Drive Hip Flexion to Fix Butt Wink | Plymouth Back Pain Pros

Butt what?!⠀
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🔸WHAT IS THIS?🔸⠀
The term "butt wink" kinda dumb, but it's when you run out of motion in your hip, in say a squat, so your pelvis has to tuck under, rounding the spine, to sink deeper.⠀
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The position of the hips in half-kneeling limits the amount of forward/back tilt of the pelvis, where it's easy to cheat when moving the hip in flexion.
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🔸WHO IS IT FOR?🔸⠀
- Seekers of improved squat depth quality⠀
- Martial artists for front kick chambering⠀
- Running athletes to improve stride length⠀
- Trainers/coaches looking for strategies to enhance their client's ability to squat/lunge/etc⠀
- Hockey goalies who struggle with back pain in their basic stance⠀
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🔸WHEN SHOULD I USE IT?🔸⠀
In conjunction with a training program. It works well integrated as an active warm-up, active rest in between exercises, or as accessory training.⠀
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Start by seeing how many belly breaths you can do before you start to shake or lose quality. Using that as your baseline, perform 3 sets, 1-2x/day — longer holds as you get better over time. Perform on both sides or if there's a big difference from side-to-side, stick with the limited side.⠀
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Do your best to maintain quality control. For the most bang for your buck, really push that knee up while resisting rounding your back as much as possible. Don't train poor movement.⠀
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🔸WHY SHOULD I CARE?🔸⠀
If your sport/activity requires you to get low and you don't have adequate hip mobility/stability, you'll dump into your low back. ⠀
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Dumping/rounding into the back is not evil; however, it's not ideal as it puts undue stress on your spine. Considering as a society how much we sit, we already subject the back to a considerable amount of spinal flexion (bending forward) forces throughout the day — this creates an imbalance. Even if you sit in "good" posture, prolonged sitting isn't physically healthy.⠀
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Now, you decide to lift heavy weights, your fatigued and you drop your squat down a little too far. Bam, you throw your back out. It's not because one butt wink is going to kill you, rather the result of accumulated stress — the straw that broke the camel's back!⠀
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Improve your hip flexion, get more athletic, avoid back pain.