In recent days, I’ve been focusing on ways to loosen up your hips to improve flexibility, relieve tension, and support better movement in your daily activities.
If you missed them, here they are:
- Best Mobility Exercise to Unlock Your Hips
- 3 Tips to Improve Your Squat Depth
- Best Exercise to Improve Your Deadlift
Now today, Eric Wong has two techniques that you can do to loosen up your hips.
Enjoy!
~ Rick Kaselj
What’s up, guys!
Eric Wong here.
I am doing this video to help you with your hip flexibility because you know if you do a deadlift, you want to do it deep.
If you want to squat, you got to get down deep.
You must get down deep if you want to do a big lift.
It would help if you had that good hip flexibility.
This exercise is going to help you do that.
Technique 1. Contract and then Relax
You need a bench on which you can stick your foot. It could be a chair, or it could be a couch at home. What we are going to start doing is stretching the adductor. It looks like the standard Adductor Groin Stretch that you do. When doing this, remember to stay in good posture, shoulders back and chest up.
Once you feel the stretch, there are a couple of things you got to focus on:
- Make sure to make this knee a little bit bent.
- Make sure to turn the knee cap up a little bit.
Otherwise, you’re going to put a lot of stress on the knee and damage the ligaments and the meniscus there, and you don’t want to do that.
In this position, what I want to do is add a contraction. I am going to drive my foot down into the bench. It’s like bringing both of my feet together, contracting the adductors, the groin. Do that for 5 seconds and then relax.
To loosen up your hips, you’ll notice you can go deeper into stretches as the stretch reflex relaxes your muscles, overcoming natural inhibitions. However, flexibility alone isn’t enough—strength in the same range of motion is crucial. Without strength, your body perceives instability, leaving you prone to injury. By balancing flexibility with strength, you ensure your brain, muscles, and joints work together for stability and control.
Technique 2. Active Scouring
Here’s another advanced technique that I like in this type of exercise; I call it Scouring.
In this particular form, it is called Active Scouring. I’m in this position and then maintain everything in the square. The pelvis and shoulders are square. I’m going to rotate my leg. Nothing else moves, and I rotate my leg up and down.
This will hit some hip, deep hips into the rotating muscles that are important for stabilizing and cleaning out the joints, just like scouring a dirty bowl you left chilling for two days on the counter. It’s going to rotate up and back. Do six repetitions, which will help clean out that joint.
The key is to keep everything square and looking forward just like we did when we started, with the foot up, and you’re doing the contractor with the adductor.
That does because when we’re doing squats, you got to get down and drive those knees out. That’s Rotation; that movement is Rotation.
If you’re not mobilizing that Rotation with different exercises like this, you’ll not be able to do it. You are going to get pinched up, you’re not going to build, you’ll go slow, or you’re going to hurt somewhere else and injure it or something.
Use resistance bands for dynamic stretching and mobility training.
One of the best ways to get your hips loosened up is to use resistance bands. A resistance band is a great way to open up your hips and release tension in your lower back. Choose a band that has a level of difficulty that is appropriate for your fitness level. If you’re a beginner (or don’t have a lot of hip flexibility), use a stretchy band with low resistance.
Other Great Tools for Loosening Your Hips
- Foam roller: A great way to ease muscle tension, especially in your hips, is with a foam roller. Use a roller for about 5 minutes on each side of your body for the best results. Use a foam roller to roll out tight spots in your hips and lower back.
- Stretching strap: If you have tight hips, a stretching strap can be an excellent tool. Using a strap is a great way to open up your hips and ease tension in your lower back.
You can use a thicker or stiffer band with more tension if you’re more advanced. To use a resistance band, stand with your feet about 2 feet apart. Loop the band around one foot and then around the other foot. You can loop it around both feet simultaneously if it feels more stable.
Try incorporating this technique into your routine to Loosen Up Your Hips. While it’s more advanced, you’ll start noticing benefits even after seven days of consistent practice. Stick with it for two weeks, and the results will be even more noticeable. Give it a shot!
I hope you enjoy the video, and I’ll talk to you soon.
Eric Wong
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