Mike –

I noticed in your Single-Leg Solution that Lance isn’t always setting up in the 90-90 split-squat position you have discussed before. Why is that?

Thanks!

This is a great question, and in all honesty, I’ve been meaning to write a blog post about it for months now, so here goes!There are two reasons that Lance wasn’t in the 90-90 position the entire time. Let’s examine both.

#1 – Lance had good hip flexor extensibility and control over his pelvis.

There are several goals of performing exercises in split-stance. They are to:

• Develop a more appropriate active stabilization pattern around the core/midsection (i.e. glutes/obliques) versus hip flexors and spinal erectors.
• Actively lengthen the hip flexors.
• Develop stability in a split-stance position (or one with a narrow base of support).
• Develop strength and control in the hip stabilizers.
• To develop stability and control over the pelvis.

Let’s focus on the last one, as it’s the most pertinent to this topic.

When most people go deeper and deeper into a lunge or split-squat, they begin to lose control over their pelvis. In other words, they tend to fall into an anterior pelvic tilt.

The hip flexors are forced to lengthen, and the restraints to anterior pelvic tilt (your external obliques and gluteals) are forced to work incredibly hard to control it.

If we allow most people to set-up in a position where their trailing leg is very extended (trailing leg past vertical to the ground), it’s going to be incredibly challenging, if not impossible, for them to go through any significant range of motion without losing their neutral pelvic alignment.

Lance, however, has pretty respectable extensibility through his hip flexors, and furthermore, understands the needs for neutral pelvis. So he can control the position of his pelvis better than most.

This was the first reason I moved to a 90-90 starting position; most people can’t get into a hip hyper-extended position while maintaining a neutral pelvic alignment.

#2 – I hadn’t thought of it yet!

As with all things in life, some of our best ideas come after the fact!

After we had shot all the materials for the Single-Leg Solution, I was looking for a way to make the coaching of split-stance exercises more repeatable. I’m a coach first and foremost, and I wanted to find a way to make the set-up, execution and performance of this exercise consistent across numerous clients.

The end-goals were always there – work on hip stability, develop active stability around the core/pelvis, lengthen the hip flexors, etc., but it wasn’t until after the product was released that I came up with the 90/90 version of the lift!

The bottom line is, 90/90 is a quick and effective way for coaches and trainers to get their clients and athletes into a consistent starting position.

Before I wrap this up, one more final note on 90/90 split-stance exercises.

I think the 90/90 position is ideal not only because it’s a consistent way to teach the lfits to your clients, but it’s the most effective way to perform the lift from a biomechanical perspective as well.

Beyond the benefits we discussed above (pelvic control, hip flexor lengthening, oblique/gluteal strength, etc.) the 90/90 position also allows us to distribute the load equally across all the hip/thigh muscles.

This is why I rarely define single-leg training within the broad context of quad-dominant or hip-dominant work. Quality single-leg training/split-stance training leads to balanced hip/thigh development.

I hope that helps answer your question – it was a great one!

All the best

MR