For the final installment of hip mobility and strength, we work primarily in the transverse plane.  This first video took you mostly through the sagittal plane (if you look in a mirror, it’s the movement plane towards and away from the mirror).  The second video took you into the frontal plane (mirror in front, you go parallel to the mirror in a side to side movement). This video is the transverse plane (Mirror in front, rotate towards mirror, and rotate away) in which we need movement as well.  More on that later.  Riffing off Shakira’s song, yes the hips don’t lie. They are an important cornerstone for stability and mobility for your feet and back.  Someone’s hip pain can be coming from the back.  Someone’s back pain can be coming from the hips.  And so on.  Causes of hip imbalance can originate anywhere.  Standing on one foot more than the other can create imbalances all the way up the body.  It can be that simple as having awareness of even pressure in both feet to create more balance.  The goal is not symmetrical perfection.  Not even possible. The goal is to use the body evenly, and not favor one side or the other.   

What’s the big deal about the hips?

Hip mobility gives the pelvis more freedom to move, and when the pelvis moves freely, the lower back follows.  The lower back is happy in extension and flexion, but not rotation.  The lumbar vertebrae are bigger (See SPINE POST) and serve to stabilize rather than be mobile.  At the bottom of the spine, it makes sense to have a solid foundation.  Thus if the pelvis is able to rotate freely around the hips, we keep rotation out of the low back where it does not belong.  There is a time and place for stability and that is where we need to start.  As that gets stronger, it needs the freedom to move.  Fact:  Did you know that even when we are standing still, we are still moving?  Our body does these little shifts that we can’t perceive to achieve balance.  These shifts become bigger as we transfer weight in any direction we want to go.  Mobility in multiple planes makes those shifts possible.

Why are these all upright and standing? 

These three videos challenge your hips against gravity and the ground as you would if you were walking.   Do you know your hip joints flexes and extends, and internal and external rotates when you walk?  Your pelvis hikes, shifts, arches and flexes.  Rib cage rotates to propel you.  These particular videos take all that into consideration.

So now you have a complete set of videos of the many directions our hips need to be stable, strong, and flexible.   Vary them or stack all three of them together.  You will feel your body working in different ways!