The Muscle You Aren't Training

written by JOSH GESSNER | The Athletter

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Throw 100mph Update:

Day 5 is an Upper Body Mobility focused day. If you’re tight in the upper body or spine - incorporate stretch-strength, static stretch supersets. If you want to see that in action, you can see that here:

Good morning to all new and old readers! Here is today’s edition of TheAthletter, exploring stories, ideas, and frameworks to be the best athlete you can be —and how you can apply them to your career.

Today, we’re exploring the coach behind Michael Jordan. He taught him a concept that made him so great… And I’ve seen it apply in every sport, especially baseball.

If you enjoy this, forward it along to a friend who might too.

What you’ll learn:

Why Hip Flexor Training is Important

How to Train the Hip Flexors

P.S. Send me feedback on how I can improve. I want to be worthy of your time. I respond to every email.

Hip Flexor Training

Hip Flexors are an incredible performance enhancer.

After 6 months of training them, the performance benefits exceeded my expectations.

How I'm training them (and its incredible benefits):

Hip flexor training is important for 3 reasons:

1) Performance enhancement through structural balance.

2) Weak and tight hip flexors lead to lower back pain.

3) Increases sprint time, jump height and rotational power.

Structural balance:

Structural Balance was coined by Charles Poliquin.

He was a legendary coach who coached 20+ Olympic athletes...

And he defined it as the 'proportional strength relationship between opposing muscle groups'.

The point: Structural Balance was a key part of his training.

And it's basically being equally strong on both sides of the body.

And what I realized?

I had never trained my hip flexors all my career.

My hip flexors were extremely weak in relation to the rest of my body.

A good test to see if your hip flexors are strong or not:

If you can't hold you legs up for 30 seconds+, you probably have weak hip flexors.

When I first tried this, I couldn't hold it for more than 10 seconds.

And this weakness was causing all sorts of issues for my lower back:

Tight, weak hip flexors lead to lower back issues.

I had tight, weak hip flexors that were causing me to go into anterior pelvic tilt.

And my anterior pelvic tilt was putting stress on my lower back.

But strong hip flexors have the reverse effect:

3) Strong hip flexors lead to a performance enhancement:

A study published in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research in found:

After an 8 week hip flexor training program...

• Participants exhibited a 3.8% improvement in 40-yard dash times.

• Vertical Jump: Vertical jump height increased by 12.2%.

Strong hip flexors also improve rotational power:

The Hip flexors help rotational power by:

Stabilizing the pelvis, ensuring efficient energy transfer from the lower to upper body during rotation.

So how do you train them?

My favourite exercises:

• Cable Reverse Squat

• Standing Leg Raise

• ATG Split Squat

Let's break down each one:

Cable Reverse Squat:

Attatch the cable to your foot, and explode up.

Standing Leg Raise:

Ideally you have something to attach to your foot, but a KB does the job.

ATG Split Squat:

Opens up the hip flexor through a deep range.

Main Lesson:

The hip flexors are a muscle that can give you an edge in performance.

Integrate 1-2 of these exercises to start progressing your hip flexor strength.

Whenever you’re ready, there are 3 ways I can help you: 

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2. My Best Thoughts: My past blogs. My very best thoughts.

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