Stiff hips making your low back holler?

db.fitness_ ( Check him out of Instagram)

This is a warmup I’ve been implementing into my deadlift days as of recent. There are so many scenarios where “feeling” stiff in the hips and also experiencing “dull aches” in the low back can happen but here is my scenario and why this is a good option for me.

My deadlift setup requires me to spend a lot of time and strength maintaining externally rotated and abducted hips, essentially to end range, while it holds stability for the transfer of forces. I load this range with every rep of that movement and when I incorporate more volume and intensity than normal I will over time begin to “feel” stiff with my hips. This stiffness I feel is actually the inability for me to relax which is causing me to unconsciously maintain some tension in certain muscles. Let me explain.

We used to say that muscles were “strong and short” or other muscles were “stretched and weak”. While you can “feel” tight it doesn’t mean the muscle has shortened and needs to be stretched out to regain its normal length. It’s more likely that the muscle is a bit more active and it’s normal resting tension is a little higher.

The nervous system has decided that the positions or task you have done may or may not be great for you to be in at that given time. Therefore it will “pull back” on the reigns a bit to try and protect you from going into a joint position it’s not comfortable being in.

The factors that play into this are multidimensional and likely deeper than we even know at this current time, but a few we know about current tissue health include how is it normally loaded, is it recovered, is the stimulus a novel stimulus, is the context of the stimulus similar to a past experience, etc. , the list can go on and on.

My point is this: my stiff hips and your stiff hips are likely not the same. We are different people. We have different experiences, different structures, different neural influences from stimulus of training, different recovery methods. We can go on for days.

This drill may not help you at all. This drill may be the one that can aid in your recovery. If you have aches and pains, find a provider who sees you as an individual.