Cuing hip extension

[slbross]

Hey guys. Just hoping some people have good coaching and cuing tips for finishing hip extension.

I have a client who is very front heavy. Well muscled, very lean legs, but a belly and very busty. As you can imagine we've done quite a bit of work in regards to her anterior hip tilt, weak glutes, weak lower abs, lordotic posture, tight hip flexors.

Not letting her low back finish hip drive movements is where we're struggling. She wants very much to be able to do deadlifts and other similar hip drive exercises. At the completion of the movement, her hips are not at full extension and she completes the movement to being upright by flexing her low back. This of course leads to low back pain when she does hip extension movements on her own.

I've tried coaching her to keep her abs tight, to keep her pelvis tucked, and every power in glutes cue I can think of.

Just wondering if anyone has tips for how to better cue these movements, and I am always glad hear more tips for fixing hip tilt and all the things that come with it as well.

[rdferguson]

Have you done any glute isolation/glute activation exercises with her? I know for myself I never really got my hips going properly during deadlifts until I spent a couple months religiously doing glute bridges and hyperextensions. With the bridges, I specifically focused on hyperextending my hips while keeping my lower back neutral, and basically trying to get such an intense glute activation that my glutes cramp at the top. For an added dose of strange, I got the best activation when I mentally aimed to drive my arse out the front of my hips. With hyperextensions, I was using similar cuing, but trying to push my hips/thighs (technically thighs, since that's what was in contact with the bench, but mentally my hips) through the bench. Again, I was actively hyperextending my hips while keeping my lumbar neutral (and, IIRC, I was mentally pushing my lumbar into kyphosis towards the top to resist the temptation to hyperextend it; use your wisdom to discern if that would be a good idea with her for such an exercise) and attempting to make my glutes cramp up at the top.

To go to an even lower level of complexity and take some complications out of the equation, you could get her doing glute kickbacks whilst lying prone on the floor. Have her actively keep her hips dug into the floor while reaching as high as possible with the toes of the working leg. Again, this puts the hips in hyperextension. Notice a theme here? Active hyperextension of the hips (not lower back) is very glute-intensive. The reason glute kickbacks with hips on the floor works for learning to use your glutes is that, on top of putting the hips through to the limit of their ROM, it's easy to identify when the pelvis is peeling away from the floor, so as a trainer you'll have an easier time making sure that it's her glutes doing the movement. Furthermore, being a bent-legged exercise, it's easier to relax the hamstrings (which can otherwise take over for the glutes).

If you can get her mastering these exercises, I anticipate you'll then have a much easier time cuing her to use her glutes during deadlifts, since she'll actually know how to use them.

If you aren't already, I'd also get her doing RDL's or similar hinge drills, as these take the emphasis out of the front of the body and teach good control of spinal position through a greater range of back angles, which has great value for deadlifts. I've personally found that my clients have an easier time learning the deadlift when they're already competent with the RDL, and that they also have a relatively easy time gaining competence in the RDL.

[Ronin4help]

Have you done any glute isolation/glute activation exercises with her? I know for myself I never really got my hips going properly during deadlifts until I spent a couple months religiously doing glute bridges and hyperextensions. With the bridges, I specifically focused on hyperextending my hips while keeping my lower back neutral, and basically trying to get such an intense glute activation that my glutes cramp at the top. For an added dose of strange, I got the best activation when I mentally aimed to drive my arse out the front of my hips. With hyperextensions, I was using similar cuing, but trying to push my hips/thighs (technically thighs, since that's what was in contact with the bench, but mentally my hips) through the bench. Again, I was actively hyperextending my hips while keeping my lumbar neutral (and, IIRC, I was mentally pushing my lumbar into kyphosis towards the top to resist the temptation to hyperextend it; use your wisdom to discern if that would be a good idea with her for such an exercise) and attempting to make my glutes cramp up at the top.

To go to an even lower level of complexity and take some complications out of the equation, you could get her doing glute kickbacks whilst lying prone on the floor. Have her actively keep her hips dug into the floor while reaching as high as possible with the toes of the working leg. Again, this puts the hips in hyperextension. Notice a theme here? Active hyperextension of the hips (not lower back) is very glute-intensive. The reason glute kickbacks with hips on the floor works for learning to use your glutes is that, on top of putting the hips through to the limit of their ROM, it's easy to identify when the pelvis is peeling away from the floor, so as a trainer you'll have an easier time making sure that it's her glutes doing the movement. Furthermore, being a bent-legged exercise, it's easier to relax the hamstrings (which can otherwise take over for the glutes).
This is great advice.
If you can get her mastering these exercises, I anticipate you'll then have a much easier time cuing her to use her glutes during deadlifts, since she'll actually know how to use them.

If you aren't already, I'd also get her doing RDL's or similar hinge drills, as these take the emphasis out of the front of the body and teach good control of spinal position through a greater range of back angles, which has great value for deadlifts. I've personally found that my clients have an easier time learning the deadlift when they're already competent with the RDL, and that they also have a relatively easy time gaining competence in the RDL.

This is very sound advice.

[slbross]

To go to an even lower level of complexity and take some complications out of the equation, you could get her doing glute kickbacks whilst lying prone on the floor. Have her actively keep her hips dug into the floor while reaching as high as possible with the toes of the working leg. Again, this puts the hips in hyperextension. Notice a theme here? Active hyperextension of the hips (not lower back) is very glute-intensive. The reason glute kickbacks with hips on the floor works for learning to use your glutes is that, on top of putting the hips through to the limit of their ROM, it's easy to identify when the pelvis is peeling away from the floor, so as a trainer you'll have an easier time making sure that it's her glutes doing the movement. Furthermore, being a bent-legged exercise, it's easier to relax the hamstrings (which can otherwise take over for the glutes).

Excellent, thanks, will do this right away. We've been doing RDLs, which helped; she's able to keep her back how it should be through the movement with fairly light weight but starts to flex when it gets heavier. Something that had been very helpful so far was reverse hyperextensions (without the "hyper" part I guess) lying on a box. That way she could keep the front of her hips in contact with the box and flex the glutes to extend. That helped but we had to stop at 180 because once she hyperextended the movement it all came from her back. Also, she always said she felt it activating in her hams more than the glutes.
I think this technique is the exact fix for that, so she can hyperextend in the hips and use more glute and less ham activation.

We'd done bridges before and had the same problem. They were somewhat better if we did some hip flexor stretches and just practiced tucking her pelvis looking sideways in the mirror a bunch first. At the bottom of the bridge I'd have her reset the lumbar spine and bridge again, but after a second or so of fatigue her spine would start to curve. I'll try some of your cues about pushing the glutes through the front of the hips and trying to curve the lumbar the other way.

thanks!