3 Exercises for Powerful and Healthy Hips
Use the Spartan Pancake and these three movements from a Spartan recommended group fitness class to build healthy hips.
Healthy hips move us easily in every direction and generate power that drives our entire body. On the race course, we need the mobility to complete the wall traverse and barbed wire crawl. We also need powerful hips to propel us up and over the wall climbs and to leap over the fire pit.
In life, healthy, mobile hips allow us to mitigate force helping us to put less stress on our knees and low back. Strong, powerful hips also help us enjoy all kinds of recreational activities and sports and get the most out of every day by letting us carry out life’s daily tasks without pain.
Include these three moves in your workout to improve hip mobility and power:
- Deep mobility squat
How to do it:
Position your feet slightly wider than your shoulders, holding the Spartan pancake at your chest. Lower your body down as far as possible, keeping your feet entirely connected to the floor and your chest lifted. Your back and your shins should be parallel to one another. Everyone’s hips are unique structurally, so the degree of turn out at the hips and feet may vary from person to person.
Work up to holding this deep squat position for 1-minute.
- Transverse plane lunge
How to do it:
Begin standing with both feet facing forward holding the Pancake. Step the right foot diagonally out and back to the “4 or 5 o’clock” position, reaching the Pancake down low, just in front of the right knee. Sit back and down into the hips of the right leg, while keeping the left leg, the trail leg, straight. The toes of trail leg should remain facing forward, while the toes of the lead leg will point in the direction of the lead knee. It is important to maintain a long spine, keep the chest lifted and really sit back into the hips.
Complete 3 sets of 15 reps on each side.
- Single leg power skip
How to do it:
Assume a split squat position with the front foot completely grounded and the knee of the back leg bent and just off of the ground. Hold the Pancake with both hands, low, just in front of the back leg. Use the hips and legs to power up, driving the front foot off the ground and the back knee upward. Use the arms and Pancake to help propel the body, reaching the Pancake up overhead as high as possible, executing the full plyometric movement. Reset to the same start position.
Complete 3 sets of 15 on each side.
Spartan Strong brings the ethos of Spartan Race to a studio group fitness class. The program is a Featured Format Class at Life Time Athletic Centers and can be found at a growing number of other gyms and studios.
Aimee Nicotera, Life Time Athletic, Spartan Strong Program Developer, and Spartan SGX Coach.
