You are only as young as your hips allow you to move – No matter what your birth certificate states.
Think your hip mobility doesn’t matter?
Just go ask your girlfriend or boyfriend if they prefer a strong set of mobile hips.
I know the answer, but go ahead and ask, lol!
If you find yourself saddled with tight, creaky and pain riddled hips, it’s usually not a function of getting older as everybody seems resigned to accept and satisfied to believe.
That’s just a cop out for the lazy or ill informed who willingly give up control of their lives to fate, destiny or some “foregone conclusions” repeated among the masses they’ve trained their brains to believe.
It’s most likely a result of living a sedentary lifestyle whereby your cumulative inactivity will at some point play havoc with the smooth and pain free movement patterns we tend to unlearn over the years since we were all actively mobile kids.
But don’t despair – as long as you have the desire to improve your current life situation and take consistent action to act on those desires – anybody can advance their quality of life!
Here is one of the many daily mobility drills I practice with an emphasis on the hips:
I often use this mobility drill to practice and teach the necessary and productive human movement of hip hinging.
A Hip Hinge Isn’t A Squat
Most confuse the hip hinge movement with a squat.
When squatting, your butt is moving downward toward the ground.
When you hip hinge, your butt moves directly behind you.
Pretend there’s a wall behind you and use your butt to poke a hole in that wall. That’s a hinge.
Tips And Training Value
I also use this drill to teach the concept and confident feel of hip hinging as it applies to learning how to do kettlebell swings or kettlebell deadlifts among other powerfully beneficial exercises to drive your quality of life forward.
I practice this drill daily as it’s great for hip mobility, back/shoulder alignment and maintaining smooth, pain free movement patterns.
I do about ten reps, but the rule of thumb is to do as many reps as it takes to move without tension or stiffness.
Don’t go overboard with the reps – you will see the best improvement and results practicing fewer reps daily rather then doing tons of reps in a single session every so often.
Get Your Own Stick
You can use a broomstick, but I prefer to use a piece of pvc pipe as you can exert more productive force since the pvc will be more rigidly flexible than a piece of wood.
I’m using a 5 foot length of 3/4 inch diameter pvc pipe you can pick up cheaply at most hardware stores.
I also use it as a hiking stick and use it for other powerful mobility drills I layer into my outdoor activities to maximize my walks and hikes.
Check out my site where I share principles that keep me physically, mentally and financially fit that you can benefit from too if you are at a point in life where you are receptive to improvement, fed up with your situation and willing to take action!
Related: Don’t Neglect Your Feet
Related: Stop Counting Calories
Related: Four Habits Of The Fit And Successful
I’m Mark Mellohusky (Mellow-Husky)
I tenaciously hunt down powerfully productive fitness methods and life quality lessons that improve anybody daring to take action and make a positive change.
I enjoy sharing my fitness training and health philosophies I practice that I have either adopted or tweaked from some of the fitness greats in history or designed myself.
Most of my adult life has been spent testing out and experimenting with countless fitness methodologies.
Please feel free to learn from my many mistakes and dead end paths over the years, lol!
I achieve success by filtering out and keeping the most productive methods that pay the greatest fitness dividends for my precious time invested and dumping those methods with the least value.
I pride myself on being a product of my own advice.
The methods I practice enable me to be a powerfully active (often barefoot) eternal student of physical culture who will not go quietly into the sunset since I have learned how to age gracefully by adopting sane eating strategies, staying strong and lean, moving well and pain-free and conquering nasty fat.
All without spending hours haunting gyms doing hours of sappy media endorsed low value exercises and gulping down expensive and questionable supplements.
While I share A lot of tips, techniques, and fitness philosophy on my site, it is unrealistic to try to adopt it all into your fitness plan as we all have different health and fitness gaps in our programs we need to address.
So take what you need to succeed even if it’s just one concept and fill those fitness gaps, dare to get out of your comfort zone and experience the thrill of doing what works and realizing your goals!
There’s a sparkle in my eyes and iron in my thighs!
Seven Stars Fitness