Swivel Hips Are Easy With This Tip

I have been seeing some post's about zombie dudes not being able to do swivel hips.

 

What you need to do if you have problems with this is start sitting on the ground when you watch TV. Try to sit cross legged on the ground for 30 minutes a day, everyday. I know you watch TV for 30 minutes a day.

 

After about a week of the cross legged ground sitting, take one leg out and start to sit in a static swivel hip pose, while watching TV. Over the course of the pose and over time your hips will start to sink down to the ground.

 

Eventually you should be able to sit in a full accomplished pose or "Siddhasana".

 

If you cant sit still try to switch legs every ten minutes using the half accomplished pose.

 

A short description of getting into a half accomplished pose from sitting cross legged, which is a close variation of static swivel hips...

 

"Bend the right leg back around the thigh and tuck the right foot along the contour of the buttocks. Leave the left leg in front of the torso, tucking it close to the groin."

 

No doubt your legs will fall asleep, ankles can get sore and hips as well. Deal with it, all that goes away after a few months. Eventually, you will be watching your favorite show, some dude will solve a murder and it will be the dead Marines sisters cousin who tried to change identities to get rich or something, and you will look down and realize your whole hip, butt, and legs are touching the floor.

Isn't sitting cross legged putting the leg in the exact opposite anatomical position that we want to achieve in swivel hips? External vs internal rotation? or am I missing something?

Sitting cross legged is only the beggining step, so its not doing the greatest change, however it is creating more mobility in the hips, knees and ankles. Dont think of the first step in this progression as starting with the hips, moreso starting from the feet up. First ankles then knees...et cetera.

I do not claim to know specifics though. This is just coming from my experience as a stiff bodied american adopting a traditional south indian lifestyle.

Ok, interesting approach, then.

For what it's worth, I come from an indian background and am used to lots of squatting and sitting cross-legged.Swivel hips were a piece of cake.

Micawberian said:

Isn't sitting cross legged putting the leg in the exact opposite anatomical position that we want to achieve in swivel hips? External vs internal rotation? or am I missing something?

Swivel hips is both. One leg internally rotates while the other externally rotates. And then vice versa. So it's only going to help with the external rotation part. Since this is the part I struggle with, I like the idea, particularly since it makes use of rest time to do gentle mobility work.

 

An equivalent position for internal rotation is to sit with the inside of the knees on the floor (knees bent and feet splayed out to the sides) - not sure if there's a yoga equivalent. It's the position you'd end up in if you descended all the way to the floor in an inside squat. If you can sit like that, you'll have no problem with the internal rotation half of swivel hips. If you're tight though, you'll probably need to support your glutes on a cushion or something to reduce the intensity. I attribute my good internal rotation mobility to the fact that I used to sit like this a lot as a kid.

KibboKift said:

An equivalent position for internal rotation is to sit with the inside of the knees on the floor (knees bent and feet splayed out to the sides) - not sure if there's a yoga equivalent. It's the position you'd end up in if you descended all the way to the floor in an inside squat. If you can sit like that, you'll have no problem with the internal rotation half of swivel hips. If you're tight though, you'll probably need to support your glutes on a cushion or something to reduce the intensity. I attribute my good internal rotation mobility to the fact that I used to sit like this a lot as a kid.

I can sit like this very easily, but am still quite a ways off from the internal rotation portion of swivel hips. Just some perspective for anyone who is having a different experience. 

RJS said:

 

I know you watch TV for 30 minutes a day.

oh... do you?

maolu said:

oh... do you?

Oh yes, two hours, everyday. It is a ritual for the monks in Kauai, its one of the few times all the brothers are in the same place throughout the day. And im also the head brewer

Yoga Poses that will help with internal hip rotation:
 

Hero Pose: Virasana

Reclining Hero Pose: Supta Virasana

 

For external rotation:

 

Hip Opening Yoga Poses

^ Interestingly I can get my right butt cheek to the floor in Hero pose or reclining hero pose but not my left, yet I have better internal rotation in my left hip than right. I also don't feel hero pose at all in my external rotators but entirely in my quads. So for me anyway those poses don't translate well to swivel hips.

Maybe if you were talking about doing them with the insides of the feet flat on the ground, then yeah that would be a good internal rotation stretch (but also a very advanced one and pretty much like a bottomed out inside squat as someone else mentioned), but my understanding is that the tops of the feet should be on the floor in hero pose. Correct me if I'm wrong though.

Could you post a video? I cannot understand the posture you are describing. 

Hanlim Lee said:

Could you post a video? I cannot understand the posture you are describing. 

I think this is the pose both Keegan and I were talking about:

 

I would be surprised if you could sit like this and still didn't have enough internal rotation for swivel hips.

 

Interestingly, while searching for a picture, I came across this page:

http://childdevelopmentresources.wordpress.com/2010/12/24/femoral-anteversion

It would seem that sitting like this a lot as a child can lead to abnormal femoral development, which can affect your gait and leave you biased towards internal hip rotation.

Several years ago I threw out all of the chairs in my apartment.  I don't see myself ever going back.

KibboKift said:

I think this is the pose both Keegan and I were talking about:

w-sitting.PNG

 

I would be surprised if you could sit like this and still didn't have enough internal rotation for swivel hips.

 

Interestingly, while searching for a picture, I came across this page:

http://childdevelopmentresources.wordpress.com/2010/12/24/femoral-anteversion

It would seem that sitting like this a lot as a child can lead to abnormal femoral development, which can affect your gait and leave you biased towards internal hip rotation.

