Episode 48 - The Hip Episode: Your Hips Don’t Lie (But They Do Compensate)

Can you actually move your hip… without your spine, pelvis, or foot jumping in to help?

In this episode of Three Questions, I break down why the hip, our second most mobile joint, often gets blamed for problems it didn’t create. I walk you through how the hip interacts with the foot, pelvis, spine, and even your pelvic floor, and why compensation patterns aren’t the enemy… they’re the reason you’re still moving. The real question isn’t “is your hip tight?” It’s: can your brain differentiate your hip from everything around it?

In This Episode You’ll Hear:

• A simple way to test if your hip is really moving or just borrowing motion from somewhere else

• Why knee, back, and foot pain often start higher up the chain

• What urination, pelvic floor tension, and orgasm have to do with hip mobility

Whether you teach movement, rehab injuries, or just want your body to respond instead of react, this episode invites you to check your work and maybe stop blaming your hips for everything.

Links & Resources For This Episode:
Episode 46: The Shoulder Episode: Exploring the Truth About How You Move This Complex Joint System
Find a Neuro Studio Teacher Near You
Connect with me on Instagram
Connect with me on Threads

Transcript

Meghann Koppele Duffy: Welcome to Three Questions where critical thinking is king, and my opinions and research are only here to support your learning and hopefully deeper understanding. Hey, I'm your host Meghann, and I am so honored you clicked on Three Questions today so we can talk about your hips, because contrary to whatever Shakira said, hips do lie.

I mean. They don't always lie, but they can be sneakier than we really realize. So before I kind of get into the questions, let's just talk about what the hip is and what it isn't. So right now, if I said to everybody, put your hands on your hips, I guarantee everybody's gonna put their hands kind of at their waist, right?

Which is right at the top of your pelvis. So I want everybody to do that right now and kind of feel your pelvic bone. So kind of push down on your hands. Okay, so that's your pelvis. And what you're really touching is the top of your ileum on your right and left side. Now, if you take your hand, now, remember it's your body.

Take your right hand and slide it down your pants. I want you to feel your sacrum and you should feel it kind of divots in on the right or left. And this is where our pelvis meets our sacrum, which is pretty much the bottom of your spine. Right. So that's a very important joint. And then go to the front of your pelvis and touch your pubic bone.

It's your pubic bone. Touch it. And it was actually funny. A student text messaged me yesterday, Meghann, why can't people find their pubic bones? And I was like, that is a great question. Well, number one is because it would be weird if you were trying to touch your pubic bone when you're out in public. Also in a Pilates or movement class, you might not palpate that bone in public because it's near your genitals, but I want everybody to kind of try to find it.

Okay, take a moment. So that's where your pelvis attaches in the front, and that joint's called your pubic symphysis. It's a very stable joint. Now if you have given birth and your pubic symphysis separated, not a pleasant experience, it is. Um, I've never experienced it, but I've heard it is very painful. So we've got our pubic symphysis.

We've got our SI joints at the back where our sacrum meets our pelvis, so our SI joint. And then we have our hip joint, that's the ball and socket. So like think you're wearing kind of, I don't call them giant underwear. I like a full brief. So think like a proper bathing suit bottom, or like a speedo, right?

So the hip joint is that ball and socket, right in that crease. So if you're watching me on YouTube, I'm sitting with my legs crossed. So it's hard to see in black sweatpants. But that hip crease where the leg bone shoots out, and it can be really confusing. 'cause what I want everybody to do right now is put your feet on the ground if they're not there.

And what I want you to do is slouch. Okay? So sometimes our brain gets our lower back confused with our hip joint because when we try to move our hip, we move our spine and vice versa. So today's episode is not about the spine, it's about the hip. But I want you to think all those other joints I just mentioned are can be problematic.

I'm not gonna say they are problematic, they can be. Okay. So now that you have a little bit better understanding of that ball in socket, just notice how it feels when you're sitting. I like to visualize an x-ray because I feel like everybody's seen an x-ray. So you see these white bones and then there's black space.

So I want everybody to visualize the bone in their upper leg, which is called your femur. It's a big guy, and I want you to think it's kind of got a ball at the end and it fits into a little socket at the pelvis. But I want you to think right now, is there a lot of space there? Does that joint feel smushed, compressed?

