Thunderbolt Rows for Hypermobile Strength & Stability

There are many reasons a person may have weak and shortened hip flexors, two of the most common being:

1. An anterior pelvic tilt, which generally shortens the hip flexors while lengthening the hamstrings, relative to one another. Where one shortens, the other lengthens, and vice versa.

2. A common result from spending a lot of time in positions where our hips are in flexion, like sitting.

Muscles of the Anterior Thigh & Hip

The primary movers of our hip flexors are our Illiopsoas muscles, with some muscles of the Quadriceps and Adductors assisting depending on what we're doing.

• Adduction means pulling toward the body whereas abduction means pulling away from the body.

Since hip flexion shortens the flexors, we want to do the opposite to lengthen them - enter hip extension. This means we want to focus on (safely) getting our hips into extension as a way to lengthen them.

This can be especially complicated if you're hypermobile because getting into hip extension requires a degree of deep core, pelvic, and spinal stability, as well as body awareness that we often lack.

With this mind-body disconnect, we can struggle to know or sense safe ranges of motion. It can be hard to know if we're getting into the appropriate muscles, which can lead to cramping and injury. All of these reasons mean traditional static stretching is often relatively unsafe and/or ineffective for hypermobile folks.

In order to safely stretch hypermobile hip flexors, I love using isometric contractions with the hip flexors in a lengthened position. This means strengthening the muscle while it's in a lengthened position by holding the muscle engagement for 3 or more seconds.

• For folks with an anterior tilt or very weak/tight hip flexors, this often means putting the hips into neutral to begin as that's already a lengthened position for them, and then progressing into hip extension.

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The Move

These thunderbolt rows are one way you can incorporate isometric contractions with lengthened hip flexors while simultaneously strengthening thoracic and scapular stabilizer muscles.

They are intermediate level, meaning you must be able to stabilize your core and lumbar spine while your hips are held in extension to avoid low back issues.

Positioning:

• Start in a row with your band pulled toward the body, elbows stay toward midline even as you reach out, like you're holding something between your forearms

• Hips on feet (or block/pillow on top of feet) and pelvis in neutral

Moving:

• Exhale as you lift your hips into Thunderbolt pose, pushing them into neutral or extension (pushing them forward)

  • Engage the glutes and core to protect the low back and maximize the movement

• Inhale the hands forward to release the row while in Thunderbolt pose (isometric hip flexor strength & length)

  • Stay lifted through your thoracic spine to make sure your scapula don't reach away from your ribs

• Exhale row, pulling the elbows toward the back of the body by way of the mid-back muscles (isometric hip flexor strength & length)

  • This is a slight retraction of the shoulder blades using muscles like the rhomboids

• Inhale lower hips to feet/support (isometric row for mid-back)

• Repeat

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