A kid at my school when I was 10 used to sit like that all the time. I thought it was so cool so I kept trying too lol. Even as a kid I couldn't really do it but after trying for a couple weeks I got it. Still wasn't comfortable. Glad I didn't keep it up. 

KibboKift said:

I think this is the pose both Keegan and I were talking about:

w-sitting.PNG

 

I would be surprised if you could sit like this and still didn't have enough internal rotation for swivel hips.

 

Interestingly, while searching for a picture, I came across this page:

http://childdevelopmentresources.wordpress.com/2010/12/24/femoral-anteversion

It would seem that sitting like this a lot as a child can lead to abnormal femoral development, which can affect your gait and leave you biased towards internal hip rotation.

 

so that's the pose which makes internal rotation of swivel hips easy. But it is NOT good to sit like that because that induces 

 

abnormal femoral development. Am I understanding it correctly?

 

then what should I do to improve internal rotation? I am really desperate lol

 

Rayne-William said:

Yoga Poses that will help with internal hip rotation:

 

Hero Pose: Virasana

Reclining Hero Pose: Supta Virasana

 

For external rotation:

 

Hip Opening Yoga Poses

 Did you actually practiced these poses and had some improvements?

 

I've been doing swivel hips for 3 months and still didn't progress for I cannot rotate internally at all.  

 

In my  country people are used to sitting on the floor so Siddhasana is normal to most Koreans. 

 

So do I. I have no problem at rotating externally. But internal..... lol

Hanlim Lee said:

so that's the pose which makes internal rotation of swivel hips easy. But it is NOT good to sit like that because that induces 

 

abnormal femoral development. Am I understanding it correctly?

 

then what should I do to improve internal rotation? I am really desperate lol

 

 Did you actually practiced these poses and had some improvements?

 

I've been doing swivel hips for 3 months and still didn't progress for I cannot rotate internally at all.  

 

In my  country people are used to sitting on the floor so Siddhasana is normal to most Koreans. 

 

So do I. I have no problem at rotating externally. But internal..... lol

No - that's not the conclusion I took from the article. It seems w-sitting would probably be easier for kids, but if you sat like that too much while you were growing, it could lead to abnormal development of the femur. That is not a risk for we adults, since our skeletons are already fully developed. I'm guessing that unless you sat like this a lot as a kid, you wouldn't be able to do so as an adult without a lot of work, but I can't see the harm in doing a scaled down version. However, I am not a physio.

 

In previous threads several people have cited piriformis stretching (plenty of stretches available on youtube) as beneficial in improving internal rotation. Since piriformis is one of the external rotators of the hip, it follows that if you are tight in this area then that could impede your progress.

The article is nonsense.  Right up there with the old wives tale that women shouldn't run because they would damage their reproductive organs.  A silly prejudice by today's standards, but accepted as gospel not too many decades ago.

 

Yours in Fitness,

Coach Sommer

Hanlim Lee said:

 Did you actually practiced these poses and had some improvements?

 

I've been doing swivel hips for 3 months and still didn't progress for I cannot rotate internally at all.  

 

In my  country people are used to sitting on the floor so Siddhasana is normal to most Koreans. 

 

So do I. I have no problem at rotating externally. But internal..... lol

I have never had a problem with internal or external hip rotation.  I don't usually do Hero pose or Reclining Hero pose during my regular yoga routine.

Man, i thought this would be a simple tip, but doesnt seem to make sense to most ppl. Its cool, lets try again...

Flexibility and range of motion, for an adult, has to be a lifestyle change. This is not an issue of this pose and that pose. What i hoped was that ppl could take an activity they do regularly in our culture, ie watching tv in chairs, and switch to floor sitting with additional static stretches while hanging out. My friends this doesnt require any knowledge of internal or external rotation, just sit on the ground and watch tv, then during commercial (if you dont have apple tv), just pull one leg out to your side. Try swivel hips after a month or so of this lifestyle change and check for improvements. Im not a teacher or anything so maybe this wont work for you, in that case, i recommend brewing your own beer, because that craft is so awesome, you wont even care you cant do swivel hips.

Coach Sommer said:

The article is nonsense.  Right up there with the old wives tale that women shouldn't run because they would damage their reproductive organs.  A silly prejudice by today's standards, but accepted as gospel not too many decades ago.

 

Yours in Fitness,

Coach Sommer

Interesting to hear your response Coach. It seems to be quite a contraversial topic. After a bit of further reading it looks like a PT orthodoxy with little or no evidence to back it up, but one which is repeated by professionals time and time again.

RJS said:

I recommend brewing your own beer, because that craft is so awesome, you wont even care you cant do swivel hips.

Not sure where that came from RJS, but I completely agree! Pick a strong one and you'll have time to master swivel hips before it's ready to drink.

KibboKift said:

Interesting to hear your response Coach. It seems to be quite a contraversial topic. After a bit of further reading it looks like a PT orthodoxy with little or no evidence to back it up, but one which is repeated by professionals time and time again.

It is only controversial amongst the desk bound academics and wannabes. Real high level coaches know better.

Yours in Fitness,

Coach Sommer

my mother taught aerobics to pre and post pregnancy women, even when she was pregnant with me. she even surfed with me and neither of us suffered injury.

Keilani Gutierrez said:

my mother taught aerobics to pre and post pregnancy women, even when she was pregnant with me for years. she even surfed with me and neither of us suffered injury.

umm actually Keilani i dont know this info kind of explains alot now... :P

yeah, teaching aerobics with a baby in a sling is definitely why i'm scared of flipping. #sarcasm