Addressing Spinal Hyper Mobility

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Usually Monday’s are about a female training topic. Today’s applies to both men and women with hypermobility, particularly with spinal position. You women will have to let me know what you want to hear about, because a year of female topics has left me out of ideas. 

 

We spend so much time thinking about how to improve mobility and flexibility with tight, inflexible lifters that it’s easy to forget hypermobile trainees. While there are a few hypermobile guys, it mostly applies to women. The primary area or hypermobile concern is in the spine via over extension.

The above MobilityWOD video shows Kelly Starrett working with Jenny LaBaw, a CrossFit Games competitor. Jenny has a bad habit of over extending her spine during lifting (particularly during squatting and pulling movements). This not only leads to undue stress on the spine, but it also facilitates poor shoulder and neck positioning. The over extension can be addressed by cuing trunk stability — something that makes the person clamp down their lower abs — yet it the trunk would still round under heavy loads and only cuing the abdomen would leave out necessary hip musculature that can fix the problem.

In the video, Kelly states that Jenny is “hanging off of her hamstrings”. In other words, her hip is flexed (meaning the distance between the front of her trunk and her thigh has decreased) while standing, and her hamstrings are anchoring her trunk from falling over. The problem, as Kelly says, is that she has not effectively engaged the rest of her hip musculature — namely the gluteals and the rest of the external rotators. By activating this musculature, it more evenly distributes the force across those muscles to allow their involvement in the movement or to stabilize it. This concept is important in lifting because it takes a movement from “moving the bar from point A to B” to something that properly engages and works all of the musculature to produce more force safely. It’s more efficient, safer, and garners better performance (by either allowing more reps with light weight or applying more force with heavy weights).

Kelly cues Jenny to produce torque on her hip by actively pushing her knees out. However, instead of thinking about this as just moving the knees out, think about the knees moving out because the femur (thigh bone) rotates laterally (towards the outside). This produces the “torque at the hip” that Kelly frequently alludes to, but it helps contract and engage all of the musculature in pulling or squatting motions. I’ve also done several posts and videos to help explain this concept (“Hip Torque”, Toe Angle, and Squatting; Should I Point My Toes Forward?; and Public Service Announcement: Toe Angle) , and the same “torque to engage musculature” applies to pressing (The Lats While Benching and 3 Press Fixes).

Lastly, notice how Kelly coaches Jenny through a couple of movement drills that work on engaging this musculature through hip flexion in an abbreviated RDL and squat. He greases her through that beginning range of motion — right when the hip starts to flex and the spine accumulates load. These “drills” don’t need to be a primary focus, but a trainee could consider them a primer before warming up the large scale movement. They could also be implemented in assistance exercises; the RDL is an effective exercise for most athletes and it is only improved by emphasizing tension at the hips.

Whether you’re a coach or a trainee, you now know that when spinal over extension occurs, it can be eradicated by providing tension and torque in the rest of the hip area. And if you’re into Jenny in the video above, you’ll probably like this video too:

32 thoughts on “Addressing Spinal Hyper Mobility”

  1. -Have a female reader send you small blurb of who they are, training goals and accomplishments and accompanied with a pic or two (with clothes Stroup) and have a monthly Monday post dedicated to that female reader. I personally like reading other women’s battles and successes. Don’t mind looking at their photos/videos either;-)

    Or have women write a segment for your Mondays with topics such as
    -Training with kids (sacrifices made in order to get to gym)
    -Training with spouses who lift and don’t lift and the effects on that athlete.
    -How hard it is to keep a manicure when lifting weights.
    -Benefits of lifting and libido.
    -Worst and Best comments from both men and women about their training
    -Story of how strength training made a significant impact in a situation they found themselves in

    Or none of that all……and leave it to occasional Q&A days. Depends on where you want 70’s big to go I guess.

  2. The video on hip torque was really helpful; thanks for putting that up. The cue about moving the femur made it click for me.

    As far as Monday topics — I like your posts about the oddities of female anatomy’s effects on lifting. Like angdesj said, I like reading about other women’s successes (see above post in the thread). That might give you a bit of a break, if you’re stumped for ideas.

