Is Your Hip Hinge Missing?

THE TOPIC

The hip hinge is the fundamental of hip movement.  The goal is to flex the hip without bending the spine – In layman’s terms: bend over without rounding your back. The hip hinge is important in a host of common exercises including: deadlifts, squats, lunges, hyperextensions, goodmornings, ab rollouts, mountain climbers, and many more. (For a video demonstration click here)..

Bending from the spine

This is how the average person tends to bend over. As you can see from the nice curve of the back most of the motion is coming from the spine. This is added stress to the spinal column and can contribute to back pain. Very often, chronic back pain resuls from this pattern repeated many thousands of times over the course of a life.

Bending with hip hinge

This is the same movement being performed with a proper hip hinge. Here, the motion is coming from the hip joint. The back remains straight, keeping the spine in a neutral position and keeping the stress on the spinal column to a minimum.

WHAT YOU CAN DO

Hip hinging is tricky for a couple of reasons. One is that we aren’t used to moving that way. After ten, twenty, thirty, or even forty years of incorrect movement it can be difficult to relearn things properly. Another is that many people’s muscles are very imbalanced. Sitting in chairs, as one example, causes a lot of tightness and muscle inhibition which can interfere with the mechanics of the hip hinge. You will need to relearn this movement pattern. Tony Gentilcore has a good post on this on his website: http://tonygentilcore.com/2014/01/hip-hinge-like-boss/

You may also want to consider signing up for some personal training. If this is a skill you have trouble with, it will be well worth the investment.

THE REASON

The average person does not and often cannot hip hinge.  As they bend forward and reach towards the ground they get the last bit of motion by letting their spine round. If this is you, it is critical to reacquire the hip-hinge. This is not only important for back health, but it is also critical for many great exercises in the gym. Learning the hip hinge will not only allow you to maximize your exercise but it will cross-over into your regular life and help you avoid many of the back issues that are so common in our society.