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Hip-hinging

All right next, we're going to investigate the superpower of hinging from the hips. So culturally, you may see people oftentimes kind of in this like mopey, postural archetype, and they pick something up, they might kind of collapse the knees in and look very feeble and pick it up from that position. And then suddenly one day when they're 41 years old they pick up a pillow in the wrong way and they blow their back out and suddenly they can't move for a week. If we understand the basic fundamental mechanics of how to move better with our hips and with our spines. That pillow that blows your back out at some inopportune time will not happen. And so what we're gonna do is first understand the difference between bad picking stuff up in a bad form or dysfunctional form and a more functional form. So spinal mechanics, two things to understand. One it's okay to flex the spine and extend the spine. You don't have to always live in this perfect stacked up, like there's a stick up your bum posit...

ion or to be moving functionally. So we're gonna go through a global spinal curve first, and then go into a local curve. So what we wanna be doing is going for more global curves. So what the beautiful model Anna is gonna be showing us is going through global curves, so we're gonna go to the side and what she's gonna do is she's going to curve the spine. Imagine your spine is like a fishing pole. So you're going to curve through the entirety of the spine. You can imagine you're starting off with the neck and just rolling down one vertebra at a time curling through and just allowing the whole spine to flex forward. This is a beautiful practice to get into with just generally stretching up, creating some space and along all these vertebra and the facets and the space in between the spine started to open up space for cerebral spinal fluid, to move and circulate and then slowly coming up one vertebra at a time. Up, up, up going all the way through. So this is incredibly healthy motion for the spine. You could also do the same thing. You could side bend, Anna. So we'll go to the, face this direction, oh, bring your feet that way as well so we're facing the camera and then side bending. You're going to do that same thing. Imagine you're like a fishing pole and starting to reach over to this side, starting to create this really beautiful stretching through the QLs and intercostals and all this space in the side of the body, getting it down into the hips and the feet, and then alternate sides, other direction. So this is gorgeous. We wanna do this as much as we can for the body all the way throughout the day. What's a little bit more of a functional movement, foo pah or faux pa rather, or a movement bummer is if we go into this local curvature of the spine. So that would be kind of forward head posture would be an example of it. So if we're gonna go to the side like this, if we're going into ugh, like that type stuff. So imagine you're like staring into your phone or staring into your computer. So yeah, jutting the head forward. Or she might go into like Brazilian booty action and kind of like hyperlordosis, all of those movements are problematic because it's putting excessive stress on single points of the spine, as opposed to distributing that weight for the entirety of the spine. So next thing we're gonna tinker with is starting to understand how do we start to maintain that long neutral we could call it, spinal mechanics and start to leverage strength from the hips and start picking things up from the ground. So we have some kettlebells here for the beautiful Anna to support us in picking up. So we're gonna start off with these guys and we're gonna go, first thing we're gonna do is just a, you could call it a dead lift or you could just call it picking stuff up off of the ground in an effective way. So what we're gonna do is Anna's gonna start off feet about shoulder width apart or so. I'll go from the side angle and Anna can go from that angle. So feet shoulder width apart and then she's going to start off and get the ribs down towards the hips. Imagine there's elongation, a little string pulling Anna's head up towards the ceiling, ribs tucked in towards the hips. Good. Now relax. The whole body just feels stacked into the ground. And I want you to create a breath and you're gonna breathe into my hands. Boom. So you're really thinking this midsection, it's like a barrel and you wanna fill that barrel up with air as much as you can. Good. Beautiful. Just like that. Yes. Again, same thing. Break that, so if you were in like a weight lifting belt you might say "Like break the belt". You're really pushing out in all those directions. Good. Now that position, that's how we move weight. 'Cause that's how we squat. That's how we dead lift. That's how we pick stuff up off of the ground. So you're gonna fill that space up with air. Good. Now you have that pressure. Now breathe normally while maintaining that pressure. So breathe normally and try to maintain a little bit of that outward pressure. So you guys can do yes, Anna's doing it right now. So you guys can do this with yourselves at home. You could play with putting a hand on your belly. You could also maybe place a kettlebell on your belly lie down on your back and do this similar thing. Push against the kettlebell, maintain that pressure. Then breathe normally while maintaining that outward pressure. So from here, Anna understands creating intraabdominal pressure incredibly valuable for being strong and functional for your whole life. Next, she's going to take that, that pressure that she's created, I'm gonna