Monday, March 21, 2011

Hip Hip Hooray

For those who train with me I imagine it's often an odd experience when getting to work with the lower body. From the swinging legs, hip and knee circles and back rolls during dynamic warm ups, to curtsy lunges and kettlebell squats - the affair can be multidirectional and unusual to say the least.

But there is good rhyme to my reasoning. 

The traditional way of working out the lower body are the Big 4 - squats, deadlifts, lunges and step ups. Whilst lunges and step ups at least simulate one-legged movements, all 4 tend to work with simple mono-planar movements (ie moving a resistance straight up and down). And look, that's a great thing when you're :
a) trying to build lots of muscle fast, and
b) don't tend to walk, run or move in more than one plane (ie only ever walk forwards, not sideways or with rapid changes in direction) 

It's this last point that stands out to me. Granted, the majority of our days and movement time is spent moving forwards in generally straight lines. It's not regularly that you see others on the street shuffling sideways or spinning routinely on one foot to get through their day. 

But circumstances in life aren't always routine - and it's best to have the capacity to overcome whatever comes your way, rather than assume nothing will ever deviate from the normal straight lines of daily existence. You may have to quickly sidestep an oncoming bicycle; or break into a run to catch a bus; or misbalance or trip on unstable ground and promptly feel yourself starting to fall. Not to mention the odd chance to run and play around in a park, swim, dance or do anything fun - which by general rule is hardly ever done with legs moving in straight lines!

Yes that's why it's important to get your hips moving and strengthened in as many different directions as possible: because they can and will move in those directions at some point consciously or not!

Keep up with your squats, deadlifts and step ups - but take additional steps to include:
* side lunges
* cross-over lunges
* TRX lunges with twist (opposite hand to the outside of the supporting foot)
* knee raises (or TRX mountain climbers)
* hip abduction and hip adduction movements
* speed skaters