Is there a lot of black space around that bone when you're sitting? Now if, if it's available, stand up. And notice how that feels different around your hip joint. Okay, so the hip joint is the second most mobile joint in the body and one of our shoulder joints we talked about in the previous episode. So the ball and socket are glenohumeral joint of the upper body.

That's the most mobile. And it's not like people aren't using these joints, but when we move them sometimes, or a lot of times, our brain kind of pairs it with nearby joints, which is not wrong. But over time, it closes off the range of motion of the bigger joint because it's coupled with other joints. So before you get all upset of how I figure this out, let's just take a deep breath.

This is something nobody wants to tell you. Yeah. That compensation pattern that's causing you pain. Well, it's also why you're alive. Okay? Think if you're driving a car and you get a flat tire. You can't. And people are like, oh, you can drive. Oh, all right, come on. You can't drive very far. You're gonna break the rim.

The car's gonna get screwed up. You know, eventually it's gonna stop. So our car can't compensate around a flat tire, but our body can. And that's what's so amazing about the human body. And I want you to give your body respect. I know some things probably hurt right now or are annoying you, but thank your brain for not stopping you and finding an alternative strategy.

And maybe ask your brain, Hey, give me some more signs, because this strategy is no longer working. We need something new. Something I say all the time, um, if you ever hear me lecture for the neuro studio, my other company is, we add, we don't subtract. Let's use Gary Koppele. That's my father, for example. He's got a bad foot.

It's really painful. Okay. But a cortisone shot always helps. Yeah. Okay. It's decreasing the inflammation, it's gonna decrease your pain for a while. And so I say to him, that's the the mat. That's the perfect time for you to add, not subtract. Get your brain to move your hip more, move your shoulders, move other areas so your foot doesn't have to move so much.

But listen, is it really motivating? Like say your foot has been killing you, but now you feel great, you're gonna be less motivated to do something about it 'cause you're feeling good. So I just want you to think. We've got this joint, our hip joint, second most mobile joint in the body. And I think we could maximize its usage a bit so that other parts of our body, our knees, our feet, our spine, don't have to rotate, lean, and accommodate for what our hip isn't doing.

And if you're a movement practitioner, I want you to think about it. I mean, I get people with hip pain. They're usually dancers who have labral tears or, you know, because they're taking to excessive ranges of motion. But it's very rare someone comes in with hip pain again, unless they have hip dysplasia or something.

Don't, let's, let's, you know, not be so technical, but we get a lot of knee pain, a lot of ankle pain, a lot of back pain, a lot of neck pain. So it's not, it's so funny. I just hope after this episode you might be a little bit more excited or interested or have some ideas for your body or your clients. Okay, so enough yapping.

Let's go with question one. Can you move your hip joint so that ball and socket, moving the leg bone without moving or changing the joint ankle of your foot and ankle? And you have to be like, what? Hold on. Say that again. Can you move your leg, your right leg out in, up, down, without changing the joint angle at your foot?

And you're probably like, yeah, but how do you really know? What's super interesting is our foot has so many 33 joints in our foot, so we could be stealing range of motion from all these joints. So I'm gonna, before I even let you think about the question. I know not everybody can do this right now, but even if you're like in your car, try this with your left leg, not your gas pedal or brake leg, and please do it at a stoplight.

Like don't do it while you're on the Garden State Parkway, or whatever road you're on. Notice how your foot is exactly in your shoe. Okay? Move it around, roll it out to the side, roll it in. Like really feel it hitting all the edges. Okay? Now remember that game operation, I was never good at it. I was never gonna be a brain surgeon.

Uh, for many reasons, you know, with that game of operation, you gotta pull something out without touching the edges. I want you to right now, see if you can move your hip joint. So what are some options? Just lifting the leg up and hip flexion. If you're sitting so knee up to the ceiling, you can kick the leg out to the side.

You can kick the leg straight forward. You can kick it back. You can circle the leg. But here's the deal. Just notice. Can you do that without your foot moving around in your ship? It without your big toe jamming into the side without the pressure increasing in your heel. And you might be like, hold on, hold on.

Gimme a second, Meg. Well, you can always pause me. All right. We're not live here. But notice, notice where the pressure's shifting. And I know what you're thinking right now. This is not possible. Yes, it is. And what you might be feeling is, yeah, but I feel like I'm moving my foot to do this. Aha. Because when we're trying to move limbs.