take a breath in through the nose. Pressure, pressure, pressure. And then Anna is going to drive her hips straight back while maintaining this neutral position with the spine. And she's gonna keep on driving the hips back, keep driving the hips back, keep driving the hips back, keep driving the hips back, weight pouring down into the toes as well while you're driving the hips back. So there's an elongation happening here where the hips are driving back, beautiful. While she's also reaching forward towards the bells. Good and keep squatting down, keep driving back, keep driving back. Beautiful, gorgeous. And now she's made contact with the stuff on the ground, whatever it may be. It could be a book. It could be a kettlebell. And now from here, she's going to start to come back up and it's gonna be a motion where she's gonna slightly, almost like keeping the chest proud, strong stacked in front and driving straight up from this position. Yep. You gotta take a breath in, create that pressure in the midsection, drive straight up, chest proud, oof. Good. Strong at the top position of the movement. Ribs are staying tucked, still strong. A string pulling the head straight up. So she's really, wow. She's really stacked. She's aligned from her feet up through her knees, hips, shoulders, etcetera, all the way up the chain. This is a beautiful practice to start to integrate into your daily life. So if she wanted to practice this with weights, you could go 12 repetitions. You do four sets in total and slowly increasing the weight. And then so Anna's gonna drive the hips back again. Beautiful. So good. Amazing. Now come back up from that position one more time. Right, now we're gonna go into another position called a good morning. So with a good morning we're just gonna have a slight bend in the knees. Not having the knees completely locked out, just a slight bend in the knees and then really actively driving the hips backward and keeping these knees just slightly bent. So you're not gonna come all the way down to the ground unless you're really flexible. And then good. And then coming back up from that position Anna. Gorgeous. Get up a couple more rounds of that. Slight bend in the knees, really thinking drive those hips back, keep the ribs tucked, long neutrality through the entirety of the spine. And then coming back up again. Oh, this is a beautiful motion to start to open up some length and space in that posterior chain to allow you go through these motions more effectively and more easily. Now you let's have you drop the weights, keeping great mechanics as she's going down. How fantastic. So next thing we're gonna tinker with is just doing a squat position. So coming down, say you have something on the ground or you just wanna hang out. You wanna chill. You're waiting for a bus. You're in Vietnam. We're gonna come down in a squat position and we're going to, same thing, we're gonna drive the hips back together. Long neutral spine, head, little string pulling your head up towards the sky and go a little wider with the feet this time to create a little more space for the ankles and the hips. Now from here, same thing. We're gonna go drive those hips back and just get this time, we're gonna go a little bit deeper. Keep that length in the spine all the way down, all the way down and come into a deep squat position. So from here, just hanging out in this position you could bring your knee, your elbows against the insides of your knees, push out slightly like so. You can bring your hands together like this. You can be very spiritual. You're doing a little prayer out while you're waiting for the bus and you can start to explore a little sideways movement. You can even explore coming over on each toe. Like we explored in the floor sitting section previously. And then from here, come back to neutral. You're gonna come straight up from this position, take a deep breath into the bottom and fill up. So imagine your hips are like on an elevator shaft. You're going straight down and straight back up. Last little thing to tinker with while you are hanging out at the bank, wherever you may be, is just oscillating from side to side and creating a little length in the, your side body or the side of your body. So which what we can do at home and what Anne's gonna do, and I'm gonna do as well 'cause it feels good is we're gonna play with pouring our weight over into one foot and actively driving that foot down into the ground. So this opposite side foot kind of lifts off the ground a little bit. So you're really getting long, beautiful and it can feel length through the side of the body here, obliques and QL and intercostals and all those muscles starting to open up. And then she can oscillate over to the next side, drive down, spread the toes wide, really feel that weight distributed across the entirety of the foot. So thinking equal weight down into toe, across into pinky, big toe, cross into pinky toe and then feeling balanced in the heel. So imagine the heel's kind of like a tripod. That way it's kind of coming back through here. It's coming out to the lateral side of the foot, coming across into that big toe and really just feeling balanced and support while you're driving through. This is a gorgeous practice that you can start to implement into your daily life. And you kind of sneak in some exercise or yoga or movement while you're just doing your daily life patterns. So that is it. Very simple practices. Start to cultivate, leverage and strength around your hips. Start to stabilize and protect your spine the entirety of your life and just to feel better in your body. So that is it. That is all. Let's get on to the next lesson.