Metabolism is the rate at which your body converts the calories into energy. Muscle requires energy to function, so the more lean muscle you have, the higher your metabolic rate. The hips and abs lead the body movements. When we have a full range of motion in the hips, the entire body benefits.
3 Movements to Activate the Deep Hip
These three dynamic movements are designed and sequenced specifically to access the hip flexors and activate the psoas—the core muscle that connects the lumbar vertebrae to the femur—and re-establish full range of motion in the hip joint.
The first exercise: Figure 4, unloads your spine. We spend all day vertical, and our back often rounded, shoulders forward (especially if you sit at a computer all day). “Loading the spine horizontally puts you in mid-back/thoracic extension,” explains Bradley. “And as you cross the leg over and push that leg away you’re teaching the leg bone how to rotate in the hip joint.” Even if you just did this static exercise, you’d spend the rest of the day with activated hip flexors.
Next: the Bear Crawl Sideways focuses on lateral hip motion you don’t often get in day-to-day life. “We’re so linear [straight ahead or up and down] so when we move left to right, it makes you load one hip at a time,” says Bradley. “And because most people favor one side versus the other—with the gas pedal, clicking a mouse, carry around a shoulder bag—we need to wake up these deep hip muscles to do the work while your spine is loaded in extension.” In this exercise, be sure to pull back with the hips, keeping as much of the work out of the shoulders and arms as you can. By loading the hips one at a time, you are ensuring that both sides are getting the same amount of work, effectively balancing this muscle group.
Finally: the Fake Jumps target the psoas and low back muscles. Think about this exercise as a plyometric jump that never gets off the ground. “You create that movement of jumping up onto a box but safely,” says Bradley. “Swing your arms forward at high speed and then almost push off with your legs.” This exercise is a surprising amount of work. Not only do you drop down into a deep squat, but the sheer force of energy required to spring up will surprise you.
If you can fire this foundational hip flexor group on a sustained, daily basis, your muscles will be conditioned to stay activated. The more frequently you access and activate these deep muscles, the more lean muscle mass you will create, thus, raising your metabolic rate.
By Hailey Wist
Healing through Art 