The last article talked about various postures and how it affects your performance while lifting and your health. In this article we will try to determine if you need stability to help correct your posture or do you mobility or do you need both if you have lordosis.
Well if you have the excessive arched lower back aka lordosis then you have both a stability and mobility problem. Your core and glutes lack stability and your hip flexors are super tight/shortened. How do we fix this you ask. This is not a problem that will be fixed overnight. It will take due diligence on working various activation exercises for your butt and core. One of my favorite movements to do activate your glute and core are glute bridge with a butterfly. There are many more where that came from. For more information you will have to contact www.tullockfitness.com.
So what do we do about those tight hip flexors, well first you will need to foam roll them. What is foam rolling, well think of your foam roller as an iron and the fascia of your muscle as your dress shirt. When you repeat the same movements over and over again the fascia starts to bundle up causes tightness, pain, irritation, and compensations that lead to other injuries. So we roll over the muscle that is tight. In this case the upper thigh aka hip flexor. Tryout this foam rolling technique to hit your hip flexor.
After you foam roll your muscle out, you need to actively stretch the muscle to give it more elasticity. If you were to stretch it while it’s cold it would likely strain if it were stretched suddenly. Think of it as a cold rubberband and you pull it real fast. It will snap pretty quickly, same could be said for your muscle. So to stretch out your hip flexor, there are a few options. My favorite option is the kneeling hip flexor stretch. Remember to not hold the stretch, you want to move smoothly back and forth.
After you have worked on your stability exercises and your mobility exercises diligently then you should see an improvement in back pain, strength in your movements, and increased mobility.
