 All right, everyone. This is a slightly more advanced topic on squatting and the topic today is hip internal rotation So this is a a jargony word If you don't need to understand in your mind if you don't need to understand all of the mechanics that are involved in squatting Do not watch this video. Okay. This is more me talking to some coaches. We're gonna reason through some Some perspectives on internal rotation of the hip So basic principles when I squat down and when I flex I need adduction Hip rotator hip rotation hip motion. I need flexion hip motion, and I need internal rotation hip motion Okay, so combining all of those things that is the major purpose of why we're chasing internal rotation It allows us to load our muscular structures our neuromuscular structures so that we can then Explode so that we can demonstrate strength and power and speed and whatever we're chasing So What is normal hip rotation normal hip rotation for the population is about 35 degrees Now if you've worked with anybody who lifts a lot that seems insurmountable that seems unattainable I know most people that I measure Generally come up around five or ten degrees some come up around negative five degrees Those people are pretty limited in their hip motion But you'll notice they can still squat So we have to talk about how do we attain a hip internal rotation? Well There there is a couple factors So biggest thing is the position of the hips the position of the acetabulum How is that determining how the femurs can rotate if the acetabulum is oriented forward? Generally, you're going to see a block in internal rotation and the hip will have more motion Letting the knees fall out letting the feet turn in and so your squat is going to be more comfortable With your feet wide and toes turned out Now why is that? Well, if we look at the shape of the acetabulum, there's this little notch out in the Kind of like anterolateral superior area and so when I flex the hip I'm going to try to stand up and stay on camera here when I flex the hip this way I don't have as much motion But when I move my hip out and I externally rotate and I abduct that buys me more room to Internally rotate and adduct. Okay, so now I can pick my leg up much higher Remember if I stay in line This is about as high as I can go without leaning backward and then here I have a lot more motion So I bet you didn't think you're going to see that close-up of my belt buckle today so That is that is one of the mechanisms just purely by the shape of the joint that will allow us to achieve more motion and If I'm if I'm stiffer in or let's not go there yet if I'm more restricted in my internal rotation moving my feet out allows me to Make up some ground now generally if I if my goal is to squat as deep as I can like powerlifting, right? So you have to squat pretty deep to get three white lights and powerlifting But you also need to have a lot of weight so that you you know beat your previous weights. So What is the goal here? So most positions? I'm going to say you need to be out a little bit You're not going to do this narrow hip width stance. Not it. Maybe not even shoulder width So, you know shoulder to maybe slightly outside shoulder Definitely with like 15 degrees or so of toe out is going to be about optimal You're going to want to see if I squat low and I hold there What position is most comfortable? So you might have your clients do that, right? You might have them say I want you to find the right position and now that is your squat stance That's what we're going to pick All right, what have we talked about I got to think for a second So we talked about internal rotation. We talked about position of the hips determining this so We talked about position of the femur as well. So now let's go back to the position of the hips one more time So I can reposition the pelvis so that I have mobility What I do when I do that is I steal Stability however and so when you do that you may be weaker, but if you need the motion then you need to implement this right if you're Squatting with your back really arched that may support your spine So that you're limiting the lever of the weight tipping you over and and you feel stronger You you can perform more weight. You can squat more weight But if it's stealing your motion and you can't hit depth then it doesn't matter or if you're having hip pain or back pain Because you're squatting that way then it doesn't matter. You can't do it that way So you're gonna have to find a slightly more we would say neutral position where the hips are not Overly tilted forward. They're not overly rounded backward They're somewhere in the middle and you're gonna find you have pretty good power that way But there is a lot more Shakiness in the squatting and so you'll have to be able to control that So that's the the basic premise of the position if I am tilted too far one way or the other I'm gonna steal the motion. I'm not gonna have the hip internal rotation that I need to squat effectively And then we talked about if you are limited which a lot of a lot of lifters are limited How do you find the depth you? Pull your knees out a little bit and you reorient So that the position of the hip is allowing for that mobility now a third point I want to talk about muscle stiffness We you know people in my circle kind of foo foo stretching and for the most part That's because or let's rephrase that is