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Having trouble with valgus knee collapse, ankle pronation, or valgus ankle collapse during jumping & landing? Try this mini-band jump squat exercise. Yes there’s some poor quality research and misinformation being spread that valgus knee collapse and ankle collapse aren’t a big deal. I’ve been in this industry for 16 years and I can tell you firsthand it’s something we want to avoid, plain & simple.

Yes there is such a thing as proper mechanics just as there’s such a thing as improper or faulty mechanics. Valgus collapse falls into the latter. Yes, some people can get away with it for years but just like smoking, poor mechanics eventually catches up to everyone at some point and in some fashion. Just because there are not immediate ramifications doesn’t mean it’s not problematic or bad for the body (i.e. ballet dancers). And just because it doesn’t produce immediate pain during that time for that individual doesn’t mean that it won’t eventually. It’s just a matter of time. In fact poor body mechanics are directly related to the musculoskeletal pain humans experience on a daily level.

Learn to improve your body mechanics & muscle function and watch a majority of your pain disappear. Anyone else who says differently unfortunately has never experienced the power of proper movement or and is likely an incompetent coach and practitioner as they’re unable to improve pain due to their inability to properly coach movement. Stop looking to pain science to rationalize your poor body mechanics & dysfunctional movement that produce pain, inflammation, & injury, and start addressing your muscle activation issues and movement dysfunction. Oh and yes posture is related to this topic. Check out my full article on Pain Science at https://www.advancedhumanperformance.com/blog/pain-science-exercise

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Perhaps the best way to start off training the oblique slings with contralateral hip and arm activation patterns is to perform a basic isometric sprinting simulation position. Simply hold a single leg stand while driving the elevated leg into maximal 90-degree hip flexion and simultaneously driving the arms into contralateral flexion and extension as my NFL athletes show here. Also make sure to maintain maximal dorsiflexion in the ankle of the elevated leg as this represents optimal foot position during sprinting mechanics.

Essentially you’re holding an isometric stride position that mimics the extension-driving position of a sprint during the maximal velocity phase or upright position. Focus on bracing the daylights out of the core and pulling the stomach in as aggressively as possible rather than allowing lumbar extension to occur in the low back region. Additionally try to create as much full body tension as possible by continually driving the knee and arms as aggressively as possible. This is where the oblique slings comes into play.

The harder you drive the front arm into 90 degree flexion (near the face) by aggressively recruiting the biceps, front deltoids, and upper chest, the more you’ll be recruiting the core, oblique, adductor, and hip flexor of the opposite/contralateral side as this represents the nature and function of the anterior oblique sling. Similarly, the harder you drive the rear arm into extension by aggressively firing the lats, triceps, and rear deltoids, the more you’ll recruit the lumbar muscles and contralateral hip extensors/glutes of the other leg as this describes the nature and function of the posterior oblique sling.

It’s important to make sure the hips are aligned mediolateral as each hip, knee, ankle, and foot should form a relatively straight line without any side to side deviation. Additionally the foot of the support/down leg should be perfectly straight or even slightly internally rotated to help maximize foot torque into the ground.

The harder you drive the knee and arms while bracing the core and maintaining perfect body alignment, the greater the intramuscular tension should build throughout your body until it ultimately ramps up to near maximal levels from head to toe. In fact this should essentially feel like a maximal effort overcoming isometric hold where the athlete is giving 100% physical and mental exertion. This is one of those drills where you get what you put into it. If you do it right you should feel like you just performed several max effort sprints.

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The bird dog quadruped row is a move I introduced several years ago on T-Nation. Since then I’ve seen it used quite frequently amongst fitness professionals and trainers due to its effectiveness. Unfortunately over the years I’ve witnessed many coaches, trainers, and athletes, run into a variety of form & technique issues on this movement particularly as it relates to the lower body as they fail to reach proper alignment throughout the hips.

For instance the elevated leg is oftentimes not full extended and the hip extensors/glutes of that leg aren’t full engaged. If the hips aren’t properly aligned and activated this creates a chain reaction throughout the kinetic chain which compromises activation throughout the core thereby reducing spinal rigidity. Simply put lack of proper leg positioning can impact the entire movement.

