Fixing A Hip Shift In A Squat

Ever get that sway in a squat where it feels like one leg has more weight on it than the other?

Do you feel like one hip moves better than the other?
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Why is that happening and is it going to cause a problem down the road?

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The real answer to that question is “it may, or may not be a problem”.

I know what you are thinking, “That’s exactly the answer I was looking for 🙄”.

The most common weight shifts we see in a squat are to the right, so we will stick with that theme for today.

The reason the right may be more common is that we have an internal bias to be shifted towards our right side. (Yes, even if you are a lefty).

This is due to the fact that we have an asymmetrical internal structure from our organs. They aren’t the same side to side. So they create an internal force that biases right sided movement.

Generally this is being managed without our knowledge so we can do all the amazing things our bodies are meant to do.

We still need to be able to shift towards the left side, but when our bias pushes us too far to the right, we tend to get the shift in the squat.
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A good starting point would be to initiate a turn towards the left side in a drill that is shown below. 

The main goal is to keep the knees pointing forward, and the right foot is slightly ahead so that is makes it easier to turn towards the left hip. The heel elevation on the left side also allows us to turn better as well.

Another way would be to force the shift more towards the right with a band pull.

This would make the body reflexively correct by pushing out of the right side more and shift towards the left. You could do this with the feet even during warm-up squat sets, or utilize the previous exercise with the staggered feet with in a warm-up to start to learn to turn to the left. 

Both of these are potential strategies to correct the right hip shift in a squat because they bias the right glute to activate more, and turn the body towards the left.

Perhaps you have a deeper ingrained pattern or even experience a left sided hip shift.

Schedule a Free Discovery Call with us.

We can do a deep dive into what your limitations are and get very clear on what you need to achieve and the step necessary to correcting your problem.
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(Calls are limited to only 5 per week, so act fast!) 

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