• Stretching
• Soft tissue work
• Activation drills
• Strength exercises

Activation drills for increased hip mobility

As I mentioned in my previous post, I’ve allowed my posture to deteriorate recently and I was shocked at how bad it had become when I saw my holiday snaps (check out the lower back arch!).

Activation drills are of limited help to me this time around as I’ve done them a lot before.  However, I am doing them to a certain degree so I’m including them in this series.

 And as I mentioned before, I know I need to work on my upper back too but one thing at a time!

Activation drills for improving hip mobility and lumbar lordosis

When it comes to improving my hip mobility and reducing lumbar lordosis, I am looking to wake up my abdominal and gluteal muscles  in order to change my posture and overall movement patterns.  I want to make the abdominal and gluteal muscles fire so that they tend to pull my pelvis out of anterior tilt and into optimal alignment.

For the glutes, the best exercises I know of that help to activate the right muscles and enforce proper movement patterns are the plate squat, the glute bridge and the clam.  The plate squat is great for grooving the right movement and the glute bridge and the clam are better for actually forcing the glute muscle to work.  Together, they are a good combination!

Plate squats

As it says on the tin, you squat while holding a plate.  Only go as deep as you can safely without rounding the lower back.  A friend who can shout when your lower back dips comes in handy here…

Glute bridges

Lying on your back, you clench your glutes and push your hips towards the ceiling.  Hold the bridge for a couple of seconds to really activate the glutes.

Clams

This remarkably well-named exercise basically involves just opening and closing your legs while lying on your side.

Leg lowering

This looks so easy until you try and do it properly, i.e. without allowing your lower back to come away from the floor.  You lie on your back and extend both legs slightly so that you form a sitting position but horizontally, like in the first picture below.  Then try extending one leg slightly, while tensing your abdominal muscles.  When you feel your lower back start coming away from the floor, stop and pull your leg back slightly.  Pause for a moment and then try the other leg.

When you can do each leg on its own easily, try both legs at the same time.  But watch out for that lower back!

For all these drills, I tend to do a couple of sets of each for a couple of reps until I start to feel the movement.  Since I’m not really looking to build strength with these, I don’t do fixed sets and reps to progress.