DOMINANT HIP EXERCISES

Just as we have talked in the previous post about dominant knee exercises, this post will be dedicated to dominant hip exercises.

The dominant hip exercises are those in which the tibia remains fundamentally vertical and there is a hip flexo-extension with hardly any movement in the knee.

An important movement in these exercises is known as the "hip hinge", this movement consists of a subsequent displacement of weight through the hip joint. It is a sagittal plane movement in which the hip becomes the axis between the upper and lower extremities through a column in neutral position. This movement is the base of most hip movements.

Working this movement can bring us some of the following advantages:

• Maximize the inner chain.
• Decrease the domain and/or stress of the previous chain.
• To economize in the movements of the knees and the spine.
• Allow the transfer of kinetic energy to the upper body train.

It is very important to work this movement before starting to work the force, because as we always say, the first thing is to learn the technique. The force without training of the movement has no value.

The main muscles involved in these exercises are the gluteus maximus and the group of hamstrings and, to get the work focused on this musculature, the movement should focus on the hip and not the knee. Although the anatomy books, according to their origin and insertion, tell us that the group of hamstrings are knee flexors, these are actually hip extenders and knee stabilizers. Training these muscles as hip extenders and not as knee flexors will favor the reduction of injuries in this musculature.

Gluteus maximus 3D by CFCF. CC BY-SA 2.1 JP

Pulled Hamstring by BruceBlaus.CC BY-SA 4.0

One aspect that should be highlighted is what was discovered by (Beardsley & Contreras, 2014), who after their study confirmed that depending on the intensity at which we perform a lift, the pattern of muscular effort may differ. An exercise will be dominant hip when the ratio of hip-kneel extension is greater than one. As the load on squats, strides and dead weight increases, hip dominance grows exponentially (Bryanton, Kennedy, Carey, & Chiu, 2012). Some statements we can make after reading these articles and some others are:

• For people who are looking for a good aesthetic of their back chain, heavy training is a good option.
• If we base our training on hip dominance with high loads, it would be interesting to add dominant knee exercises in order to compensate.

Next we leave you a video in which we show you a proposal of exercises for the work of dominant hip.



See you in the next post.

May the force be with you!

REFERENCES

Beardsley, C., & Contreras, B. (2014). The Increasing Role of the Hip Extensor Musculature With Heavier Compound Lower-Body Movements and More Explosive Sport Actions. Strength and Conditioning Journal, 36(2), 49–55. https://doi.org/10.1519/SSC.0000000000000047

Boyle, M., & Manso de Zúñiga, G. (2017). El entrenamiento funcional aplicado a los deportes. Tutor.

Bryanton, M. A., Kennedy, M. D., Carey, J. P., & Chiu, L. Z. F. (2012). Effect of Squat Depth and Barbell Load on Relative Muscular Effort in Squatting. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, 26(10), 2820–2828. https://doi.org/10.1519/JSC.0b013e31826791a7

Escamilla, R. F., Francisco, A. C., Kayes, A. V, Speer, K. P., & Moorman, C. T. (2002). An electromyographic analysis of sumo and conventional style deadlifts. Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, 34(4), 682–688. Retrieved from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11932579

Frost, D. M., Beach, T. A. C., Callaghan, J. P., & McGill, S. M. (2015). The Influence of Load and Speed on Individualsʼ Movement Behavior. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, 29(9), 2417–2425. https://doi.org/10.1519/JSC.0000000000000264

Riemann, B. L., Lapinski, S., Smith, L., & Davies, G. (2012). Biomechanical Analysis of the Anterior Lunge During 4 External-Load Conditions. Journal of Athletic Training, 47(4), 372–378. https://doi.org/10.4085/1062-6050-47.4.16

Swinton, P. A., Stewart, A., Agouris, I., Keogh, J. W., & Lloyd, R. (2011). A Biomechanical Analysis of Straight and Hexagonal Barbell Deadlifts Using Submaximal Loads. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, 25(7), 2000–2009. https://doi.org/10.1519/JSC.0b013e3181e73f87