(Note: Magnificent Mobility is on my shopping list already.)
I’m going to cry.
I have the most locked up hips ever.
I can’t do any exercise that involves hip extension correctly. It’s not that I don’t feel it in my hamstrings and glutes, it’s just that I get an awful, debilitating pump/fatigue/cramp in my lower back before my glutes and legs have got enough stimulation.
It’s true for any and all of the following: running, squats, lunges, step ups, single leg reverse hyper, good mornings, deadlifts, olympic anything. I might have missed some. Worse, I get no glute soreness after sprinting, oly stuff, or kneeling jumps, which I fear means no activation.
Even more worser (haha), I recently pulled a hamstring trying to sprint. I pulled it high because it was probably trying to do the job of the muscle next to it.
I’ve started taking steps: x-band walks, calf and hip flexor stretching, overhead squats, hamstring stretching, lower back foam rolling, gaining ab strength.
I’m going to try paused squats and squats with band tension around the knees to see if I can force glute activation. It’s paying off a bit; my oly form has improved and I’ve gained overhead squats and no-hand close stance front squats.
But it’s not that it’s all gone, it’s that I have an AWFUL firing pattern where for every 10 pounds the glutes are responsible for, the lower back is taking 50. I really feel like it is trying to extend my hip instead of my glutes and hamstrings! sob
This is how bad it is: I am trying, for similar reasons of mobility and strength and happiness, to learn a full clean and olympic front squat. So I get ready to clean with my ‘tutorial’ weight, and I think, ‘I’m going to pop my elbows and drop under the bar’.
Elbow popping: check. Drop: I tried, I TRIED to sit back into a front squat. Instead I went down about 3 inches at the knee while arching my back like a damn dolphin. It kind of hurt.
How can I unlock my glutes from my erectors so that I can extend my hip like a normal person with the erectors just playing their part to stabilize with the abs? I’m afraid to gain strength in my lower body at all for fear of reinforcing the bad firing pattern. Please, please help me.