Finally conquered Swivel Hip

Nice. Thanks Dylan!

My son noticed that just a bit of lay down hip stretching immediately improved his swivel hips. magic?

These are the drills helped me 

thanks guys for previous tips. specially from Daniel and yoga positions. i manage 10cm in two weeks. very close to mastery. another 10cm to go

Man...those two youtube uploads 'how-to' guides look daunting and painful. Has anyone seen progress from the Middle split series? I stopped anything extra and have just done my PEs and -ims, as well as the full stretch series and am still seeing progress. Can anyone else (coaches welcome) attest to the efficacy of that approach?

The methods used in both the course iMs and the Stretch Courses are highly effective, particularly in combination.

Daniel Taylor-Shaut said:

Man...those two youtube uploads 'how-to' guides look daunting and painful. Has anyone seen progress from the Middle split series? I stopped anything extra and have just done my PEs and -ims, as well as the full stretch series and am still seeing progress. Can anyone else (coaches welcome) attest to the efficacy of that approach?

I agree Daniel if you have/are doing the stretch course then anything extra might be overdoing it.  But not everyone has it.

Very true about not everyone having the stretch series, and good to know about their efficacy in combination. Glad to see I was correct in my assumptions.

Andre said:

Are you saying that this does not put you in internal rotation??

I practiced this stretch pulsing my torso down to the floor and it gave me rotation to my knees, not to my hip joints.

Knees are not designed to rotate side ways so that caused some pain and discomfort for a week.

now I stopped this stretch. Have you ever suffered from same experience?

Daniel Taylor-Shaut said:

If you want to ace this mobility movement, sit in these positions for as long as possible, all day long, every day. I watch movies and just alternate between the moves for a full two hours and boom, today I made massive improvement on swivel hips. After only a few days of sitting in those two positions (even though I was also sick last week). Patience is the cliche virtue for this program, guys. If you want joint strength, mobility and endurance, as well as muscular strength and endurance, you just gotta give it time. Lastly, if you can't get into those moves out right, don't worry (I can't either), just do it as best you can. Use a yoga block, a rolled up blanket, a box, etc etc whatever enables you to get in that position as close to possible as how it's supposed to look. Holler back in a month. 

well, in the follow along clip in stretch courses, coach said do this just once a week otherwise it would hamper progress, not accelerating. 

but you are suggesting practicing it everyday, a few hours per day. That sounds too much to me.

I want to know if you had any problem from stretching specific part too much such as bad recovery, pain etc. 

Pulsing your torso in that position was your mistake. As you have observed in internal rotation your knee is the weak link, you can't push internal rotation so hard. IN that particular position, if your internal rotation isn't so good pull the knee in to the thigh, it's much less vulnerable there.

The poses Daniel mentioned are 'standard' variations of sitting poses, it's not big deal to work those to a lesser degree more often. Often it's a question of intensity, you can walk for hours but only sprint for seconds. Same with mobility work, you can do 'easy' stretching all you care to. Hard stretching once a week.

The stretches I refer to are yoga poses and are variants on the "indian-style" cross-legged sitting most people do as kids. And going to the point of discomfort and pain wasn't the point. Utilizing those poses, however, be it for five minutes or an hour will greatly expedite the process of increasing the mobility in your hips as those two moves are geared towards targeting and expanding the range which one's hips may internally or externally rotate. No, I don't recommend doing the stretch all day long. No one has time for that. But if you spend your time relaxing, wherein you'd be perched on a sofa or lounger, instead in these poses you could see some real benefit. Before I purchased the stretch series I implemented them and it was helpful. Now that I do the mobility's weekly and the stretch series, I don't do much else. But as someone else  noted, not everyone bought the stretch series.

Hi fellow athletes, I've got some questions here, would really appreciate any feedback, please

I started foundation in January with literally not being able to keep my glute on the ground once I started to ratate it. It was more of a mental journey than physical because I once felt I will never accomplish it, especially when I introduced this exercise to my girlfriend and she nailed it better than I ever saw and not even warmed up. I was demolished, lol

But now things changed, I worked every time the hardest on that.

I always used moderate force to get as deep as I can, ensuring that pain is not going beyond being simply uncomfortable. There were times when I finished the set of SH and felt kind of numbness for a few seconds in hips but that was a rarety and I tried to avoid it at all costs. Is this kind of pushing is too much?

My sets always took at least twice as long as demonstrated in the course video. I am not sure if I could do sets of SH slower but concentrated and extremely focusing rather than doing it at speed like in the course video? I do understand that eventually I want to do it at required speed.

So here's the video (I didn't even notice I was checking if my glutes aren't off the ground, haha)

I am a desk jockey. I must have been inadvertently stretching my legs for this movement without ever knowing it. I usually spend some time every day with one of my feet tucked under the opposing thigh while in my chair. Over time this must have increased my flexibility as I find Swivel Hips to be one of the easier mobility drills. It might be good for someone else to try if they have a desk job like me. I also get up frequently and bend over to touch my hands to the floor. I didn't start out being able to do that but over time it adds up. You have to push deeper through the burn of the stretch to increase flexibility though. I always heard that you don't want to stretch too far or you could injure yourself. While I'm sure that's true, on the flip side you won't become more flexible without experiencing some pain.