We don't realize those micro movements, but when your foot tries to stabilize where you have to go, opposition of it, you might feel that. Let me give you an example. Total. Total. Let's pivot everybody. Slouch like big. Okay. Can you tell your slouching? Yeah, because I'm at my end range. However, think when you're like sitting at a computer, at a football game, concert, whatever you're at.

Do you notice the slow slouch? So right now, slouch as little as human. PO humanly possible. Did you realize you slouched? No. I know you slouched. Do you think your brain's gonna recognize that now? Slouch a little more. Slouch a little more. Slouch a little more. This is why we, when we slouch, we're like, oh God, I don't realize how much I was slouching, because it's slow over time.

So we don't wanna be aware of every micro movement in our body. That would be pretty annoying. So just give it a try. Try to move your hip joint, and I'm gonna challenge you in your next Pilates class, in your next, you know, weight training session. When your leg is open chain, meaning the foot is not on the floor or it's not in a fixed position, I want you to, yes, throw on your sneakers and Pilates.

I want you to see if you can do a sidekick or move your leg or body without the foot doing a lot of crap. Okay? Now, if you're like, well, I can't wear sneakers, okay, use your sock. Tie a TheraBand around your foot or worse comes to worst. I love using this to get people's attention. Especially my dancers take your foot into an end range.

So sometimes I'll have them do like say if we're lying on our side, big toe down or pinky toe up, because I want you to feel a slight stretch in your foot. Now, if you're hypermobile, you're gonna have to go a little bigger, okay? We want it to be pain free. I just need you to have a specific sensation in your foot.

Now your job is to move your leg. Without changing that sensation at the foot. So don't lose that stretch. Don't stretch it more. Don't stretch it less. Okay. Last but not least, use a mirror. I love this because I love using peripheral vision and visual exercises to help fill my proprioceptive gaps. Now hold on a sec.

Do not look at your foot moving in the mirror. We're not Jedi. Stop trying to Jedi mind trick it. It. What I want you to do is lie on your side or wherever you are and put your foot in a specific position. So I'm gonna describe what you're seeing on YouTube. So I've got my hand, pretend this is a leg, I'm gonna bring my hand like this.

So what I'm doing is I'm not gonna try to micromanage and be like, don't move your thumb. What I'm gonna do is I'm gonna look at my pointer finger in relation to the sleeve of my shirt. So I'm gonna lift and lower my arm. And naturally it's gonna kind of wanna move away and towards, so my job is just not changing and pause.

Here's where it wants to really move away. My job is just not change the distance between those points. Okay? I'm giving my brain sensory feedback with the goal of that foot and ankle to stabilize in any position I choose it. And should it be a perfect foot position. No. Do you step down on the ground the same every step?

Do, like, I love changing, I love training good foot positions. I'm, I'm not against that, but we gotta be realistic. Train the feet Weird. Okay, so put the foot in a weird position. Give your brain information, show the hip. What's up? I want you guys to test this. I want you to let me know, and it's weirdly harder than you think.

And question one b. So I want you to check. Can you move your hip without changing the joint ankle of the foot. Angle? Why is that word so hard for me to say? Joint angle of the foot. Can you also move your hip joint with a foot? With a fixed foot? With your foot fixed? Okay, with a fixed foot. Say that three times fast.

Now, what do I mean by that? All right, well, like say you're doing a deadlift. You are in a closed chain position. Your foot is flat on the ground and you're mobilizing your hip joint. You're actually moving your pelvis around your legs. But I want you to notice now, please do not think I'm saying the foot shouldn't adjust, collapse and serve.

I don't collapse is like a ugh. Um, I'd rather like adjust, accommodate. Our foot is designed to move. It's designed to stabilize and mobilize when needed. But could you challenge yourself and say, okay, what if we stabilized our foot in this position so we can entice the brain to do more at the hip? So use the same game of operation.

Keep your foot in your shoe. See if you can keep it there, and if that, like if you're like, Meg, I feel like I'm like trying to cure cancer here. Let it go. Sometimes what I like to do in my deadlift is I'll go, Hey, where's the pressure of my foot increasing? All right. Go to it now. Stay there and try to finish the range of motion.

So keep doing it without the pressure decreasing at your foot. That should light up that hip. Great. Then I would also love for you to try doing the movement without the pressure increasing in that foot. So basically by going to where the pressure increased, where the pressure increased is where your foot is actually mobilizing to connect to the ground.

