Squats Over Stretching: A Lesson from Leinster

Hello!

Temperatures hit 40 degrees this week and I swear everyone went out in shorts. Everything truly is relative and I love being reminded of this in such a physical way. I know everyone is fiending for the secrets of hip mobility, so I won’t tarry with a long intro today.

What should we do for hip mobility?

This seems to be the question on so many people’s minds when a conversation begins about improving your movement. Two weeks ago I got to spend time with a group of coaches who flew to NYC from Leinster Rugby. The 146-year-old team is undoubtedly one of the most successful sporting programs in the world, and widely regarded as the best academy program in the world. When I was in high school, I happened to be in Dublin when they won one of their many European Championship titles. Being in that atmosphere ultimately drove me into my rabid obsession with the game.

Needless to say, I was psyched to be spending the weekend with these coaches for the second time in as many years. I was joined by other rugby coaches from around the Tri-State area of varying ages and degrees of experience. The second half of the Saturday session was led by one of the academy athletic development coaches. Throughout his presentation, seemingly regardless of what he was speaking about, a hand would go up in the crowd and a coach would ask a different variation of the same question.

“What do you do for hip mobility?”

It was sort of amazing that it kept getting asked, because as you might have suspected, the presenter was giving an answer each time. The problem seemed to be that the crowd just couldn’t wrap their minds around that answer.

“Nothing.”

That’s the short version at least. What he really said was that they start teaching players how to properly squat at a young age (15ish) and that as long as they are squatting in the weight room through a full range of motion, that serves as their hip mobility work.

“OK, but do y’all stretch?”

More than once the Leinster coach glanced back at his associates as if he were being pranked. Mobility, and particularly hip mobility, has become such a hot topic that it seems you could build a career strictly off of loosening up hips. The fact that this man, charged with developing some of the best athletes in the world, was saying that they don’t do anything specific for hip mobility was seriously making people’s heads spin.

The traditional approach to hip mobility is static stretching, hip-specific mobility routines, foam rolling, etc. The general idea is to push or pull on your hips long enough that you can change the shape of the muscles and feel a little “looser”.

There are so many athletes that think, "I need to mobilize before I can move" when, in fact, the moving itself accomplishes a lot of the mobilization we need. It also ensures the mobilization happening is very specific to the task ahead. This doesn’t mean you should just jump into every activity full speed ahead, but it might mean that if you jog the first five minutes, you can rip into your run without having to spend 30 minutes doing activation drills beforehand.

Back to our friends from Dublin. By teaching players proper squat form, they are able to integrate hip mobility directly into strength training. These teenagers are squatting to full depth right from the start of their exposure to weightlifting, so that by the time they are of an age when their peers may be complaining of tight hips, they’ve been in a weekly practice of moving through a full range of motion with load for years on end. No need to stop and stretch there. They aren't avoiding hip mobility. They're achieving it through strength training.

The obvious question becomes, “What if I haven’t been squatting buns to grass since I was in high school?”. I’m getting there. But first, some science.

Mobility is the combination of flexibility and strength through a range of motion. Traditional stretching increases passive flexibility, but not necessarily active strength or control in that range. On the other hand, squatting gives us functional control over that range of motion. We are actively taking part in what’s happening.

Weighted exercises like squats not only improve range of motion, but also build strength at the end ranges, increasing resilience and reducing injury risk. Lucas Hardie is a fun Instagram follow who takes these ideas to extreme lengths. While I don’t think we’re going to start seeing his routines in your local Planet Fitness anytime soon, I do think the concept of loading (adding weight to) full ranges of motion is really good stuff.

"But what if I've already lost it?"

I told you I was getting there. If you have trouble getting into a squat, then full depth to train mobility isn’t in the cards right now. This is where regression of an exercise comes in. Try starting with assisted or bodyweight squats and gradually increasing load and range as you go.

A simple progression to follow might look like this: Box squats → Goblet squats → Front squats → Full range of motion under load.

If you don’t feel comfortable squatting unsupported yet, you can hang on to a support, TRX, or use partial ranges initially.

I highly encourage everyone to add squats to your weekly routine if they’re not in there already. Don’t like to back squat? Try a front squat, a zombie squat, a zercher squat, grab a safety bar! There are so many options, and if you don’t know what the hell I’m talking about and Google frightens you, ask me. If you’ve got sticky hips, try squatting as deep as you can (even if unweighted) every day for a week and see if there’s a difference in how your hips feel.

Stretching is not the enemy, but if the goal is to move better in real-life situations, strength through range is the key. This isn’t reserved for elite athletes. Anyone can improve their hip mobility by squatting, even if they start with regressions.

Don’t get caught up in what you don’t have.

Most of this newsletter was inspired by an interaction I observed in the world of rugby, but some of you know that my first love is the sport of wrestling. In this country, almost all of the focus in the sport is at the collegiate level. This means as a fan, I keep tabs on various schools and their coaches around the states. There is one coach in particular that I have found myself rooting for, not because he leads a powerhouse program, but because of the messages he delivers and the way he cares about his student-athletes. Coach Schwab at the University of Northern Iowa was an Olympian has a long list of competitive accolades, but he doesn’t take himself too seriously and imparts some really important messages to his team that I don’t think a lot of other high-level coaches are talking about. Follow him on Instagram if you want the occasional video to inspire you to be a little bit better and be a little bit nicer to yourself and those around you.

If somebody gets me an official UNI wrestling snuggy, I’ll hang a plaque for you in the office.

Don’t get caught up in what you don’t have.

The last piece for today is a little bit out of left field, but I promise it’s good stuff. As often as I remember to, I play the Connections game from The New York Times. Though it pains me to admit it, once in a blue moon I will head over to the companion section for a clue to get through tricky set of words. In doing so, I have stumbled upon an equal parts bizarre and lovely little community of people who leave comments on the companion guide. What makes it lovely is that a lot of these comments start with how they solved the puzzle, but turn into with what reads like a diary entry for people from around the world. Heading to this section for a clue quickly turns into reading a few sentences on how a woman in London’s day was visiting her son in Croydon. I’m not sure if it was the unexpected context of a puzzle comments section, but one struck me in such a way that I wanted to share it with you all. I’d like to reiterate that this was just a comment on a post for clues on a daily puzzle in the NYT. Pasted in full, from Dick W. in Christchurch, NZ:

If you’d like to see the original comment, you can do so here.

Until next time,

Dr. Dean Hottum

As always, if you are somebody you know would benefit from working with me, I am always happy to chat and see if you are a good fit. Hit the button below to set up a call today.

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