#5 HIP HINGE
The Hip Hinge is the most important bodyweight exercise to master because it works the hips and back side, crucial body parts that are weak and undertrained in most people. Perfecting the technique will help you make every lower-body exercise more hip dominant, and when you do that, you perform it with better form, calling more muscles into play. You’ll be able to use your knees through a fuller range of motion. Hip hinging is the stepping-stone to the best fat-burning bodyweight cardio exercises, like Vertical Jumps and Burpees. The progressions in this chapter will provide you with exceptional single-leg balance, lower-back strength, core stability, and hamstring flexibility.
Proper squatting starts by hinging back at your hips. This preloads your hips and hamstrings, allowing you to better keep your knees out, shins vertical, and feet forward—three things critical to the long-term health of your knees. Plus, your hips and hamstrings are stronger than your quads, so if you learn how to recruit them every time you squat (and lunge, step up, or jump), your performance will skyrocket. The key to flawless hip hinging is little to no movement at the knee and lower back. Move only at the hips, keeping a neutral spine. If you suffer from chronic knee issues, Hip Hinges will be your savior. As you try these progressions, remember this one tip, which will make all the difference in understanding what it means to hinge back at your hips: Imagine you are trying to close a door with your butt.
The HIP HINGE Progression
Level 1 Ground Zero: HIP HINGE
Level 2 Beginner: STAGGERED HIP HINGE
Level 3 Intermediate: SINGLE-LEG HIP HINGE
Level 4 Advanced: VERTICAL JUMP
Level 5 Superhero: STAGGERED VERTICAL JUMP
Level 1: Ground Zero
HIP HINGE
Master the Hip Hinge with a parallel foot stance before progressing to more advanced single-leg options. Remember to keep the motion solely at the hips, and do not move your knees or lower back. Only go down as far as you can without moving your lower back, and don’t go any lower than the point where your trunk is parallel to the floor. Start with a slight bend in your knees so they are soft. They should not be locked out and fully extended.
ARM POSITION: As you hinge your hips back and bend forward, you can either reach your hands to the floor or extend your hands in front of your body. Even better, place the back of your hands on your lower back; this will stretch your chest and front shoulders and help ensure you maintain a slightly arched lower back.
Your Goal
You should be able to do multiple sets of 10 reps before moving on to the next level.
How to Do It
Starting Position
• Stand with your feet hip- to shoulder-width apart.
• Set your head in a neutral position with your ears aligned with your shoulders, hips, and ankles, and maintain this position as you hinge back and bend forward.
• Assume a hollow-body position: Tense your thighs, glutes, and abs, and push your ribs and shoulders down.
• Don’t move your head or neck when hinging.
• Squeeze your glutes.
• Tense your abs.
• Feet should be hip- to shoulder-width apart.
Perfect Execution
• Keep your knees soft with a slight bend, and maintain this position throughout.
• Push your hips and hamstrings back as far as you can (as if closing a door with your butt) until your trunk is parallel to the floor with a slight natural arch in your lower back. You should feel a stretch in the backs of your thighs.
• Briefly pause in the bottom position while maintaining tension throughout your body, then push your hips forward and come to a full stand, being sure to squeeze your glutes at the top of the movement.
• Push your hips back.
• Keep your back flat.
• Keep your knees soft.
Regressions
MAKE IT EASIER: Hold the bottom position isometrically for time.
EVEN EASIER: Minimize the range of motion as much as needed to maintain a neutral spine position with a slight natural arch in your lower back.
EASIEST: Perform Self-Assisted Hip Hinges by placing your hands on a stable surface that’s just below waist height (like a box or bench) that will allow you to get your torso parallel to the floor in the bottom position. Use your hands to help you come up and down.
Progressions
MAKE IT HARDER: Reduce your base of support and increase the range of motion by progressively bringing your feet closer together until they are touching.
EVEN HARDER: Cross your arms with your hands resting on your shoulders (or hold your arms at chest level with your hands in prayer position). From there, place your hands behind your head (prisoner position). Next, fully extend both arms overhead (a).
• Align your arms with your spine.
HARDEST: Combine both of the previous progressions so your feet are together and your arms are overhead for the ultimate test of lower-back strength, core stability, and hamstring flexibility.
Level 2: Beginner
STAGGERED HIP HINGE
Now we’re going to stagger your stance to start shifting more weight onto one leg at a time. This will serve as a useful stepping-stone exercise to teach your body what it feels like to keep your hips and shoulders squarely ahead throughout the movement while one leg is doing most of the work. A staggered stance has a leading leg and a trailing leg. The foot of the leading leg is flat on the floor in tripod foot position (as described in Chapter 4). Most of your weight should be on the leading leg. The toes of your trailing leg should be aligned with the heel of your leading leg. Keep your feet about hip-width apart.
