What do you all find are the best hip mobility exercises for heavy squatting to IPF depth (i.e. past parallel)?
http://www.defrancostraining.com/ask_joe/archives/ask_joe_08-10-03.html
Scroll down about halfway until you see the answer which included the ‘agile 8’ I dont do all of it (that rolling backwards thing is odd) but most of it is pretty decent. Check out the diesel crew youtube page too.
Thank you for posting that.
I find the magnificent mobility info helped.
Pretty much my favs were forward leg swings and lateral leg swings.
The above two are great. I actually implement the above 2 into my routine (certain exercises) and just add them to what I always do for dynamic mobility.
Takes about 15 min. to complete everything…I do it 4x a week before workouts.
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I know mobility drills are usually the bulk of the recommendations, but my tight body required plenty of static stretching. Lots of simple hip flexor stretches 2x a day at 30 seconds a pop has done the most for me. I also do a ton of foam rolling and “agile 8” stuff, but from my experience the static hip flexor stretches are a must. This is especially true if you spend all day in a car or by a computer outside your workout like I do.
So I’m about to ask a question that I hope doesn’t get me kicked in the dick… I’m serious too.
So doing some of these mobility exercises can help my squat/deadlift? Or just help my flexibility?
If I have no trouble going below parallel with squatting, should I still do these?
I’m new to the powerlifting so I’m asking here.
This is what my squat looked like freshman year, pretty classic example of lower back rounding. I ended up adding some annotations a while back of the hip mobility exercises that helped me the most.
I am really enjoying this forum, as I have been missing out on a lot of good info. Looks like I found my new favorite spot to read/post. Thanks, guys. Got a lot of work to do!
[quote]flipHKD_6 wrote:
So I’m about to ask a question that I hope doesn’t get me kicked in the dick… I’m serious too.
So doing some of these mobility exercises can help my squat/deadlift? Or just help my flexibility?
If I have no trouble going below parallel with squatting, should I still do these?
I’m new to the powerlifting so I’m asking here.[/quote]
Wouldn’t hurt ya. You’ll probably lose some mobility when you get older, or when you add weight to the bar. So it would be good to make it a habit to stretch and do mobility drills.
[quote]flipHKD_6 wrote:
So I’m about to ask a question that I hope doesn’t get me kicked in the dick… I’m serious too.
So doing some of these mobility exercises can help my squat/deadlift? Or just help my flexibility?
If I have no trouble going below parallel with squatting, should I still do these?
I’m new to the powerlifting so I’m asking here.[/quote]
Being an old dude (who’s trained a ton of people) the answer is that you can’t get it strong if you can’t move it. Some people have very high natural mobility and that is good, but most people I have encountered are already lacking some mobility, even at a young age. For instance, one new guy who lifts and is pretty strong I know tried the simple stretch of squatting down as far as possible and then pushing his knees out (called a “groiner”). Even though he has a strong squat, I noticed he was rounding his back once he broke parallel. Sure enough, his hamstrings are so tight at the bottom he actually couldn’t keep his feet flat.
Point of this is that he lifts regularly and didn’t realize stretching was a necessity. He just always had a somewhat sore back after squat day. Once he started stretching (doing mostly groiners with good form before lifting) he improved his flexibility and form. Magically, his usual back pain subsided.
Since I’m a geezer I’ll also point out the best use of all of this stuff – a pre-flight checklist. Flexibility and mobility work (they are different) is a good warm-up and gives you feedback on what might be issues before you train. As you get older, it is easier to hurt stuff so this lets you know up front what works and what doesn’t. (FWIW after I do that, the last thing I do is run through 100 or so situps of various sorts (10 x 10, regular, twists, v-ups, candlesticks &c., &c.) that check all major movements. That tells me what I can do. ) Besides, it takes only a couple extra minutes and keeps you from losing your movement. Trust me that it is a hell of a lot of work to get it back once you get past a certain point. If you wait too long, it is probably gone for good. Someone who is 70 and has had bad posture for 40 years has skeletal changes and bone does not flex, so it’s pretty much permanent.
Oh and why do old folks look the way they do when they walk? Because they lack mobility, cannot get into strong anatomical positions (like being completely upright) and therefore look and are feeble.
– jj
There’s some pretty good ideas in this thread here:
As someone who’s knees couldn’t be more jacked up I’m learning the art of hip mobility and optimal glute firing patterns [yes, that sounds REALLY gay]. Front/back and side to side leg swings, roll overs into v-sits, fire hydrants, tin soldiers, and band shuffles seem to help open things up for me before a workout. Foam rolling and traditional static stretching at home helps too. Both take 10-15 minutes. If I had done both from the beginning I wouldn’t have had surgeries, scopes, MRI’s, be forced to ice nightly, etc…
Foam rolling has always been really good to me. Usually roll out the quads/adductors/abductors for a few minutes every day. Just keep rolling until the pain goes away.
[quote]flipHKD_6 wrote:
So I’m about to ask a question that I hope doesn’t get me kicked in the dick… I’m serious too.
So doing some of these mobility exercises can help my squat/deadlift? Or just help my flexibility?
If I have no trouble going below parallel with squatting, should I still do these?
I’m new to the powerlifting so I’m asking here.[/quote]
Yes you should!