Swivel hips and Scapular Shrugs form check

mobility on Mn/SL/SLS days

straddle lifts-10 reps
kit laughlin style hip flexor stretch-30 secs

(on Mn/SL/SLS days, I want to also introduce Hip Extensions, which i will be testing out tomorrow to see how it impacts me.)

I only did one set of each as a test and verified the progress by checking up on the Swivel hips

mobility on FL/sPL/RC/HBP (what i did today after my WOD)
Butterfly stretch-30sec
Frog press-10 reps

Frog press: I did these dynamically, putting my legs at a reasonable width and then I started moving forwards and backwards while keeping my pelvis in line.

Butterfly stretch: I did this against the wall, pulling my knees downwards and pressing my feet together. 

that's what's beared the most fruit for me.

(what i've discovered or worked with since Jan)

1. snapping hip syndrome on my right leg.

2. sciatic pain on right glute.

3. lower cross syndrome.

4. when performing swivel hips at first, i felt a lot of discomfort.

5. thomas test results that were laughable

also, I used to work on a desk, changed it to a stand up set up.

I drive a lot during the week as well, so i try to move around every chance I get. 

Looks like a decent approach, especially if it is working and moving you forward. I hear you on the sitting issues though. I am similar except for me sitting relieves my back pain - apparently I am able to maintain proper curvature while seated, but standing irritates things. So a bit of a Catch-22 there.

I am working on adding in Barbell Hip Thrusts to my program as stretching my hip flexors just ain't cutting it. Today I tested the thrusts out of curiosity and a set of 5 at 60kg was fairly tough - compared to easily squatting 120kg I would say my quad dominance is a big problem with why my stretching efforts have thus far been in vain.

Fingers crossed that our approaches yield some progress.

- Chris

I was mucking around this week and managed to find a stretch that has significantly improved u swivel hips ROM. It's like a glute bridge/inside squat hybrid. Basically, you begin in a glute bridge with feet roughly at the width you would have them for swivel hips. Then, maintaining the line from shoulders to knees, allow the knees to internally rotate. If they touch you may need to move the feet wider. Actively resisting the stretch in the end rom seems to work better for me. Also feel free to evert/invert/ dorsiflex ur feet to take pressure off the knee. Hope this helps!

Robbie Coker said:

I was mucking around this week and managed to find a stretch that has significantly improved u swivel hips ROM. It's like a glute bridge/inside squat hybrid. Basically, you begin in a glute bridge with feet roughly at the width you would have them for swivel hips. Then, maintaining the line from shoulders to knees, allow the knees to internally rotate. If they touch you may need to move the feet wider. Actively resisting the stretch in the end rom seems to work better for me. Also feel free to evert/invert/ dorsiflex ur feet to take pressure off the knee. Hope this helps!

Thanks for sharing Robbie. I will give this one a whirl for a bit and see how it goes.

ewethestuff said:

I mentioned this in the other thread, but I've been doing 3m a day weighted swivel stretches, and it's pushed me nearly to mastery level overnight. Here's a picture with the weighted stretch - I just concentrate on breathing and relaxing and stop if I feel too much tension in the knees. The other picture uses the opposite leg for the stretch, which is what I do if not at home.

Unfortunately the weighted one hasn't been doing much for me. Part of the problem may be that I still have so little internal rotation that I am unable to keep my glute on the ground and weight the leg ... too vertical. I realize in the demo video his glutes aren't entirely on the ground, but I think it is having some effect as I tried it with hand pressure and it definitely feels different doing the stretch with the glute on the ground versus not.

- Chris

I am also struggling with this exercise and you can read in my topic. However, I am able to touch the ground with my outer leg. wondering what kind of hip stretching did you introduce. I also registered to Kit's forum, as I'd like to get some advices there. Sadly it appears as if I cannot have Kit's book shipped to CH without paying an insane amount of money.

federicoC said:

I am also struggling with this exercise and you can read in my topic. However, I am able to touch the ground with my outer leg. wondering what kind of hip stretching did you introduce. I also registered to Kit's forum, as I'd like to get some advices there. Sadly it appears as if I cannot have Kit's book shipped to CH without paying an insane amount of money.