Your Goal
You should be able to do multiple sets of 10 reps per side before moving on the next progession.
How to Do It
Starting Position
• Establish tripod foot position with your leading leg for a natural foot arch with the knuckles of your big toe and little toe and your heel in contact with the ground.
• With your feet hip-width apart, place the toes of your trailing leg on the floor so they are aligned with the heel of your leading leg.
• Keep most of your weight on the leading leg and treat the toes of the trailing leg like the kickstand of a bike.
• Lift your heel.
• Turn your hips slightly toward the front foot.
• Keep your knees soft.
Perfect Execution
• Keep your knees soft with a slight bend.
• Push your hips and hamstrings back as far as you can (as if closing a door with your butt) until your trunk is parallel to the floor with a slight natural arch in your lower back. You should feel a stretch in the back of the thigh of your leading leg.
• Briefly pause in the bottom position, then push your hips forward and come to a full stand, being sure to squeeze your glutes at the top of the movement.
• Your back should form a straight line from butt to head.
• Don’t look up.
• You’ll feel the stretch in the back of your front leg.
Regressions
MAKE IT EASIER: Hold the bottom position isometrically for time.
EVEN EASIER: Minimize the range of motion as much as needed to maintain a neutral spine position with a slight natural arch in your lower back.
EASIEST: Perform Self-Assisted Staggered Hip Hinges by placing your hands on a stable surface that’s just below waist height (like a box or bench) that will allow you to get your torso parallel to the floor in the bottom position. Use your hands to help you come up and down.
Progressions
MAKE IT HARDER: Perform Split Hip Hinges by moving from a staggered stance to a split stance with your trailing leg extended straight behind your body well past your hips.
EVEN HARDER: Perform Rear-Foot-Elevated Staggered Hip Hinges. Elevate your trailing leg on a stable box, bench, bed, or chair of medium height (at or just below knee level). You can also elevate the trailing leg by securing it into the foot cradle of a suspension trainer. This move is unmatched for opening up the hip flexor muscles of your trailing leg.
HARDEST: Do an overhead arms progression by first crossing your arms with your hands resting on your shoulders. From there, place your hands behind your head (prisoner position). Next, fully extend both arms overhead.
Level 3: Intermediate
SINGLE-LEG HIP HINGE
This progression improves your single-leg balance, one of the most neglected fitness qualities to train. No other exercise teaches you how to make your foot one with the ground to properly transfer and absorb ground contact forces all the way up the kinetic chain. The key rule during this movement is to make sure your hips do not rotate away from your working leg. You’ll know this has occurred if the toes of your nonworking leg point out to the side as you hinge back at your hips and lower into the bottom position. You can prevent this by squeezing the glute of your nonworking leg throughout the exercise. This will correct your movement by locking your hips into place and corkscrewing your body toward your working leg. It also helps you focus on reaching the heel of your back leg as far away from your body as you can. Be patient with this exercise, because it tends to make newbies really frustrated as they fight for balance.
Your Goal
You should be able to do multiple sets of 10 reps per side before moving on the next progression.
How to Do It
Starting Position
• Establish tripod foot position with your front foot.
• Screw the foot of your working leg into the floor.
• Turn your hips slightly inward toward your working leg to avoid hip rotation.
• Squeeze the glute of your trailing leg throughout to keep your hips square.
• Squeeze the glute of your elevated leg.
Perfect Execution
• Keep your front knee soft with a slight bend.
• Then push your hips and hamstring back as far as you can (as if closing a door with your butt) until your trunk is parallel to the floor with a slight natural arch in your lower back. You should feel a stretch in the back of the thigh of your leading leg.
• Briefly pause in the bottom position while maintaining tension throughout your body, then push your hips forward and come to a full stand, being sure to squeeze your glutes at the top of the movement.
• Keep your hips and shoulders square to the ground.
• Keep your toe pointing straight down.
• Bend your knee slightly, but keep your shin mostly vertical.
• Changing your arm position makes the move more challenging.
Regressions
MAKE IT EASIER: Simply hold the bottom position isometrically for time.
EVEN EASIER: Minimize the range of motion as much as needed to maintain a neutral spine position with a slight natural arch in your lower back.
EASIEST: Perform Self-Assisted Single-Leg Hip Hinges by placing your hands on a stable surface that’s just below waist height (like a table or bench) that will allow you to get your torso parallel to the floor in the bottom position. You can also place one hand against the wall with your side facing the wall, if you’d like. Use your hand(s) to help you come up and down.
