Hip Mobility and Strength

Hi, and welcome to hip and mobility strengthening. We're going to start in the butterfly pose. Bring your feet together, lean forward just a bit, and all I want you to do right now is stretch. Feel your adductors stretching, opening up, bring your feet together, lean forward if you'd like, lean back, just kind of feeling it out. And in a moment, we're going to press into our hands as hard as we can.

All right, ready? In 3, 2, 1, you're going to press into your hands, and we're going to hold it here for about 15 seconds. I want you to ramp up, so push a little harder, create lots of resistance. In 3, 2, 1, you're going to pull away from your hands. So everything is going to stay where it is, except your knees are going to go towards the floor.

For another 3, 2, 1, release, rest, take a minute, breathe, we're going to do it one more time. Stretch for the first half, so get comfortable, nice and easy. Bring your hands to your knees, you're going to press into your hands and ramp it up for about 10 seconds, so keep pushing, pushing, pushing, almost there for another 3, 2, 1, pull away. You're going to keep pulling towards the floor for another 5 or so seconds. Starting with me, 3, 2, 1, release, great job.

Let's extend to one side. So hamstring stretch, shoulders are facing your feet, you're going to kind of hinge forward and you're going to try to keep this heel planted where it is, this knee planted on the floor as well. And all I want you to do is for the first 10 seconds, 15 seconds, is stretch. On your stretch here, nothing crazy, don't go too deep, but we're going to just stay here for 3, 2, 1, now you're going to press your heel, your knee, and your hip all the way as hard as you can into the floor. I'm still making it as heavy as I possibly can for another 3, 2, 1, now you're going to lift off.

Make your leg as light as you possibly can, maybe you can lift it off the floor, maybe you can't, don't use your hands, keep leaning forward for another 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. Hip cramping, totally normal. Let's go to the other side. Get comfortable, shoulders are facing your feet, lean forward, we're going to start to just stretch, so lean, stretch. Some hamstrings, one side versus the other side, totally different feeling, that's okay, that's all normal.

Okay, in 3 seconds, you're going to press as hard as you can, heel, knee, hip, everything into the floor. Make your floor as heavy as you possibly can, almost like you're trying to melt it into the ground. A couple more seconds here, keep ramping up harder and harder, 3, 2, 1, now you're going to lift up off the ground. Make it as light as you can, can you lift it without leaning back, can you hover for another 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, release, relax. Go back to the other side, round 2, it's always better when you do more than one round.

Shoulders rotate first, lean forward just a bit, depending on where you are, maybe you don't lean as far as I do, we're just stretching here right now. We're going to stretch for a little bit longer, and then I want you to start now, pushing into the floor, heel, knee, hip, nothing else is moving, you're just pressing and ramping up, maybe you started it as a 5 and now it's an 8, 9, 10, other way, back off, make it as light as you possibly can, keep pulling up, your hip flexors are working hard here, we're strengthening from that point on, in for another 3, 2, 1, rest, great job. Last but not least, second round on the other side, rotate shoulders, lean forward, lots of rest here, take your time, just stretching, breathing, ready, push it into the ground, make it heavy, imprint your whole leg into the floor, really dig into it, ramping up from a 5 to a 6, 7, 8, almost there, now make it light, pick it up. If you can, notice that my leg isn't actually coming up much, I'm working really hard but I'm not really picking up that much, I'm just making my leg as light as possible. For another 3, 2, 1, rest, whew, great job, let's get down to our strength portion, meet me in the bridge, when you're here, I want you to tuck that pelvis and bring your rib cage down, already the core should be engaged and what you're going to do is lift your hips up keeping that core engaged, so if your rib cage starts to flare out, bring it back down, tuck that pelvis, stay here, you can use your hands as your stabilization but don't push up with your hands, just stay here and use it for stability.

Here we go, we're going to walk out with our heels as far as we can go and then come back, nice and slow and controlled, landing ankles right underneath your knees. Number 2, all the way out, sometimes you get cramps, that's okay, one more time, all the way as far as you can, bring it back, keeping that core engaged, lower down one vertebrae at a time, great job. Let's go to all 4s for our next bit, now that we're here we're going to push the ground away, make sure our shoulders are aligned, shoulders are on top of wrists, hips on top of knees, you're going to find your core, tuck your pelvis, bring your rib cage to meet, then you're going to kick up, pick up the knee as you start to pull it towards your elbow and put it right down next to the other knee, you're going to go back to where you started, so you're going to reverse it, knee to wrist out, drop the knee, pick up the heel and come to meet the other knee, other side. Kick up the heel, pick up the knee, drop the ankle, drive it to that elbow and put it right back down next to the other knee. Reverse, knee to wrist, pick up your hip, then your heel and drive it back down.

