How to Hip Hinge: Can You Bend with Your Butt?

After working with back-to-back-to-back-to-back patients (from athletes to elderly) who really struggle with this problem, I'm officially calling it a crisis... It was so bad recently that I went home at lunch and filmed this short video in order to help people learn "How to Bend with the Butt"!

The hip hinge is one of the most functional movements for everyday activities (loading a dishwasher, lifting a laundry basket, lowering the dog’s dish, and so much more!) as well as for popular exercise routines (including all squat variations, deadlifts, and plyometric jumping).

First let’s review a bit of physiology -in particular, how muscles move. Every muscle can produce power in three ways:

1) Concentric contraction: shortening a muscle (bending the elbow to shorten the biceps muscle)

2) Isometric contraction: maintaining tone in a muscle without movement (holding/carrying an object)

3) Eccentric contraction: lengthening a muscle with control (lowering a weight to the starting position without just plopping down*)

*This is my biggest pet peeve at the gym: people showing off how much they can lift, but then they let the weight just slam back down. My general rule: If you can't control the weight down, then don't pick it up!

The goals of a hip hinge involve:

First: Lengthening the glute muscles to lower down (“bending at the butt”)

Second: Shortening the glute muscles to rise back up (“tightening the tush”)

Common mistakes:

Keeping the glutes clenched! This forces the hip to “borrow from the neighbors” and a person will bend mostly from the lower back and knees to perform the movement.

hip hinge for the oven versus butt wink and lower back rounding

Recruiting hamstrings and/or spine extensors to fire before the glutes when rising up from the bottom of the movement. Anytime the hip is bent, the glutes should fire first in order to straighten out. Drive the motion up from the “rear engine” and “push with the tush” for optimal power production.

For more tips on how to hip hinge as well as how to stabilize the core during dynamic activities, I LOVE this article: "Why You Need Abs to Get Glutes" from Core Exercise Solutions (Dr. Sarah is one of my favorite professional mentors. Click here to begin the Happy Hips + Strong Glutes & Abs program. Or if you're a Physical Therapist or a Certified Personal Trainer, set yourself apart and sign up for her amazing continuing education courses)!

Take-home principle: “HOW we do” is much more important than “WHAT we do”. Move well –feel well! XO