TORSO
ROTATION: HIP ROTATION WITH A CABLE
For athletes, there
is no area more neglected in weight-training that rotational strength.
Yet, when you think of nearly any sport, what movement are you doing
more often than not? Virtually all sports require constant twisting,
rotating or turning. Whether it is during running, cutting, throwing
or hitting any kind of ball, every sport demands strength for turning
your body in some fashion.
Nearly all weight-training
exercises occur in the sagital plane (bending/straightening such
as squats, presses
or curls) or in
the frontal plane (out to the side as in hip
abduction or shoulder
abduction). Performing rotational exercises can give you an
advantage since that movement is common in sports.
The following
exercise is an excellent solution to this dilemma. It may seem silly
or unorthodox. And it certainly won't make the cover of Muscle and
Fitness Magazine. But this is one of the most functional, beneficial
exercises for improving strength and performance in nearly every
sport.
 MPEG:
Torso and Hip Rotation with a cable
CORRECT
FORM
1) Grasp a cable pulley attached to a pulley machine (such as a cable
crossover). Step far enough away from the machine so that you take
up all of the slack of the cable. The cable should be angled in front
of you (the insertion of the cable in the machine about 12-16 inches
in front) so that the cable can pass in front of you.
Turn your hips
inward toward the cable machine, pivoting your feet and rotating
your whole body. Keep your knees bent, your shoulders back and always
look toward your hands. You should look like this:
2) Keeping your
arms and shoulders in the same position, tighten your abdominals
and turn at your hips and then your waist away from the cable machine.
3) Rotate as
far away from the machine as possible. Hold 1-2 seconds, then slowly
return. Allow your knees to bend as shown below.
5) Inhale as
you return. Exhale as you you pull.
MUSCLES
USED
SAFETY CONSIDERATIONS/PRECAUTIONS
Be sure to watch
for lower back pain when doing this exercise, which can occur when
performing a rotational exercise with an injured or strained spine.
You should feel all of the tension develop in the legs and abdominals
(especially in the obliques).
If you have difficulty
feeling this in your abdominals, and become fatigued in the arms instead,
try bringing the cable closer to your body.
EFFECTIVENESS
The effectiveness
of this exercise was described in the introduction. This is not an
"isolation" type of exercise. It is meant to develop functional
strength in the legs and abdominals in a way that simulates real movement.
The abdominal muscles
are doing what they would normally do - not working like a sit-up
or crunch, but turning the
body and stabilizing the spine simultaneously.
The leg muscles
are doing what THEY would normally do - rotate the body as in a
baseball swing, a golf swing, a pass, a spin-move or even a punch
or a block. |
