Daily Mobility Exercises by Dr. Kelly Starrett › Forums › General › Half-kneeling Position Asymmetry

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    • 06/20/2014 at 1:19 pm #70992
      Xiomara RomeroXiomara Romero
      Participant

      I have a question that I just can’t seem to find the answer to anywhere.
      Whenever I try to get into a half-kneeling position for a lunge or hip flexor stretch, and my right leg is the forward or “up” leg, my
      pelvis or spine does some sort of rotation thing, that I can’t seem to
      figure out. I try really hard to make it mimic the left, but my motor
      control is apparently so lacking that I can’t consistently change it.

      The best way I can describe it is that if I were getting into this
      position in jeans, when the right leg is forward, the outseam of the
      pants on that side seems to come in towards the front of my leg more
      than the left outseam does when the left outseam is forward. It’s hard
      to tell if the right hip is hiking, the femur is rotating, or the pelvis
      and/or lumbar spine is rotating… or some combination of the three.

      I also have a lot of trouble activating my right glute, and I can’t
      consistently get a good contraction out of it, which essentially
      eliminates the effectiveness of even the most basic of exercises (glute bridge, etc.). I
      know it’s all connected, because every once in awhile when my brain
      clicks, it feel right… like the kinetic chain is working as it should.

    • 06/20/2014 at 1:50 pm #74832
      AvatarAlyssa Short
      Participant

      It sounds like a forward rotation of the pelvis (right side more forward relative to the left). I’ve had left SI Joint problems, which in turn caused a bunch of hip and pelvic distortions, and I’m pretty sure I’ve dealt with the rotational dysfunction(?) that you’re describing. The right glute inactivation is consistent with a Right on left rotation of your pelvis.

      Try to complete this quick routine and see if it improves your condition. If it is indeed a pelvic rotation, it should instantly feel better as you progress (especially right after the first two exercises).
      http://www.davedraper.com/fusionbb/fbbuploads/1208713148-Addressing_Pelvic_Rotation.pdf

      While any lumbar rotation would probably sort itself out upon correction of the pelvis, and maybe some foam rolling and mobilising of the low back, you’ll have to work a bit harder to fix any femoral issues, which are likely present. I’m not quite sure what exactly you could do, however I think you may benefit from just going through the various banded distractions (mainly the lateral and posterior) that Kelly prescribes to help open up your hips. For me, personally, I had to focus heavily on doing some of the distractions shown on this presentation, before I was able to get any benefit from those shown in Kelly’s videos. I was able to do the lateral and inferior glides on my own using some bands.

      Anyway, I’m not a doctor or a therapist, but just from my experience treating my own injuries and imbalances, I do think that you will find your condition improve fairly quickly after doing the routine that I posted in the first link. I hope that helps!

    • 06/20/2014 at 3:05 pm #74834
      Xiomara RomeroXiomara Romero
      Participant

      Thanks!  I’ve seen that link, and have been doing some of those things, but not consistently cause I would get confused on how to do them right.   I’ll work on them more now.!  Question… I get a little confused with “Make sure the pelvis does not shift away from the tightness in the hip.”  Does that mean my pelvis cannot move at all when i cross my leg? 

      Actually, that leads me to an even more basic question: even before crossing the leg, just flexing the hips while supine will cause my pelvis (or butt, or sacrum… not exactly sure if I’m describing it right) to come a little bit off the ground.  I get very confused when laying supine and doing anything that requires flexing the hips to 90-90 on whether my sacrum needs to stay completely grounded on the floor, or if is naturally supposed to come up a bit.  So many supine exercise descriptions don’t specifically mention this aspect, so I’m not sure if that means it’s naturally supposed to come up a bit, or if my hip flexion patterns are so messed up that most people would naturally keep their sacrum pinned to the floor.  If I try to pin it to the floor, i feel like I am creating a bigger arch in my back, and I always thought I was supposed to flatten my back to the ground for stuff like this.  I think I need a little clarification on which parts of my body should be moving and which shouldn’t.

      Thanks again!

    • 06/20/2014 at 4:31 pm #74835
      AvatarAlyssa Short
      Participant

      Oh yeah, I know what you mean. To be honest, I’m not completely sure how exactly it’s supposed to work, but I’ve just tried to stick to the principle of maintaining a braced and neutral a position as is possible. In this regard, I guess I would say don’t think of it as keeping your back flat, but rather as neutral as you can, and keeping your pelvis as even, and as close to the ground as you can, while doing the stretches. Don’t push it further than you can without breaking into a faulty position. Not being able to achieve the full stretch in a stable position is likely just another indication of mobility restrictions that need to be worked on. Maybe do this hip opener exercise, and test to see if it improves your ability to keep your lumbar neutral while in flexion?

    • 06/30/2014 at 8:39 pm #74889
      Xiomara RomeroXiomara Romero
      Participant

      I should have posted this a while ago.  I tried making a video at work with side and back views, maybe this would show it better than I can explain it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BmrG6sbMN_I

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