Improving Hip Function Through Greater Stability

Years ago, Gray Cook made popular the PNF concept of “proximal stability for distal mobility” – a simple concept that is profound in how we start, progress, and help people achieve more while solving their movement issues.

Even with this concept gaining popularity in many functional fitness circles, it is amazing how many coaches still ignore it when it comes to developing greater hip mobility and progressing to more sophisticated strength training patterns.

The shinbox is a great example of how we can take advantage of the “proximal stability for distal mobility” concept and really make a difference in what most people lack…internal hip rotation. First, why is internal hip rotation important? We know from Mike Boyle and Gray Cook’s “Joint by Joint Approach” that if we don’t have good full hip mobility we are asking the more stable lumbar spine to do things that are highly risky!

Internal rotation is therefore important in helping build resiliency and reduction of low back injuries, but also important for performance. The better our hip mobility the better we can produce our true potential of strength. Also, hip mobility is essential for the often neglected primal movement, rotation.

Mobility Mistakes

We realize the shinbox is a great medium to measure this mobility, but how do we use it to actually help BUILD mobility? Unfortunately, most people try to train in this position under great discomfort. The more pain or discomfort one perceives the less likely the nervous system is to allow greater mobility. In fact, it will often cause the body to get worse because it is trying to protect itself.

That means we want to accomplish several things with the shinbox position. The first is find the position that we can actually train in without the severe discomfort that many experience. It might mean being at the top of the shinbox position instead of the more intense bottom position.

Once we establish such a position, then we want to learn how to build stability through the chains of the body. Mostly this means connecting grip, lats, core, and glutes together. This month’s Metabolic Stability shows some progressions in which we can make such connections while still feeling like we are building foundational strength patterns. Understanding how tools like Ultimate Sandbags, bands, kettlebells, and Lever Bells can work together can unlock so much potential in building strength and mobility at once.

We shouldn’t be looking to isolate mobility – that is a key mistake in achieving success. Instead, we want to follow functional training principles to help people get results much faster!

Building 3-D Glutes & Core

A great way to measure our success in building stability and mobility at once is to start building the rotational patterns. Most people forget that rotation is a key primal movement pattern and is one of the best ways to see true glute and core strength. That is due to the fact that our hips need to demonstrate mobility and strength while our core creates stability.

Our bodies are specifically designed to create rotation. We can see that in the fact the glutes, obliques, and lats are not designed to be linear muscles. They are more of a fan design, meaning that rotation is at the heart of what the muscles are involved with in training and performing. However, HOW we do this in a progressive manner means everything in the success and benefits we can achieve in rotational exercises.

It isn’t about using different tools, but understanding how these great functional fitness tools can work together to build progression. When we see what each tool brings to learning about movement, we quickly see that anyone can be successful if we start at the right place and have direction with our training.

Training the body as it is designed to move will not only make our bodies move better, but look better too! It has been shown that rotation can be one of the most impactful ways in building high intensity workouts. That is due to all the muscles that are used and having a mixture of muscles creating force while others are resisting it. That is what functional fitness is suppose to be all about – developing more efficient methods of fitness.

Recommended Products

Josh Henkin, CSCS is an international presenter and strength coach who has taught in over 13 countries worldwide and consulted with some of the top fitness and performance programs in the world. Don’t miss his upcoming DVRT educational programs HERE.