i missed that about your hip. does your bone on bone action feel like a pinching / rubbing at the front of your femur / hip? i’m wondering if i might have the same problem. have realized for a while that lack of glute recruitment seems to contribute to mine - but i’ve never really focused on the glute medius. maybe that is what i need to do - x band walks were really hard for me. my adductors are probably weak, too… this is making a lot of sense. very cool ideas.
Alexus- Big V, is accomplished by engaging your lats really hard which causes your back to get as wide as possible. My oly coach calls it getting a big V and Mike Robertson calls it lat activation. Here is a blog post about it on his website: Lat Activation for Bigger Pulls - Robertson Training Systems
Just remember, your not squeezing your back together, your pulling your scapula down. It’s hard. I’ve been working at it for a while and still struggle.
As for the hip. Yep, that’s exactly what it feels like. The glute activation stuff should help a lot.
Techno-I know what you mean about not knowing what you did right. You’re right, it will sink it at some point. That’s cool that you dive too. Is it recreational, or for a team?
Cal-I hope the breaststroke helps. It seems like it would. The band squats have already started helping. I’ve been doing them religiously since I got back from IFAST.
Wednesday training:
I met Molly (yes Molly Galbraith, the one with the infamous video recently posted here.) for a good ole’ conditioning session. We did a kettlebell prowler circuit. We started with an empty prowler and pushed it down and back (appx 50 ft total), then did 10 kettlebell swings with a 30lb bell. We then loaded appx 10lbs on the prowler and came back and did 9 kettelbell swings. Each round, we added weight to the prowler and dropped the swings by 1, until we got to 3 swings and a bunch of weight on the prowler. I’m not sure exactly how much, because we had to grab whatever weight was left lying around. Needless to say, it was a good quick workout that got the heart pumping and the legs burning.
Afterwards, I did 3x10 of my band squats and 3x10 of my band resisted foot flex things.
I have done a similar thing but with pushups instead of prowler.
It goes:
Push up: 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1
KB Swings: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10
You alternate between the two exercises without stopping. Really simple workout but it’s a killer.
rugby tourney sounds like a blast 
freakin A on the hang snatch PR !
wow.
the lat activation thing finally makes sense to me! thanks so much for that. it is going to take some practice, yup, but it turns out to be a bit different from what i’d been aiming to do. i tried bands around my knees for my squatting today and WOW. didn’t load any weight on the bar and ended up mostly practicing air squats. not quite sure why but the bands really help a great deal.
feels a bit like my body is scared to shove the knees out properly because it is worried about some kind of instability without the bands. with the bands there really is something that feels okay to push against - but damn, i’m finding it to be a lot of hard work. x band walks are feeling awesome, too. i could really jump up and down for joy in the realization that once i fix up my weak adductors / glute medius my hips are going to feel so much better! i can tell already that my squat is going to feel heaps stronger and smoother after working on this, too.
thanks so much for posting about it
Oh that’s a great tip, ‘pulling the scaps down’, never thought of it like that.
I dive with a club, its not really a ‘team’ in the traditional sense, except that its very socialable and communal. They used to have a few friendly competitions with the other clubs around the area. Things like equipment retrieval tag teams and other such monkey business, but since the worldwide recession, things have just kind of dropped off. It’s an expensive enough kind of activity as it is.
how are you doing?
i feel like i’ve had a major cognitive breakthrough with the stuff you posted about knees / hips… thanks so much for that!!! miss ya.
Sarah is famous now! Check out #2 on Tony Gentilcore’s BLOG! YAY!
Don’t forget us little people sbmart!
yep
Hey lady, been thinking bout you starting classes, and wanted to wish you GOOD LUCK! Can’t wait to hear how it goes!!