Mr. Bystander said:

I am a desk jockey. I must have been inadvertently stretching my legs for this movement without ever knowing it. I usually spend some time every day with one of my feet tucked under the opposing thigh while in my chair. Over time this must have increased my flexibility as I find Swivel Hips to be one of the easier mobility drills. It might be good for someone else to try if they have a desk job like me. I also get up frequently and bend over to touch my hands to the floor. I didn't start out being able to do that but over time it adds up. You have to push deeper through the burn of the stretch to increase flexibility though. I always heard that you don't want to stretch too far or you could injure yourself. While I'm sure that's true, on the flip side you won't become more flexible without experiencing some pain.

I have similar habit to you and in my country, people sit on floor without chair, with legs crossed in M shape. 

feet tucked under the opposing thigh is a good habit for external rotation, then 

how did you deal with the internal rotation? it is a main obstacle for me. 

Hanlim Lee said:

I have similar habit to you and in my country, people sit on floor without chair, with legs crossed in M shape. 

 

feet tucked under the opposing thigh is a good habit for external rotation, then 

 

how did you deal with the internal rotation? it is a main obstacle for me.

 

 

I do a lot of IT Band stretching which seems to have helped with this.

Daniel Taylor-Shaut said:

You definitely need to stay on a progression until you obtain it. Trust me it IS frustrating. I quit GB for a few months because I was like screw this, I'm not getting definition, etc. Then deadlifting and the like just made me sore, whereas post GB workout I'd feel charged. The aim here is slow and steady. I'm 27 and insanely tuned into my health and so forth, to a fault. With that being said I'm still quite a n00b, if you're older and/or not as tuned in, it. just. takes. time. For the swivel hips though, two things:

 

Firelog pose --> shoelace pose (for external hip rotation)

 

Hero pose --> reclining hero pose (for internal hip rotation)

 

If you want to ace this mobility movement, sit in these positions for as long as possible, all day long, every day. I watch movies and just alternate between the moves for a full two hours and boom, today I made massive improvement on swivel hips. After only a few days of sitting in those two positions (even though I was also sick last week). Patience is the cliche virtue for this program, guys. If you want joint strength, mobility and endurance, as well as muscular strength and endurance, you just gotta give it time. Lastly, if you can't get into those moves out right, don't worry (I can't either), just do it as best you can. Use a yoga block, a rolled up blanket, a box, etc etc whatever enables you to get in that position as close to possible as how it's supposed to look. Holler back in a month. 

As an update, I've found that SLS/PE3-im and SLS/PE2-im effectively work on opening up the hips and specifically for working through the swivel hips range of motion. For anyone still tinkering with this movement, it's worth giving it a try. 

Thanks for all the information.

My question regarding the swivel hips & internal rotation is could it be possible that some people will never have perfect internal rotation - even w/ all the mobilizing in the world? I have gone to a body soft tissue specialist who specializes in ART and many other modalities, who explained to me that some people @ the joint capsule level just aren't able to ever reach certain ranges & he told me that all the ART in the world for me wouldn't have profound impact. Truth? Or misconception? Thoughts ? 

That may be true, but most people could do themselves a favor by improving hip rotation. Maybe not all the way to the floor but damned close.

Maybe this may help you out:

I kinda discovered this stretch on accident about 3 weeks ago.  Lie down on floor face up, and then move your legs into the "bottom" of swivel hips and then hold that for time.  (One leg would be internally rotated, the other would be externally rotated.)   Go low enough so that you feel it on the sides of your glutes, but not so low that you start to feel it in your knees.  I find that it's a very delicate balance - too low and you feel it in your knees, too high and you don't feel the glute stretch.

I feel like most piriformis stretches don't work for me (but may work for you), especially since most piriformis stretch is trying to stretch you while you're externally rotated.  The difference in this stretch is that you're stretching while internally rotated.

I think that, from my son's experience, the best way to get this movement down is to really sit in these different positions (internal/external rotation) for prolonged periods of time, but only to a comfortable level, at a level of stretch where you do not have to put any effort or have any pain.

This thread has a lot of amazing info/links/advice.  But it's also a mess to dig through.  There is some conflicting/incomplete info:

1) Video shows glute coming off ground a little, but states that they shouldn't.  Is a little ok?

2) Foundation says nothing about arched spine, this thread says it should be arched (or is helpful). In demonstration video his back doesn't look particularly arched.  Does this matter?

3) Video shows that knee doesn't fully touch ground.  What distance from ground qualifies mastery?

4) No info on if the glute can (or has to) move forward during movement.

5) Not clear if joint anatomy is truly a limit for some people.  

Can GB upload another video for this one?  From a different angle with different model?  Seems like an easy way to clear things up.

I have made a lot of progress on this one, and honestly I'm not trying to overthink things.  It's just hard to be strict on mastery when it's loosely defined. 

In my opinion, the point of this is to get a modicum of internal and external rotation happening in a nontechnical manner. So I really wouldn't overthink this one.

Comfortably rotate your hips from side to side, a small amount of lift is ok as shown in the video. Many people don't even notice that amount of lift, hence the instruction not to lift the hips.

Thanks for the response, Cole.  I think i'm very close to mastery.  My hips are quite happy with me!

Thanks for a great thread, it's been really helpful as I discover how tight I am in internal rotation. Making changes to the away I sit should help and the middle split series is fantastic. I just tried SH after completing the series and saw a huge increase in ROM. Happy to have patience but I want to know I'm doing the right things to get me there eventually. Thanks for confirming. :-)