Lower Body Rotation...or Discovering Your Hips
09 Aug 2010
by Joey Diovisalvi
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Hip Turn with Medicine Ball
This exercise is dealing with lower-body rotation. In Coach Joey D's new book,
Fix Your Body Fix Your Swing, one of the assessments involves the following exercise. The difference is that you will perform this exercise while holding a medicine ball between your knees. This means your hips will go through a slightly reduced range of motion. Without the ball, for example, you may find that you are able to turn and drop your right leg to the side without your left shoulder coming up off the floor. When you try to get your left leg to stack on top of your right leg, perhaps your shoulder will pull off the floor.
Here, because the ball is preventing your left leg from being able to stack directly on top of the right leg, you may find your body able to perform the move properly. The medicine ball will also strengthen your hips, spinal rotators, and core.
Now, you’re dealing with eight pounds of resistance while you’re doing it. You also have to keep a firm squeeze on the medicine ball to hold it in place. Just about every known law of physics will back me up when I say that you definitely don’t want to loosen your grip on the ball when you’re in the knees-straight-up position.
How to do it:
Lie back on the floor or on a mat with your legs bent and a medicine ball squeezed between your knees. Place your arms out to your sides, palms down, to help stabilize you. Raise your legs by flexing at the hips. Your thighs should be perpendicular to the floor and your lower legs should be parallel to the floor. Both your hips and knees should be flexed at ninety degrees.
Slowly drop your hips to the right side until the outer part of your right leg touches the floor. Try to keep your left shoulder from coming up off the floor. Hold for a beat, then slowly return to the starting position. Don’t drop the ball—it will negatively impact more than just your golf game!
Hold the knees-straight- up position for a beat, then slowly drop your knees to the left side. Try to get the outer part of your left leg to touch the floor without your right shoulder lifting off the floor. Hold for a beat, then return to the starting position to complete the rep.
Do as many reps as you are capable of doing well. Doing three of them well is better than doing six poorly. You will definitely feel the separation and the rotation. Good Luck.