Mastery of sPL/PE1>iM - Swivel Hips

I too had some troubles with sPL/PE2-iM, my internal rotation wasn't horrible but definitely not enough for mastery. I found quite useful for this one of Kit Laughlin's piriformis stretches (the one done with the hip in flexion, internal rotation and adduction, either on the floor or on a chair). Also, people lacking internal rotation mostly on the left side could try the right sidelying left adductor pullback exercise (google it). One clue that has helped me get rid of some clicking noises was to slightly thrust the higher knee forward when lowering it, but i'm not sure if this is good form or not. And of course, keeping at the exercise should make it better over time .

Michaël said:

I like it.

First I experimented with loading the knee of the internally rotated leg: I lowered the knee to its unassisted end ROM, keeping both glutes on the floor. Then I put my hand (holding a dumbbell) on top of the knee, so I could gradually increase the load.

I also loaded the hip of the internally rotated leg. I started with putting both knees on the floor. This forced me to lift the glute and extend the hip of the internally rotated leg. I then put the foot of the externally rotated leg (the 'lower leg') on top of the knee of my internally rotated leg, to keep it in place. Then I loaded the extended hip of the internally rotated leg with the dumbbell and allowed my hip to gradually sink back towards the floor under the load of the dumbbell, while holding my knees on the floor.

That probably sounds a little confusing but it's really straightforward and I have a feeling it really helped loosening up my hips!

Contracting-relaxing against the load works well.

For anyone planning to try this: make sure that you increase the load gradually, don't just go throwing dumbbells on your joints!!

I've played around with both of these as well (good explanations btw).

One thing that I also found helped to alleviate any knee discomfort while performing these stretches was to attempt to actively internally rotate the hip. This tends to help me feel the stretch directly in the hip and also to release the external rotators via "reciprocal inhibition".

I've also done these "Active Isolated Stretching" (AIS) style where I try to actively internally rotate (either stretch will work), then add a little assistance from my hand/a dumbbell/dropping my hip to pull me a little further into the stretch, hold that position for 1-2 seconds, then switch to the other side.

I'll perform 10 repetitions (on each side) of these as part of my warm-ups and it has seemed to both help me achieve greater ROM during the IM, eliminate any discomfort on the inside of my knees while performing it, and actually helped me to really understand the correct muscle activation during the movement (something which I had totally misunderstood when I began performing it). It has also shown me that my internal rotators (especially my right ones) were very weak prior to beginning F1.

Hope this helps someone.

Michaël said:

For anyone planning to try this: make sure that you increase the load gradually, don't just go throwing dumbbells on your joints!!

Thanks for the feedback on what helped you out. I will give it a whirl too and see how it goes. I have some SandBells laying around that will work perfectly and I can easily slide them up and down my femur to adjust the loading.

- Chris

Emanuele said:

One clue that has helped me get rid of some clicking noises was to slightly thrust the higher knee forward when lowering it, but i'm not sure if this is good form or not. 

IMHO, it is very clear from the video that the athlete rotates and extends the hip during the exercise, which leads the trailing knee forward and the leading knee backwards. This is mandated by anatomy - you cannot put the knee on the floor using internal rotation on an immobile hip. This makes me think that some of the issues with doing this exercise does not stem as much from have limited internal rotation, as from having limited hip flexibility to perform the hip extension. It is probably also worthwhile to give that some attention (I know I will).

Good stuff

Got mastery on this and PE2. Mastery on this makes the next element easy

Aadil Siddiqi said:

Got mastery on this and PE2. Mastery on this makes the next element easy

damn dude! more than awesome...

Aadil Siddiqi said:

Got mastery on this and PE2. Mastery on this makes the next element easy

So just to confirm, you can do this with both glutes touching the ground?

Bipocni said:

So just to confirm, you can do this with both glutes touching the ground?

Some musculature of my glute rises off the ground, but my upper glutes stay grounded. It looks exactly like the athlete in the video, except I'm not "forcing" the end of the ROM. I believe mastery of this iM is what is shown in the video, although optimally you may want a little bit more of your glutes on the ground.

PE3 will be easy for me too. I'll test it in Karachi. I'll be going back later today, and I'll lose two days in travel :l

Aadil Siddiqi said:

Some musculature of my glute rises off the ground, but my upper glutes stay grounded. It looks exactly like the athlete in the video, except I'm not "forcing" the end of the ROM. I believe mastery of this iM is what is shown in the video, although optimally you may want a little bit more of your glutes on the ground.

PE3 will be easy for me too. I'll test it in Karachi. I'll be going back later today, and I'll lose two days in travel :l

That sounds like my experience too

I love this movement and do it several times a day, just a couple reps to keep my hips open and loose.

Charm said:

That sounds like my experience too

I love this movement and do it several times a day, just a couple reps to keep my hips open and loose.

I do it too. It's also part of my warm-up for football. It really prepares you for twisting and turning in sports.