I would try out the butterfly stretch and see if that makes a difference. You can also weight it in the same manner as the above internally rotated focus. Just be sure you test in between so you know which is helping and which is just taking up time without giving benefit.

- Chris

If the butterfly stretch is the one which is also part of Yoga, it is currently in my routine and I am working on stay open with the chest. My major difficulty in that one is to keep my lower back arched, it rounds. Next session I make a video. I'll also try out the weighted stretch on the inner leg. Thanks Chris!

I've had good resuls with the butterfly stretch done lying on my back. Helps me really feel the inside of my hips and how to relax and stretch them much more than the sitting version, the weight of my knees helps open that right up.

This a very useful tip! I will try it tomorrow, I am also wondering whether it is beneficial to work on the Im at every WO and not only in its pairing with the scap shrugs. There I started with problems but I am now progressing pretty well and managed to really improve my form (a video will come soon), so I'd like to focus on the Im to then be able to proceed.

federicoC said:

This a very useful tip! I will try it tomorrow, I am also wondering whether it is beneficial to work on the Im at every WO and not only in its pairing with the scap shrugs. There I started with problems but I am now progressing pretty well and managed to really improve my form (a video will come soon), so I'd like to focus on the Im to then be able to proceed.

As long as it's not too taxing (as in, interfering with your workout or causing you clicks, pops or pain), go ahead and add more work on it. I try to make a habit of just opening my joints with stuff like the swivel hips and F2 HBp IM's, and find that's all i need to maintain. As Coach has alluded, once the Rom is stable, a lot of the IMs become pretty much rest periods. Its just initial regaining this Rom that's taxing and time consuming

just found the perfect combination for me to work on Swivel hip mobility.

Straddle lifts-10 reps
kit laughlin hip flexor stretch-30 sec

+
Butterfly stretch(kit laughlin style, pulling knees down and pressing feet together)-30sec
Dynamic Frog Press-10 reps

(on hands and knees, open knees, crawl your hands forwards and backwards while maintaining pelvic tilt)

I was feeling sore and stiff from yesterdays mobilization this morning and during today's workout, it totally went away. moving faster forward than expected  

#dances

Unfortunately I am not familiar with these movements, do you have a link/resource by any chance?

I'll film exactly what I'm doing later and post it right here.  

as promised.

first video is straddle lifts on the floor + hip flexor stretch.

second, is active butterfly stretch and dynamic frog press. 

it had me cramping.

Thanks a lot, really kind of you. If I manage, today I will also try and if possible, film it. In the frog stretch, I generally use the same initial position, widen the legs and stretch until I fully adhere to the floor. I gained 15-20cm of ROM in the last 2 months with it, now I am working to get it closer to the angles required for a split.

Putting on some nice and comfy padding around the waist KellianiG

definitely following this

FredInChina said:

Putting on some nice and comfy padding around the waist KellianiG

that's a magical pudge from the APT. don't hate on a brother  

i've tried your stretch suggestions. one of them seems to directly address my problem with the swifel hips.

it's the frog stretch. going backwards seems to be impossible for me. my body automaticly wants to arch hugly to gain a few inch more. should we stay hollow during the whole exercise? it makes it so much harder.

thx for your suggestions keilani!

P5yx said:

i've tried your stretch suggestions. one of them seems to directly address my problem with the swifel hips.

it's the frog stretch. going backwards seems to be impossible for me. my body automaticly wants to arch hugly to gain a few inch more. should we stay hollow during the whole exercise? it makes it so much harder.

thx for your suggestions keilani!

they originally came from Joshua Naterman, Richard Hamiltom and Jon douglas, so credit where it's due

if you keep the hollow, it keeps you from letting the pelvis tilt and loosing the effectiveness of the stretch. it basically keeps your eyes on  where the end ROM is, like where the front ROM wall is and where the rear ROM wall is, keep moving forwards and backwards and it'll open up in no time, i've already had 3 sessions and it keeps going

Keilani,

Can you now touch the knees to the ground with the latest stretches you mentioned above?