Now we're going to come to a standing position and work on some squats, yay! So stand up straight, tall chest, you're going to push your hips back and you're actually going to kind of slide your fingertips underneath your toes, pull on them while you're pressing down with your toes, so you're going to pull your shoulder blades back, try to find your armpits and sit nice and low if you're already starting to fall apart, give it a break, let's go back. Exhale as you pull up, push down on your toes for another 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, release, we're going to do that one more time, inhale, exhale, let's go. Down for seated, pull the shoulder blades away from your neck, neck is long, sit back in your heels, but press down on your toes too, you should be completely even-footed, press out with those knees for another 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, release, alright, great job, let's go round 2. Every time we do a round we're going to make it a little bit more challenging and every time you come back to the sequence you're going to challenge yourself a little sooner, so have your hips right underneath your knees, hands next to you, tuck that pelvis, pull the ribcage down, lift up off the floor, you're going to hold it here for just a second, make sure your glutes are engaged, press down into your heels to do that and if you're stable enough you can walk out, take your time for 3, 2, 1, come back, stop right here, breathe, 3, 2, 1, let's go again, using those heels, the back of your body, how far can you go without losing that control, one more, out, tiny little steps, not big ones, you want to make it last, that's when it works best, hips up, come down nice and slow and release, let's go to all 4s, hip cards, round 2, find that positioning of your shoulder, make sure you're not dumping yourself into your shoulder blades, push the ground away, flex those feet, heel leads, lift the knee up and over like a nice little hurdle and put it down next to the other one, retrace your steps, come up, hover, kick back up towards the sky and land it next to the other one, heel leads, kick up, lift your knee, bring it to your elbow and go down to the floor, reverse, knee to elbow, side, kick up and to the floor, one more on each side this time, heel comes up, this is also we call it the fire hydrant, lift up, bring it to your elbow, land into the floor, elbow, fire hydrant, kick that heel up next to the other, other side, reach, kick up, floor, make sure you're not losing that core tension here, fire hydrant and to the floor, alright let's take a quick pause and then stand up for our squats, feet are about hip distance wide, you're gonna stand squeezing those quads to begin, find that tension in your torso, we're gonna sit back, grab our toes and pull up, shoulders are nice and far away from our neck, keep looking down right in front of you, push for three, two, one, release and stand, we're gonna do it again this time, faster, find those toes, lock them in with your fingers, pull the shoulders away from your neck for five, four, three, two, one, rest and release, one more, sit back down to the floor, I'm making your tension longer under time and your rest time shorter for a reason, press down into your hands, pull the shoulder blades away, find those armpits for another three, two, one and release, shake it out, we got one more round, meet me on the floor, okay now that we're back here, you're gonna put your hands out in front of you, you're gonna lift your hips up, find the tension in your core and your pelvis, hold it there just for a few seconds, we're gonna pause here, feel our glutes, dig your heels in, the longer time you spend in this pose, the more you get out of it, then we're gonna start to walk for five, four, three, two, one, bring it back for five, four, three, two, one, lock it in place, round two, here we go, five, four, three, two, one, bring it back, lock it into place, one more, walk out and back, smaller steps the better, go ahead and lower down nice and gently, let's roll to all fours. Now that we're here, we're gonna press the ground away, tuck that pelvis, rib cage engaged, keep pushing and heel leads, then your knee goes into fire hydrant, bring it to that elbow and drop it down, reverse, lift up, kick that heel up, meet it to the other knee, two more, lift, drive it around, come back, I'm giving you less direction here so that you can explore your joints a little bit more on your own, we're gonna do one more, kick up, bring your knee around to that elbow and meet it at the floor, other side, kick up, lift that knee to the floor, reverse, remember you're going both directions and remember that each hip can have different ranges and that's okay, make sure you're giving enough space between your legs and your hands and I'm on my last one, it's okay if you are not, finish it up and meet me at the bottom, alright, let's get back to our squat.

Last set of squats here, your best set of squats, the least amount of rest, okay, tension here in your core, sit back, grab those toes, press down into your hands, pull the shoulder blades back and sit a little deeper, maybe even deeper than the last few times that you've squatted, you're gonna be here for five, for four, three, two, one, release, I released early, that was cheating, keep pushing those hips back right into round two, slide those fingers underneath your toes, pull the shoulders away from your ears, making your neck long, keep your weight not in the front, not quite in the back, right in the middle but stable from both your toes and your heels, I've kept you here for longer, for three, two, one, go ahead and stand, you got one more, sit back, drive those fingers into your toes and your toes into your fingers, lock it in, lowest deepest squat, I don't want you down here, that's not engaged, right where it hurts, that's where you need to be, build for five, four, three, two and one, feel that burn, you did good and that's it for today, come back again, I'll see you next time.