By performing these with a mini band around the feet and ankles of the legs as I show here, this requires the lifter to maximally engage the hip flexor of the bent leg and the hip extensors of the elevated leg. Due to the contralateral hip activation effect associated with the oblique slings, the harder one leg/hip fires into flexion the more this causes the other hip to fire into extension and visa versa until incredibly high levels of full body tension is produced as these forces must be transmitted across the core and pelvis.

Additionally the harder the glute of the elevated leg fires, the greater the activation of the lat of the working arm (due to the nature of posterior oblique sling) which ultimately increases the effectiveness of this movement for targeting the upper back and lats. And yes, this can easily be turned into a functional strength and hypertrophy movement provided you’re core is strong enough to handle heavy loads as I demonstrate with a 100 lb dumbbell.

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Here I have two of my awesome clients Charlene Harrison and Austin Kane performing a longitudinal hip thrust single leg chest press using contralateral knee drive. Besides blasting the glutes, hip flexors, and hamstrings, these also torch the abs as you’ll be working overtime not only to keep perfect body alignment but to maintain balance and control. Any mediolateral deviations with your feet, hips, or core will result in loss of balance and stability. The harder you drive your hip and knee into the 90 degree position the more dialed in this feels and the more stable the lift becomes.

With that said, a few things to point out about each persons’ form here. Charlene could have driven her knee slightly harder into the 90 degree hip flexion position especially as she fatigued. Austin could have elevated the foot of the hip flexion leg a bit more to maintain a sharper 90 degree angle which also would have worked his core and hips to a greater extent. These are deceptively difficult and require several sets to perfectly dial in. I also recommend starting off with a t-bench setup that I’ve written about over the past years (laying on the bench width wise like a hip thruster) as it’s easier to maintain balance and control in comparison to the longitudinal position as the sides of the bench can’t help anchor you. Once you’ve mastered these try using band tension on the hips to increase the difficulty.

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This is a great lunge variation for targeting the stabilizers around the hips and core. It can be performed contralateral (opposite arm and opposite leg loaded) as shown in the video or ipsilateral (same arm same leg loaded).

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The contralateral hip drive position can also be applied to ab rollouts as Leslie shows here. Make sure you master the standard bear crawl ab rollout first before attempting these single leg bear crawl (bear dog) variations as the difficulty is inordinately high. The contralateral hip drive position which engages both the anterior and posterior oblique slings combined with the anti-extension component of the ab rollout literally fires up the abs and core to unusually high levels.

If that still doesn’t do it for you, try adding a mini band to the feet and hips as Leslie shows in the second variation.

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MAIN OPTION

Few gyms provide lat pulldown stations that are tall enough to allow the individual to stand and perform lat pulldowns. However by anchoring bands onto the top of a squat rack this provides such an option. Besides, providing a lat pulldown variation that transfers exceptionally well to improving the overhead press due to the same standing position, these also allow the implementation of the contralateral hip activation position.
Simply perform single arm or double arm lat pulldowns in a single leg standing fashion while also driving the contralateral hip into 90 degree hip flexion. Besides taxing the core and hips, this also produces incredibly high levels of lat activation. For instance, when performed in an ipsilateral fashion the harder the elevated leg fires into hip flexion the greater the opposite fires into hip extension. This creates high levels of glute activation ultimately traveling up the kinetic chain and posterior oblique sling producing greater lat activation on the opposite side of the body.

ALTERNATE EXERCISE

The underhand grip lat pulldown is a great vertical pulling exercise for crushing the lats while also blasting the biceps as it places the arms into a biomechanically stronger position to handle greater loads. Focus on using eccentric isometrics to find your technique and use the optimal 90 degree joint angles.

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The single leg overhead press has always been one of my favorite combination stabilization and upper body movements. However, over the last year I’ve begun implementing the contralateral hip drive position more frequently as a means of creating greater full body tension as well as overhead pressing mechanics. Here’s why this is so effective.

Perhaps the single most common issue during overhead presses is poor core activation that inevitably produces excessive lumbar extension and low back arch. By relying on the contralateral hip drive position this not only helps improve hip and postural alignment but it insures that the low back can’t excessively arch since the core has to work overtime to maintain the contralateral flexion and extension position. To further increase both the effectiveness and maximize core activation, try adding a mini band as my NFL athlete Taylor Heinicke shows here.