Hip Hinge – Michael Dawson

At Peak Sports And Spine Centre, we like to provide our athletes tips to preventfuture episodes of back pain whilst also improving performance. The hip hingeis a fantastic exercise to correct common faulty movement. Utilize this drill toensure your back is kept in a safe neutral position whilst bending over. Thisexercise will benefit those who bend over to pick up children, to those whom areperforming heavy deadlifts!What is the hip hinge?The hip hinge is a fundamental primal movement pattern. To keep our back safewhen bending over to lift, it’s vital that we hinge from our hips. This movementkeeps our neutral spine position whilst we have shift our weight posteriorly,ensuring movement comes from the hip rather than the lumbar spine. Thisdecreases our likelihood of suffering a low back injury. The hip hinge exercisetakes you from moving through a complete flexion (bending forward) range, to acomplete extension range (bending backwards to the starting position). If we dothis correctly, we will engage the muscles that make up the posterior chain of thebody and give us more strength and power.How to perform a hip hinge?1) Grab a broomstick/dowel. Whilst standing with your feet shoulder widthapart, place the dowel against your back ensuring it is in contact with 3places of your body – the back of the skull, between your shoulder bladesand the top of the sacrum. Keep the rib cage down, as opposed to lettingthe ribs flare open, and engage the core muscles.2) From the above starting point, sit backward from the hips, ensuring thedowel’s three places of contact don’t change. If the dowel loses contactwith any of the three points, then you have lost your neutral spineposition and therefore should start the exercise again. Please see CoachAmy performing an example of a correct hip hinge below;https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8B9iLhDtX7kHere is a video of Coach Amy performing a modified version of the hiphinge to ensure she is keeping a neutral spine when squatting;https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vaALw8B6pE8Here are two videos of Amy demonstrating an incorrect hip hinge andmodified hip hinge;https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P8AqpCXfp3khttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j52t5l4yhmUWhat prevents a good hip hinge?If you are unable to maintain the neutral spine position throughout the hip hinge,then you may need to address the following areas; Lower limb mobility deficits Motor control Core strength/controlCome in to see our physiotherapists if you are having difficulties performing thehip hinge exercise in order to determine which areas we need to focus on toimprove your lifting mechanics.