All In The Hips

In attempting to do my best Shakira impression (which I may or may not be saving for Halloween this weekend), the focus of today's post is all about the hips. Why is knowing how and why your hips work an important thing? Straight from the January 2003 CrossFit Journal article "A Postural Error: Muted Hip Function", "The most powerful forces that can be generated by the human body are initiated, controlled, and dominated by the hip." Whether this power gets generated through rapid and vicious hip flexion, or through controlled yet powerful hip extension, the hips play a constant and vital role in our performance-based fitness model.

A vast majority of the movements we find in our workouts utilize the power of the hips. Kettlebell swings rely almost exclusively on the hips to drive the kettlebell away from the body to overhead. The one and only pivot point in sit-ups and hip-back extensions is at the hips. Push-presses and push-jerks both rely on a dip-drive to power the weight overhead. That dip-drive is initiated, controlled, and dominated by (you guessed it) the hips! Squatting, deadlifting, snatching, cleaning, running, throwing, box jumping, kipping pull-upping (oh, how the hips power the kipping pull-up!)... It's all in the hips (just ask Happy Gilmore).

This week is all about the hips, their role in stabilizing and powering the midline, common technical errors (the dreaded Muted Hip Function), and how to overcome these common errors. Stay tuned for more hip action this week. Until then, enjoy the video below (I'l let the title speak for itself)...

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

WOD 101025 Monday

Location: The Shell, 9:00pm

Warm-up

S/S: Back Squat, 5-5-5-5-3-3; 2 minutes max double-unders.

WOD: "Little Bear". With a 65/45# barbell, complete the following for time:

-40 Deadlifts

-40 Hang Power Cleans

-40 Front Squats

-40 Shoulder-to-Overhead

-40 Back Squats

-40 Shoulder-to-Overhead

Finish: MobilityWod of your choice.

Results

S/S

Matt- 185-205-215-225-235-245

Donny- 185-205-215-225-225-225

WOD

Matt- 12:42

Donny- 16:25