A similar article that hits some of the same points.
Hip flexor tightness has been a huge issue for me and I’ve spent the last month stretching it daily. It was so bad at one point that everytime I would squat, clean or deadlift my hip flexors would ache and feel weird. To the point that I think it has been holding back my strength gains in those lifts as well as a possible speed detriment. Thats bad. Anyway, after this month of pure stretching I can start to feel my glutes being recruited more in those same exercises as well as sprinting itself. Lets see what another few months will turn out.
Good article. I personally am a big fan of all the glute activation/strengthening work.
I think I might start doing the pendulum quadrupled hip extension since I do not have access to a reverse leg press and the glute-hams in the weightroom suck
Im suprised that with all the glute talk there was little to no mention of the piriformis. I would think that in addition to all of the benifits of optimally strengthening the posterior chain, femoral control via activating the glute med and strengthening the priformis would be mentioned more. In my opinion the goal of the sprinters performance would involve a balance of all these muscles, although I get his overall point. Good article.
Pirifomis is tiny compared to glute max or glute min. Piriformis is a “postural” muscle too so it’s usually tight rather than weak like the “phasic” gluteals.
Just a thought - perhaps it gets so tight sometimes due to being too weak for ones Posture. Tightens up in response to overly strong muscles elsewhere or overuse?
Make it bigger and or stronger and perhaps it might not tighten up so much?
A strength reserve for posture muscles.
This is what i have been doing for clients shoulders/upper back areas.
Think of doing Innies and Outies (rotor cuff work) Your not ever gunna see these tiny muscles or be pushing heavy weights with the exercises - however, working them does Magic after just a few short wks.
Mind you - check out PNF stretching on the piraformis! Its a stretch with an active movement. Perhaps thats all that muscle needs
However minor the piriformis may be compared to the gluteals, their in-ability to stabilize the hip cuff and control the femur (both in dynamic movements & in stabilizing movements) is paramount. IMO- the hips cannot be looked at from a spot training standpoint but in totality. So the psoas, piriformis, spinal erectors & abdominals all play a equally vital role in the athlete’s performance & therefore must be trained together.
I agree, there is merit in this, but does anyone know if his research has been published in a legit peer review journal? I would be interested to see his EMG placements.
None of it is peer reviewed (he even says this) and there are fairly obvious problems with his use of EMG as the primary means of measuring muscle “activation” that are likely beyond the scope of this forum and could use a journal on its own.
agreed. Although, at times, one has to Lock -IN on one area or two at a time, due to Extreme tightness or such. Once that muscle is under control, next thing another one can be looked at or even only Found once one Above it has settled down.
eg
Some guys Traps are that Tight Overall that you cannot get in deep enough to find out if their Rhomboids are ok or not. Might take sometimes a whole session just to relax the Traps! (as an example)
Your right though, esp once healthy, everything must be trained as a unit. eg, After doing an upper body workout, its good to finnish off with some inn’ies and out’ies rotor cuff work. And same with the hips. It only takes a few minutes extra
Just for kicks, I had my biggest squatter (903# at the Lousianna APF State Championship) do some hip/glute thrusts, per his video, and my lifter said he had never felt anything hit so glute specific before. And this coming from someone that lives on GHR’s and Good Mornings of all varieties.
Very anecdotal, no EMG, but he liked them and felt they were in fact hitting the glutes very hard.
Yes! I was impressed with myself that I managed 3x20 single leg hip thrusts… but the DOMS in my glutes the next day was unlike any soreness I’ve experienced in the glutes before.
However, this exercise has contributed to aggravating the back on my knee’s… I may have been using to high a box…
Like anything, it takes time to get into a comfort zone, but the DOMS focused in the glute is interesting; my guy and his workout partner experienced the very same thing. And again, if you can generate DOMS in someone who squats extremely heavy twice a week, and includes a lot of glute/ham work like GHRs, SLDL, DL, RDL and Good Mornings, these movements are hitting something that’s not getting hit very directly, or very hard, by these other lifts.
How much benefit will translate to running/jumping is another question.