because for the most part I don't see a whole lot of benefit in doing it You know when I do do it. It's not always helpful, but Stretching the posterior hip capsule is often something that people do need to do and the only way you can know is by Cuing their reposition and then seeing if that's enough hip internal rotation for them How do I determine what's enough? Well? I have to ask what are the goals of training if the goals to squat deep enough then you might not need 35 degrees you might be able to just move your feet out a little bit and then have enough motion with maybe 10 degrees of internal rotation to support yourself If the goal is to become a more functioning human being who isn't getting in so much pain 35 degrees really lends itself well to walking effortlessly it helps us extend our hip and fully push off at the end of our gate cycle So I can't give you a number I can't say this is what you need to do you need to evaluate your needs and then Take that and turn it into training use your training to support What training is for? Now I got kind of sidetracked there so it's stiffness in the back of the hip basically if we think there are Ligaments on the front of the hip and on the back of the hip Okay, like this. I'm gonna kind of tilt so you can see both back of the hip my thumb front of the hip my fingers if the hip is internally rotated the Thumb gets longer the fingers get shorter if the hip is externally rotated the opposite happens And so the thumb now is shortening and the fingers here the front of the hip is lengthening so what you'll notice is People with tight posterior hip capsules Maybe their pelvis is in a good position to allow motion Everything looks really really good. They have all you know, no other mobility restrictions But they still have a restriction in hip internal rotation Then perhaps they have stiffness in their posterior capsule of their hip And so what you need to do then is you need to teach them how to maintain that good position But also how to feel a stretch in the back of the hip it may be on one side It may be on both sides You'll have to use your best judgment. You'll have to use your measurements How much hip internal rotation do we need to decide what you need to do there? And I always like to take it back to what am I seeing? Because as a personal trainer as a strength coach, we are not Set up well to do many orthopedic tests and I it's very frowned upon and I don't really recommend most people do that all I do is I do this as a As a measurement tool sometimes and as a teaching tool most of the time So I can take a squat and I can say that looks different You've definitely got lower you may have only gotten an inch lower But those details matter so you need to tune your eye to notice the details Stiffness back of the hip Roundabout we're gonna finish this so if I am externally rotated which we said we probably are If I am externally rotated the back of the hip shortens and it needs to learn how to lengthen So after repositioning the hip, I might still have shortening in the back of the hip I might still need some elongation or some stretching of those back of the hip structures Now generally if you need internal rotation A bad way to do it is to internally rotate your leg You need to make sure you have the position you can't have this Clunky feeling like you're just pushing yourself into bone if you have any pain Don't do it right. We don't want to make people have pain Instead we want to mimic some sort of Hip motion thorax motion that will allow us to unlock these things So generally what I'm doing is I'm having people maybe set up on a bench. I don't know how much you're going to be able to see Yeah, this is okay Maybe we set up on a bench and I try to raise the left knee if my left posterior capsule is tight I try to raise the left knee above the right knee by Scooting the right foot out And letting the right hip drop down Okay, so we have this if you're like if you're looking at me this way Okay, my left hip has to be Higher than my right one Okay, and that tells me that I'm internally rotating into the left externally rotating out of the right into the left out of the right Okay, so I hope that rotation makes sense to you. I hope Internal rotation now makes a little bit more sense to you Don't go around. Don't do a bunch of orthopedic tests. You don't have to you can if you want to I think it's helpful to learn. I really Um appreciated Kind of familiarizing myself with the help of some of my mentors Uh as I was growing up Um I found that a helpful learning tool so Give it a shot if you want, but on the floor remember it's fast-paced. We've only got hopefully an hour maybe half an hour And we need to you know get focused on stuff. So look at the squat See if there's compensation See if the knees are trying to fall out And if they can't squat with their feet narrow Maybe force them to do it. Maybe make them hold something between their knees so that they cannot let their knees fall out That's a very goal-oriented task, right? And it can be very effective for Not only lengthening the posterior capsule like we talked about at the end, but especially for repositioning the hips and for teaching them how to maintain the Intra-abdominal pressure that they have while they squat Hope that was helpful. If you have any more questions any more advice, let's start a discussion below. Just leave a comment