  3. Topics (sorry if any are already covered, just shooting from the child-bearing hip):
    -Female training Supps,
    -Any Key Add Ins for Female’s Following a Male-Dominated Strength Cycle (wonder if I should be adding more upper body strength movements & hitting higher % to compensate for ‘neuromusclar inefficiency’)
    -Sharing gym space with Men
    -How to Explain that Traps aren’t “Man Muscles”
    -How to Come Out about Lifting to your disapproving parents
    -How to eat Eggs or Tuna in a office setting without grossing everyone out
    -Where to Find Broad-Shouldered Jackets for Women
    -How to shave around scabby shins
    -Making Female Gym Friendnemies
    -The Temperature Required inside the Gym when Removing your Shirt isn’t an invitation to Ogle.
    -Compression shorts and acceptable levels of CT
    -How to Get your Significant Other to still take the Heavy End of the Washer when you’re moving it into the basement even though you squat more than him
    -How to Tell your friend her “Exercise Inspiration” board on Pinterest is actually just Soft Porn & she should go to the gym and stop pinning.
    -Anything that shows footage of women lifting heavy

    • Genuinely not picking a fight here, just interested – Isn’t it more fair for the stronger lifter to lift the heavy end of the washer? Is it chivalry which means that the man should struggle to perform a job he is less adapted to perform?

        • It isn’t that I get the heavier side. It’s that I get the heavier side because I’m the better lifter and he still won’t listen when I tell him that we don’t have enough leverage, grip, whatever to pick it up the way he thinks we should.

          • If I were a weakass dude who was outlifted by my wife *and* I would not listen to her when she was doing the lion’s share of the work carrying something heavy, I know for a fact she’d tell me I was being an asshole.

            • Normally giving him the stupid look is enough. And this is what happens when everyone in the house is pig-headed….. I’m sure he could tell some stories about stuff I refused to listen to him about even though he knows more about it than it do.

        • Nolan nailed it. Also, chivalry would be to at least OFFER to take the heavy end and then let me choose. We’re both capable of carrying the heavy part really & it still sucks to take the heavy end while walking backwards down stairs. .
          Also in all honesty,this is a bigger issue at the workplace. Its predominantly male and the boys excuse themselves from helping me move large things (desks/80lb boxes, etc) by saying “she’s a lifter, she’s got it”. I like functional strength, I do not like being over-tasked for my efforts, especially when I am the only one who did heavy DL that morning anyway.

  4. Thank you, Justin. I don’t know if this was in response to me, but I posted this exact question on your FB page last week. This helped tremendously. Great vid. How do I get job like KStarr, by the way, staring and touching booties in the name of “form”? pshh

  5. This is fantastic. I totally have spinal hyper mobility from years of dance and gymnastics and things. Everything looks prettier when you arch your back, doncha know? I have the same issues during squatting and pulling as the woman in the video, and turning my knees out definitely helps. I can really feel the difference in my lower back.

  6. Overheard at the gym half hour ago… (Trainer to highschool aged guy) “No bro, lets get in here everyday. Every day you aren’t lifting is a day you are getting smaller and weaker.” Then proceeds to struggle to put up 185 for a strong set of 4. Classic

  7. Jenny is a fantastic specimin of a woman. I thought about making this comment last night then wondered if it’s too much of an all around judgement just based on how athletically accomplished she is. I realised though that you (mostly) don’t get to perform so well without having trained hard and smart for a good long time, so it kind of speaks for her intelligence and dedication too so I’m going to stand by my statement.

    Also that hyperextension back thing and those legs. Makes me want to be more of a manly man to deserve a kickass lady like that.

  8. This post hit an issue I’ve been having spot on. I’m not female, but I was a swimmer through high school and my specialty was breaststroke (giggity!). I learned to extend the crap out my lower back, result is that I’ve always had a tough time getting the right positioning for movements like RDL and deadlift. Thanks, Justin.

  9. A segment explaining why increasing squat/deadlift strength increases kegel muscle strength would be cool.

    I’m not a woman but I do train with one, and she sometimes wonders how to best deal with nutriet depletion due to menstruation. I told her to just hold it in but apparently that’s not possible. I think this is covered briefly in either Starting Strength or Practical Programming, but I don’t really recall it saying much other than to eat more/sleep more/cut back training slightly. She and I looked over several months of training and noticed that it does have some effect.

  10. Pingback: PR Friday, 14 DEC | 70's Big

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