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Mobility & Prep

Your Hips Are Tight in the Bottom of the Squat

The fault

Restriction in the hips that limits the bottom position.

Why it happens

Hip restriction shows up as a squat problem, a catch problem and a depth problem all at once, because every receiving position in the sport passes through the bottom of a squat.

The fix

A sequence of drills to open the hips for weightlifting. A partner makes the stretches easier but is not required.

About this fix
Originally published as "Partner Hip Mobility", part of The Lifting Fix, the free weekly technique series Danny Lehr started filming over a decade ago. He gave every episode away then, and they are still free here. Danny Lehr competed in Olympic weightlifting from 2010 to 2019 and won the 2019 Masters World Cup. More about Danny Lehr.
Transcript

I'm going to give you a few things that help out your squat, help out your catch position for your snatch, your clean, squats, all that stuff. So some of this I'm going to steal from other people, some of it's kind of some stuff I just picked up over time. So the first kind of basic thing is cutting. He actually talks about a paleo chair a lot.

So just follow him at the bottom of the spot. And so he's there. He's going to actually kind of relax his hips a little and just get his hands inside. And the goal here is just to completely relax.

Now what you'll find here is you can kind of move side to side. A lot of times it's not a hip issue, but it's an ankle issue. You can see that his knee are out you know directly over his toes they're not in that's a good thing but they can kind of go out there and because ankles are flexible enough so if you find your ankles are kind of stopping that you know you can even go to one side and spend a little bit of time over there on that okay so we all know that that one and that's a good one to do but then what you could do if you need a little help you can either have a partner or a band So what he's gonna do with the band is go ahead and have a seat down. You're gonna face the wall.

And with the band, drop your arm on foot. And then it's going to go around this hitch. And around the other foot. Now you try to get as close to the wall and you want to put your butt on the wall, which can sometimes be challenging.

A little partner help. There you go. Kind of scoot it in there. Good.

And the goal here is to get feet facing as forward as you can and also get them wider and just kind of work out getting your feet wider and wider and hang out that way like five minutes. Now They don't have a... To get out of this the best way is to kind of like collapse to one side and then you can pipe them in. Huh.

You got it? home. And then one more thing, if you have partner to health, it's actually a really good one, just lay down your back. Now when you're laying down the back, I'm just going to act like a wall and a band.

See up and then the benefit of this is if it's an ankle thing, I can kind of get on these ankles a little bit if I need to. So you have your partner in here and your partner can kind of apply appropriate pressure. I've actually heard this referred to as the "bud hole stretch. " But it really is good for hips and the partner.

The goal is here to just kind of push just gently. You kind of look, you know how hard to press by the look at his eyes. He's got the key here. And then tell him, take deep breaths buddy.

It's all right. There you go. And he worked his way through. All right.

So if you need to work on your hips and get lower in that squat, get a wall, get a band, get a partner, and really kind of open those hips up. Thank you Jay. And thank you Chalk Bucket for holding the camera.

More fixes to work on next

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You Do Not Really Warm Up Before You Lift

Walking in and going straight to the bar.

Mobility & Prep1:55

You Are Not Breathing Right on Heavy Touch and Go Reps

Holding one breath through multiple heavy reps, or breathing at the wrong point in the set.

Barbell Cycling1:43
With Buddy Hitchcock

Your Barbell Cycling Falls Apart Mid Workout

Losing rhythm and efficiency partway through a set of touch and go reps.

Barbell Cycling2:11

Want the rest of this category?

Everything I have filmed on the work around the lifts, one a day for five days, in the order I'd work through them with you. Not the order they got uploaded. The order that actually fixes it.

Plus the snatch pull checklist. One page, nine points, floor to hip.

Free, and these videos are free on this site whether you do this or not. This is just me putting them in the right order and sending them to you, so you don't have to guess where to start.

Or just download the checklist, no email needed.