Although we have covered hip controlled articular rotations (CARs) before, my trip to NYC in June revealed some alterations to this movement. Today we will examine the movement in its entirety, as training hip mobility teaches our bodies to actively use our range of motion — something integral for the sport of grappling.
This post is a continuation of standing one -egged hip mobility exercises. If you want to go back over some of the basics involved with this Functional Range Conditioning work check out the last post HERE.
Irradiation
- Feet firmly planted
- Big toes especially pushing down
- Feel all four corners of your feet
- Arms at sides with 30 degrees abduction with either a fist or completely open palm as wide as you can make it
- Screw feet into the ground
- Squeeze butt and tighten abdomen in towards spine on your exhale
- Seek to tighten hands as much as possible with each out breath
- Do 5 breaths with 5 second pauses at bottom of exhale
- Ramp up intensity with each breath all the way to 100 %
- Completely relax to shake out tension
- Do at least one more set before beginning mobility work
Procedure
- Stand about 2 to 3 feet in a perpendicular fashion from a wall
- Have arm close enough to help with balance so our focus can be on mobilizing hip, and less with balance at first
- Focus on extending support leg and keeping a wide balanced foot
- Push big toe into ground
- Keeping eyes straight ahead and focused, lift outside knee towards chest
- Begin circling until you’re fully “abducted,” which is where you will feel a groin stretch
- Rotate the hip “internally” in the socket making foot roughly level with your knee
- Keep circling until you come back to original position
- Perform at least 2 more times before switching sides
Use of The Bosu Ball
Use of the Bosu Ball Targets different angles of the foot. It forces you to practice keeping a wide foot to promote balance. If you keep gripping with your feet, you will only tighten that musculature and make it even harder to balance.
This is an optional addition to any of these standing mobility exercises.
Final Considerations
As you’re adding in these hip mobility exercises to your routine, just add this to some of the hip mobility exercises I’ve covered in the past.
You’ll find some exercises you like more than most, and others that may hurt so “good.” More than anything, putting effort into this style of training will help with your longevity, injury prevention, and performance on the mats!
I’m releasing my first video product and 12 week training program “Secrets to Soft, Stable, Strong, and Supple Low Back/Hips”.
You can find the preorder HERE. It’ll be live for another week before the sale ends.
