me know with a Like/Thumbs Up!

  • Great Hip Flexor and Quad Mobility Exercise / Stretch

    Great Hip Flexor and Quad Mobility Exercise / Stretch

    Hip mobility and flexibility is key to success in any sport and even in lifting big weights.

    If your hips are tight, you’re going to compensate somewhere else, usually your low back or your knees.

    This is what causes a lot of low back pain and knee injuries.

    The exercise I show you in this video not only mobilizes your quads and hip flexors, but when you add in the “scouring” it helps to mobilize your hip joint capsule in rotation, which is a necessary ability to have to do things like throw kicks, throw punches or any other sport like golf or baseball.

    Do it up and if you want more like this visit http://HipFlexibilitySolution.com to learn about my 3D Flexibility System and how it will help you unlock your hips by using my specialized 15 minute routines once per day.

    And if you have used the program – hit me up with your feedback in the Comments below (thanks in advance)!

    – E

  • New Exercise to Unlock Your Hips

    New Exercise to Unlock Your Hips

    DISSOCIATION is not just what happens when you follow Joe Rogan’s advice and take Peyote, it’s a powerful concept that most guys need to train for better movement.

    Often because of repetitive movements from sports we play or exercises we do, certain muscles/movements can get hard-wired together so that whenever one muscle fires or one movement happens, the associated muscle/movement happens.

    A truly intelligent body is one where the correct muscles fire and the rest of your muscles relax to allow your body to move the way it should.

    EXAMPLE: with the hip flexion movement, because of an excess of situps/crunches performed incorrectly, hip flexion always comes along with lumbar flexion.

    These movements are hard-wired so that every time you flex your hips, your lumbar spine flexes too.

    This is TERRIBLE for your low back and is a dysfunctional movement pattern.

    We’ve got to teach our bodies to flex our hips while keeping our lumbar spine in neutral.

    And one way we can do that is by doing the Hanging 1-Leg Raise:

    This is a key concept integrated into the Hip Flexibility Solution program and one reason why it works so well (and so quickly)…

    I recently emailed my customers asking for a bit of feedback and was overwhelmed when received 18 emails back sharing some amazing results. Here’s a sample of 2 of my favourites:

    “Eric,

    First, I’d like to thank you for the program and for the constant updates and support!! It’s nice to have someone who genuinely cares about his clients and their goals. I have been following a 5×5 program since February 2013 in an effort to get stronger as I considered myself to be “weak”! The goal I set almost a year ago was to squat 225 Lbs 5 sets at 5 reps in good form!! For the first few months I made great gains, however 185 Lbs seemed to be my plateau. I would either suffer an injury or drop weight and work back up!

    I never attributed my struggle to my lack of flexibility, I’d do a quick warm up and a little “stretching” (ie Trying to touch my toes) hahaha if I could see myself now. After performing the routines the parking break was released and I busted through that 185 barrier!!

    Today is a special day because today I am throwing 4 plates on the bar and I will achieve my goal!! Just because I will accomplish this elusive goal I’m not gonna stop, 225 is a stepping stone to future progress and I owe you a ton of gratitude for the help!! Your advice has not only helped me in the weight room but has also encouraged me in life to go out and achieve those goals I previously thought unattainable!! Thanks again and I’ll let you know how today’s workout goes!

    Stay Loose,
    Ryan”

    PERFORMANCE is a key reason why I created this program – no point in unlocking your hips to sit around all day, which is why I love feedback like Ryan’s, as well as this one:

    “Hi Eric

    The HFS is going well,I’ve been doing it for about 7 weeks now and it has helped my flexibility with Muay Thai training, in fact last Friday night a few people were shocked at how low I was able to stretch when doing the splits compared to how I used to be.

    It’s an awesome program and you should be very proud of yourself for creating it.

    Kind Regards,
    Lee Pentith” 

    LOVE IT!

    Thanks Ryan and Lee and everyone else who has shared their feedback with me.

    You may already know the back story about me creating the HFS program, but to make a long story short, I couldn’t kick worth shit and I really wanted to and none of the conventional advice I followed worked, so I had to dig deep and experiment and finally came up with something that did work.

    HFS is a by-product of my personal quest to be able to throw a decent head kick.

    So if you’d like to reap the rewards of looser hips, get started on the Hip Flexibility Solution today.