I’m hoping one of you guys might help me with a nerd question.
I see a bunch of S&C guys talking about improving hip internal rotation to improve squat ROM. Biomechanically, I can’t figure out why, since squatting typically puts this femur in an abducted/Externally-Rotated position. Any ideas?
Nerd Time. Tensegrity! Tension + Integrity. Your bones are floating in space, supported by your muscles. In 3 dimensions. Joints have muscles in the front and back. Flexors work “against” extensors. Internal rotators resist extenal rotators to keep joints stable. Everything must be balanced to work properly.
You need the adduction/internal rotation “balance” or “counter act” the external rotation and abduction so you can stay Tight. You need some crotch tightness to fight the knee spread action.
Too much Knees Out can put you in a spot where your adductor muscles are too stretched/lengthened to work correctly. So the knees pull out more. This can mess up glute action, putting too much stress on glute med, periformis, and lower back. It can make the lower back excessively Arch and the butt stick out and take tension off the lower abs. The pelvis can tip/tilt.
This can cause all kinds of issues. Like in the short term you can’t hit depth in the squat. Or medium term your hip flexors are always sore and tight because they’re trying to do the job of your adductors and your abs. Long term you can develop lengthened, inactive hamstrings and glutes and Anterior Pelvic Tilt. Years of tightness on the “front and top” of the hip joint with looseness on the “back and bottom” of the hip joint can cause your femur to migrate to the front/top of the hip socket and cause impingement, and problems with the cartilage in there.
You can fight this with some reverse clamshells and adductor roll backs.
Oohh okay that makes a lot of sense. Would you say also that stretching the external Rotators could help prevent the femoral head from drifting medially and posteriorly relative to the hip socket?
Sure, stretching can be cool, whatever it takes to keep things loose and working smoothly.
Rolling around on some kind of ball or roller can be good too. The muscles around the hip are strong, short and dense. Sometimes it’s easier to mash them than stretch them.
To piggy back on @FlatsFarmer’s great post, there’s a ratio between abduction and adduction that is “ideal”. You obviously don’t want to ignore one or the other.
You can see a lack of internal hip rotation/adduction when people squat with Excessively flared or turned out toes. Instead of generating tension by tightening the muscles they use an Extreme stance to lengthen the muscle and that stretching “feels” like tightness.
This is what I didn’t understand reading up online. Just to try and put it in my own words, the idea is that someone with limited internal rotation and adduction strength lacks the ability to create muscular tension/stability through the hip joint. Instead, they flare the toes out as far as possible, moving into extreme external rotation to stretch the internal Rotators taught and maximally contract the external Rotators.
That’s how I understand it or think about it. Here’s some guys that agree with us.
Here’s a quick video that shows lack of internal rotation causing the toes to flare. Plus a stretch for the external rotators.
Longer video, this one shows the toes turning out and the back over extending to make up for hip internal rotation. Plus some lacrosse ball release on the tfl.
And if you need more, here’s the first guy again. He gives other reasons (foot and ankle) for flared toes. It can’t Always be lack of internal hip rotation. Video also has rolling and stretching plus shows band “distractions” to “open” joints or clear impingement.