I follow up on this. Keilani, you mention a front and a back wall. Actually, I feel only a back wall. In front I can fully lay myself down. Am I doing something dumb?

Nash said:

Keilani,

Can you now touch the knees to the ground with the latest stretches you mentioned above?

still working on it, been riding my bike for vaca since some friends have been down from Florida for the past month, been only keeping up with mobility as of late. was actually going to post up a follow up form check, i'm uploading a few videos at once, so i'll just post it after it's done. thanks for asking btw this type of mobility has been slow coming for me, but now that im working on twisting squats, maybe the piriformis and other external rotators will get more strength in to help out with the mobility. 

federicoC said:

I follow up on this. Keilani, you mention a front and a back wall. Actually, I feel only a back wall. In front I can fully lay myself down. Am I doing something dumb?

i really wouldn't think it's dumb. now i feel a tiny bit more elasticity on the "wall" instead of just grinding to a complete hault. i WISH i could lay it down any which way, at least you got one of them down sometime's my femur will glide inappropriately and give me a sudden loud pop every once in a while. maybe once i get better at glute activation is when this iM will through to me because it really has been an issue for a while now and i've sustained a few hip injuries that have made progress slow but sure(in my case, my injuries aren't anything out of this world but they were un attended for a long time. as i invest more time in exploration with my lacrosse ball, i get to visit and re-visit areas that need progressive work.) 

not to mention i'm learning how to stretch and train, F1 + H1 were the first fitness programs I underwent serious involvement with and i'm still learning to be consistent and disciplined, out of 365 days last yr with 208 of training days (I do the 4day split) I trained 124. almost a bit under half a year worth of training, so my slow progress is like i've mentioned before a product of my own inexperience and lack of pre-existing mobility coupled with my developing maturity of not finding reasons to not work out. 

this proves that if you want to progress like people like Jon, you have to as he says "show up for practice everyday." 

which is exactly my mission this year. I'll make a thread eventually consolidating my progress similar to how you did to keep things clear and detailed, so that i can have more data to help me ask better questions related to my problem areas(which as of now are discipline, mobilization and eating the adequate amount of food)

Thanks for your very detailed answer. Yes, I think your mission and target is clear! Keep up with it!

KeilaniG said:

still working on it, been riding my bike for vaca since some friends have been down from Florida for the past month, been only keeping up with mobility as of late. was actually going to post up a follow up form check, i'm uploading a few videos at once, so i'll just post it after it's done. thanks for asking btw this type of mobility has been slow coming for me, but now that im working on twisting squats, maybe the piriformis and other external rotators will get more strength in to help out with the mobility. 

 

i really wouldn't think it's dumb. now i feel a tiny bit more elasticity on the "wall" instead of just grinding to a complete hault. i WISH i could lay it down any which way, at least you got one of them down sometime's my femur will glide inappropriately and give me a sudden loud pop every once in a while. maybe once i get better at glute activation is when this iM will through to me because it really has been an issue for a while now and i've sustained a few hip injuries that have made progress slow but sure(in my case, my injuries aren't anything out of this world but they were un attended for a long time. as i invest more time in exploration with my lacrosse ball, i get to visit and re-visit areas that need progressive work.) 

 

not to mention i'm learning how to stretch and train, F1 + H1 were the first fitness programs I underwent serious involvement with and i'm still learning to be consistent and disciplined, out of 365 days last yr with 208 of training days (I do the 4day split) I trained 124. almost a bit under half a year worth of training, so my slow progress is like i've mentioned before a product of my own inexperience and lack of pre-existing mobility coupled with my developing maturity of not finding reasons to not work out. 

 

this proves that if you want to progress like people like Jon, you have to as he says "show up for practice everyday." 

 

which is exactly my mission this year. I'll make a thread eventually consolidating my progress similar to how you did to keep things clear and detailed, so that i can have more data to help me ask better questions related to my problem areas(which as of now are discipline, mobilization and eating the adequate amount of food)

Go K, and stay hungry.