Let’s just put this out there: if you want to squat like a king or pull like a Viking, you HAVE to have stronger hips, even if you risk looking foolish in the gym.

I think a big trend we can all agree on is when we see lifters, predominantly women, walk into the gym with a mini band in hand ready to go into battle. Although this battle is not like most others, it consists of the lifter doing a tremendous amount of hip movements, especially with a lateral resistance, to help elevate their hip gain. I hate to say this though, but if you aspire to achieve the stardom of E! stars Kim, Chloe or Kourtney…just doing these banded movements won’t be enough. But while we have lifters either over-doing hip exercises, we also have a ton of lifters under achieving in this department. Especially those who want to have alpha dominant squat and deadlift numbers. Let’s just put this out there: if you want to squat like a king or pull like a Viking, you HAVE to have stronger hips, even if you risk looking foolish in the gym.

When looking back at my younger years, I can tell you that I definitely had under-developed hips that I think caused my lifts to suffer for a long time. I think the people I even worked with had the same issue. To this day, I still work with clients and while overlooking the squat and deadlift development, I can easily tell they are hip-deficient and need various movements to help elevate their lifts not just for max effort, but for also correcting their movement for safer engagement in lifting. So how do we do this?

First of all, we all know that he proper way to program for strength is to follow a progression, cycling our routine to go from a basic hypertrophy routine to a specific power routine to help make our efforts shift from starting strength to peaking performance. So in this video I have showcased to you a progression for hip strength starting from basic to specific:

Basic:

Barbell Hip Extensions

Barbell Step Ups

Barbell RDLs

These movements are basic motor patterns that could blend with a bunch of movements. So whether youre chasing a deadlift max or a power clean record, all these movements make sense when it comes to blending hip strength for barbell performance

Intermediate:

Walking Barbell Good Mornings

DB Lunge to SL RDL

These movements are now becoming more dynamic that are having the hips work on not just engagement, but balance as well. So we could work these movements with not just stimulating the hips for growth and development, but they could blend into a routine for dynamic athletes of all kinds

Advanced:

Dead Good Mornings

Cable Pull Throughs

I love having these movements in the program near the mid to endpoint to help with two of the three big movements: squat and deadlift. We always see the lifters struggle with the mid-squat range, and having these dead good mornings can help with improving posture and strength with this crisis, and the cable pull throughs apply horizontal resistance to help the deadlift finish with a stronger lockout

Let’s evolve from basic lifters, to powerful lifters! Knowledge is a tool to use, as we all know that sometimes its not the sharpest swords that win at war, but its also the sharpest minds too.