Progressions
MAKE IT HARDER: Cross your arms with your hands resting on your shoulders (or hold your arms at chest level with your hands in prayer position).
EVEN HARDER: Perform a Prisoner Single-Leg Hip Hinge by placing your hands behind your head (prisoner position).
HARDEST: Next, perform an Overhead Single-Leg Hip Hinge by fully extending your arms overhead.
Level 4: Advanced
VERTICAL JUMP
Jumping up and down is an unmatched calorie burner. It works every muscle from head to toe and shoots your heart rate through the stratosphere. Jumping for an hour straight is going to cause some serious fat loss and really tax your cardiovascular system, but at what expense? Jumping improperly will wear down your joints quickly. The solution? Learning how to land properly with your knees out, shins vertical, and toes pointing straight ahead. Most people don’t get injured from jumping, they get injured from lousy landings.
Vertical jumping is driven through your posterior chain—the muscles of your spine, hips, hamstrings, and calves. To engage these powerful muscles, you must stretch and load your hips like you do with a Hip Hinge. In fact, vertical jumping is basically explosive hip hinging. Though most of the movement is driven through your hips, it’s okay to bend your knees slightly when jumping up and landing. Just don’t bend your knees too much; otherwise, it becomes more of a Jump Squat (see Chapter 7). The more you move your hips and the less you move your knees, the easier it will be on your knees.
Your Goal
You should be able to do multiple sets of 10 reps with soft landings.
How to Do It
Starting Position
• Establish tripod foot position with both feet.
• Set your head in a neutral position with your ears aligned with your shoulders, hips, and ankles as you hinge back and bend.
• Extend your arms overhead, tense your thighs, glutes, and abs, and push your ribs and shoulders down.
• Brace your abs.
• Keep your toes pointing forward.
• Don’t round your spine.
• Swing your arms back.
• Push your knees out.
• Keep your shins as vertical as possible.
Perfect Execution
• Load for a jump by hinging back at your hips, bending your trunk forward, and extending your arms behind your body.
• Briefly pause in the bottom position. Then push your hips forward to fully extend your knees, swing your arms overhead, and push away from the ground with your toes to extend your ankles.
• Land softly into the loaded hinged-squat position on the balls of your feet and get your knees out, shins vertical, and feet forward.
• Take your time to reset to the starting position. Hold the landings for a couple seconds before performing continuous repetitions.
• For added stability, bring your arms and legs together while airborne.
• Come down softly, as if landing on glass.
Regressions
MAKE IT EASIER: Don’t jump up as high, and perform the movement more slowly.
EVEN EASIER: Only jump up high enough that a piece of paper could slide underneath your feet.
EASIEST: Perform explosive calf raises where you simply come up on your toes as high as you can without letting your feet leave the floor. This is the best way for beginners to start learning good jumping and landing mechanics. They are very useful for higher reps and short rest periods, even for advanced trainees.
Progressions
MAKE IT HARDER: Accelerate the jumping phase by really ripping your arms upward.
EVEN HARDER: Next, accelerate the loading phase by really ripping your arms down and back to increase the stretched-rubber-band effect of your muscles and connective tissues for more explosive jumping.
HARDEST: Once you can stick and hold the landings with perfect form, progress to continuous jumps where you immediately jump back up as soon as you land into the hinged-squat position. This increases the metabolic demands of the exercise. This variation is meant for advanced trainees and develops greater elasticity.
Level 5: Superhero
STAGGERED VERTICAL JUMP
This is just like a Vertical Jump on two legs except we increase the challenge by progressively shifting more of the work toward one leg at a time. You’ll start with a staggered stance to bridge the gap between jumping on two legs and jumping on one leg. Then you’ll use microprogressions to gradually build up to the real deal: Single-Leg Vertical Jumps. This is the king of explosive total-body bodyweight exercises and will make you a freakish athlete (in a good way, of course). If you can jump and land flawlessly on one leg, you can do just about anything with your lower body. Oh yeah, get good at these and you’ll be jumping through the rafters on both legs. If you want to be able to dunk a basketball and you’re not exceptionally tall, this move is a must.
Your Goal
You should be able to do multiple sets of 10 reps per side with soft landings.
How to Do It
Starting Position
• Establish tripod position with your leading foot.
• With your feet hip-width apart, place the toes of your trailing leg on the floor so they are aligned with the heel of your leading leg.
• Keep most of your weight on the leading leg.
• Align the toes of your back foot with the heel of your front foot.
• Assume a hollow-body position.
• Push your knees out.
• Keep your chin down.
• Load your leading leg.
