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Kettlebell Hip flexor strength.

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TravisDirks

TravisDirks

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Ive come to the conclusion that my hip flexor are weak. I'm wondering if there are any party approved suggestions to help strenghen them. Hanging leg raises? Sprinting?

The evidence that I need to work on hip flexor strength, incase my logic seems faulty:
- I've never been able to get the pistol. Among my problems, I have trouble keeping the non working leg off the ground.
- I also notice that when I sprint it's my hip flexor a that give out first and are sore the next day. Never my glutes.
- Hamstring flexibility is bad. I think I recall reading in one of Pavels flexibility books that balanced strength between antagonist mucked is important for flexibility. If that's right I've spent a year building my glutes with hard style swings and done nothing but turn off my hip flexors, so that seems unbalanced.
- hanging leg raises tire my hip flexor strength first.


Thanks for any greymatter employed!
 
Hi

I think you should consider reading super joint by pavel. You may have active flexibility deficit, this book is a great source of information and you could find a way to resolve your problem in it. I don't think you should push yourself to hard with pistols right now.
 
@TravisDirks, the NW book gives instructions for the airborn lunge and other variations that make the position of non-working leg a non-issue.

Also try working on your splits; there is a connection between strength and flexibility, and working on one side of the situation (flexibility) will help the other (strength).

-S-
 
B.Hetzler said:
Travis -
How quad dominant are you?
Click to expand...
I'm not sure. Is there a preferred way to test?

I was pretty weak before starting S&S. What's built was built on swings, so I'd assume I'm glute dominant. I definetly had a lot of growth there and added 2" around the hips.
 
Steve Freides said:
@TravisDirks, the NW book gives instructions for the airborn lunge and other variations that make the position of non-working leg a non-issue.

Also try working on your splits; there is a connection between strength and flexibility, and working on one side of the situation (flexibility) will help the other (strength).

-S-
Click to expand...
Thanks Steve, Just to be clear - We are talking about splits to the front and back not sides I'm assuming.
 
@Henningb I do have naked warrior. It was my intro to pavel's work. I followed the program for 4 weeks and made great gains, but got sucked into S&S before reaching an unassisted pistol.

@kineloup Does Super Joints give any standards for what would be considered a deficit? At this stage I'm just sort of noticing that apparently weak hip flexors are showing up in a several places and I'm thinking I should shore it up.
 
From that video, I would say that you have the tendency to be quad dominant. It also looks like you have some posterior restrictions.

Why is that important? First, if you are quad dominant your hip flexors are likely to be overworked and not necessarily weak. Second, posterior tightness is going to make it harder to keep your pelvis stable when attempting a pistol (your hip flexors are in a constant battle against your glutes/hamstrings that only gets worse towards the bottom of a pistol).

The fixes -
1. Get a lacrosse ball and scour around your glutes - find a place that is tender and spend some time there. Likely going to be up around the bottom side of you iliac crest, right over the back side of your hip socket, and down on your sits bone. (spend 2-3 minutes on this)
2. Lay on your back. Get a 10-14kg KB, turn it upside down and put the handle down into your hip flexors (should be between your ASIS and belly button, with the handle parallelish to your abs). Look around for some tender spots. (spend 2-3 minutes per side on this).

Tender tissue is unhealthy tissue, stretching unhealthy tissue is a very slow process.

3. Get your glutes going by doing a rock bottom goblet squat with a lightish bell (hips have to be well below the knees, butt as close to the grass as possible). Stand up, but only go 1". Return to the bottom. Stand up 2", return to the bottom. Continue to repeat this until you are above parallel. Shake things out - this will likely have a high suck value. Spend about 5-10 minutes stretching out, or working on your soft tissue. Then repeat the squat process. 3-4 times through will be plenty for you.

GO!
 
@B.Hetzler Thanks for the help. You suggest that I appear to be restricted in the glutes and quad dominant. Could you elaborate on what in the video suggests this?
 
There appears to be a lot of weight on your toes, not your heels.
Your first contact with the ground is with your toes, and your final contact is with your toes.
Your knee goes out well beyond your toes.
Your heel pops up off the ground on at the bottom on both sides as soon as you get close to parallel.

I won't say glute restriction, I'll be way less specific and leave it at "Posterior restriction". I'd guess calves, hamstrings, and/or glutes. Or any combination of the 3.
 
Really interesting... can't wait to seehow the fixes affect you, Travis!
 
B.Hetzler said:
Lay on your back. Get a 10-14kg KB, turn it upside down and put the handle down into your hip flexors (should be between your ASIS and belly button, with the handle parallelish to your abs). Look around for some tender spots. (spend 2-3 minutes per side on this).
Click to expand...

Another one I like is to use a light KB like you mentioned but set it ontop of a lacrosse ball in that area and hold onto the handle and roll it around.
 
Not standards really but if you read the book you will probabily recognize yourself in some of the descriptions.
Although I think it's hazardous to diagnose a persone with a single test, even more if your are not with him, I agree with B.Hetzler, regaining mobility is a slow process and it should be since you don't know the causes of your current body paterns. I would advise active flexibility drills in addition to more passive techniques.
 
TravisDirks said:
Ok, I haven't posted video before, but this should work:
www.hudl.com/technique/video/embed/ZqyqlhwS

Could you elaborate on what I'm looking for in this movement?
Click to expand...

Can't believe the answers/diagnosis from a body weight lunge form check.

You simply need to place your foot futher forward when you lunge . . .maybe 6"-12",
Therefore, your foot will stay flat, knee won't go past the toes as much, and glutes will work just fine on their own then.
BOOM !
 
mbasic I'm with you, I can't imagine doing a diagnosis over one test without even being there with the person (I would probably lose my job if I did). What I agreed for is the fact that one must be patient when trying to regain mobility and flexibility in a given area.
 
Travis, your reasoning for your concern is completely specious. Soreness tells you nothing about "how hard" something was working, therefore lack of soreness where you think there should be soreness tells you nothing; the Pistol is a hip extension movement, so weak hip flexors don't inhibit your ability to do it - balance does; the tight hamstring thing is equally unrelated; and hanging leg raises tire your hip flexors first because they're tiny little muscles. Quit worrying about your freaking hip flexors. If they're limiting some movement, they'll get stronger within their anatomical context as you continue to incrementally load that movement. If you've chosen a movement that is not incrementally loadable, it's time to address that.

I think it's pretty fair to say the fact Travis opted to do his lunges wearing jeans and socks on a slippery hardwood floor has about a billion times more explanatory power for any variance from some supposed "proper lunge form" than than does the idea that there's some ideal quad:glute ratio to be employed on lunges and his is outta whack.
 
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Ah, still very interesting inputs from all.

I wonder if Travis would be willing to do another video of the same lunge, this time conciously trying to do it "correctly"?
 
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