Perfect Execution
• Load up for a jump by hinging back at your hips, bending forward, and extending your arms behind your body.
Briefly pause in the bottom position, then push your hips forward to fully extend your hips and knees, swing your arms overhead, and push away from the ground with your toes to fully extend your ankles.
• Land softly into the loaded hinged-squat position in that same staggered stance on the balls of your feet.
• Take your time to reset to the starting position, almost treating each rep as a separate set. Focus on holding the landings for a couple seconds before performing continuous repetitions.
• To reach higher, perform Single-Arm Jumps.
• Bring your legs together going up, but stagger them on landing.
Regressions
MAKE IT EASIER: Don’t jump up as high and perform the movement more slowly.
EVEN EASIER: Only jump up high enough that a piece of paper could slide underneath your feet.
EASIEST: Perform explosive calf raises where you simply come up on your toes as high as you can without letting your feet leave the floor. This is the best way for beginners to start learning good jumping and landing mechanics. They are very useful for higher reps and short rest periods, even for advanced trainees.
Progressions
MAKE IT HARDER: Jump up on one leg and land on two legs to start prepping your body for Single-Leg Vertical Jumps. Start with slower and smaller jumps and build to faster and bigger jumps.
EVEN HARDER: Perform Single-Leg Vertical Jumps by jumping and landing on one leg. Be sure to hold the landing for a couple seconds before resetting for the next rep. Treat each rep as if it’s a separate set.
HARDEST: Progress to continuous Single-Leg Jumps where you immediately jump back up as soon as you land into the hinged-squat position. This increases the metabolic demands of the exercise, and is meant for advanced trainees to develop greater elasticity.
Variations
1. Hinging Squat
Stand with your feet hip- to shoulder-width apart and assume a hollow-body posture. As you push your hips back (as if closing a door with your butt), bend your knees. You can touch the floor with your fingertips and then progress further by touching the floor with your palms to increase the range of motion. This is an excellent exercise modification for those with painful knees because it still works the squatting pattern while putting almost all of the work on the hips and hamstrings. It will also work the quads, without involving deep knee bends.
• Keep your knees soft.
• Tense your core.
• Your trunk will be parallel to the floor or slightly higher.
• Push your hips back.
• Stop bending your knees before your thighs become parallel with the floor.
• Don’t raise your heels.
Variations
2. Single-Leg Hip Hinge and Leg Raise
This is the ultimate test of single-leg balance, and it works every muscle on the front, back, inside, and outside of your hips. Stand straight with feet shoulder-width apart in hollow-body position, your arms extended in front of you. As you hinge back at the hips, simultaneously bend forward and raise your right leg straight behind you. Balance in that position for 2 seconds, then raise your torso back up while raising your right leg in front of you. Do all reps and then switch legs or alternate each rep with a different leg. Be sure to avoid rounding your back throughout the exercise.
• Your body should form a T.
• Keep a slight bend in your supporting leg.
• Center your weight over the front of your ankle.
• This will work your abs and challenge your hip flexors and hamstring flexibility.
• Bend your elevated knee a bit to make it easier.
Variations
3. Single-Leg Hip Hinge and Jump
Perform a Single-Leg Hip Hinge as usual but as you return to the standing position, explode through your hips and drive the knee of your nonsupporting leg upward as you go slightly airborne as if skipping. Land softly, and repeat. After completing your reps, switch to the other leg.
• Pause here and then drive your knee forward.
• Keep your abs tight.
• Skip off the ground.
Variations
4. Seated Hip Hinge
This mobility variation allows you to isolate the hip-hinging movement without the balance demands that come with being on your feet. Start by sitting tall in a chair or on a box with your abs braced and your ribs and shoulders down. Then hinge forward at your hips until your belly and ribs press into your thighs without allowing your lower back to round. Finish by pushing your hips forward until you’re back in a tall seated position. You can choose among various chair or box heights.
Variations
5. Hinging Lunge
This is the same concept as the Hinging Squat (variation 1). You’re going to hinge at your hips until your trunk is parallel to the floor or slightly higher and also bend a bit at the knee. The Lunge step tends to be smaller and more contained within your center of gravity. You can step forward (a), backward, or to the side (b); cross over or under; or even take a rotational step. All of these variations serve to make your hips and hamstrings work harder and take pressure off of your knees while still allowing for some knee movement and a little more quad work. These types of Lunges tend to be more applicable to daily activities and sports because you need to bend over more often than you need to sink into Deep Squat positions. It’s also a more efficient stepping pattern.
• Lunge forward while hinging and touch your toes.
• Be sure to initiate each movement by pushing your butt backward.
• Swing your arm back.
• Lunge laterally.
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