So I'm basically saying, okay, mobilize to connect to the ground, but then stay there. So I'm gonna ask the foot to stabilize in that position. 'cause if the foot's stable, we can't move from it and we've gotta move the hip ending. The other one is, I'm trying to trigger a response in your cerebellum, a part of your brain that, um, basically, um, should clock movement errors and fix them.

I'm basically saying, all right. We got a motor map. I wanna do this. Can I do it without doing that? And see what happens. Because it's important that your hip can fully express itself when your foot is fully connected to the ground with your heel lifted and with your foot off the ground, especially in the gait cycle.

I love that people are working ground force right up to the hemp with heavy pressure. I love that. But you also need to make sure your hip can respond when there's light pressure from your foot. Like right now, you're sitting down, there's not heavy pressure under your foot and when you go to stand up, that huge change in pressure.

If your hip can't accommodate to that change, we're gonna have a problem elsewhere. Usually that's why they, I think they call it like theater knee people will get knee pain. Yeah, because your hip's not responding to the change of load your knee, which is a translator. A force is like, Ugh, I gotta do all this.

Or even worse, your back will kick in or something else. Okay, now I did mention foot, flat foot in the air, heel lifted. That's an important part of our gait cycle. So think when you step your leg is you're gonna bend your knee, lift your heel's, what we call push off. So challenge yourself right now. Lift maybe one of your heels.

I like to do one at a time and find your shoe with your foot. Okay? I always really over mobilize. I'm kind of at my MTP. Sorry, I'm talking technical. It's where your toes meet your metatarsals. So boom. When I do that, I really come up outta my shoe, not in a way that's uncomfortable. So what I do is I kind of lift my heel and then I lower my heel to really connect to the shoe.

Keep in mind you kind of have to use, um, a more flexible shoe. I really love, um, my Adidas. I'm a Nike girl, but I love doing this in my Adidas. I don't know what the brand is, the style, but they're like bendy really? Get the adida sneaker. That's bendy. Okay, not helpful at all. Um, uh, Joe, let me see if I can find a link to this style of shoes and we can put it in the show notes.

Um, but I will probably forget, so if you wanna know, just reach out. Anyway. We're losing the plot. Once you connect to that heel, I want you to push your knee in opposition of the heel without lifting your heel out of the shoe. Do the movement, staying in your shoe in that position, really challenge those hips.

I'm telling you, even if it's isometric, I'm proud of you and you're gonna work to improve the range of motion, because if this stuff was easy, well I probably wouldn't have a job. Number one. It's challenging and it's challenging because we have already ingrained movement patterns that we're using.

Number two, the sensory input is always different. We, we wear different shoes, different socks, different surfaces. And to make matters worse, our foot is not designed to walk on flat earth. Okay? So humans, we need everything flat, which is kind of cool because like, would you really want all bumps on your floors in your house?

But we've made everything flat. Okay? Easier terrain, but our foot really isn't designed to walk on that. So again, with your hip, challenging your feet in, err, what's a good word here? I keep saying weird. I wanna say unique. Put your foot in a position and see what you can do with it. Okay, now we're gonna get a little friendlier.

We got friendly with ourself earlier. We're gonna get back to that now. So I think it's best to do this standing, but you can also do this seated. I need you to touch your pubic bones now. Yes, bones. There's two of them. So let's move our right leg. So if you're standing, I just want you to kick your right leg out to the side.

Don't think you have to be standing up tall. Just kind of kick it out to the side. And I want you to notice, just feel your pubic bones. Did they spread apart from each other? Did the right leg really spread apart from both pubic bones, or did both your pubic bones spread away from your left leg? Okay, hold on.

Do it. Do it. See what you feel. Now don't assume anything. Here's what I'd like you to do. I would like you and I call this one of my golfers. This is his warmup. I say hold onto your locker in the golf club. Kick your right leg out to the side. Okay? Now the cue I give him is wherever your genitals are right now.

Leave them there and do not let them get closer to your left leg as you lower and lift the right leg. So he's kicking his right leg out to the side. He might mobilize that left hip, move his spine a little bit, but then he's gonna pause there and he's gonna stabilize in that position and isolate his right leg.

It's small, it's a little tick to tick to. He prefers the genital cue. Other of my clients, I ask them to hold their pubic bones and think if you're moving your right leg, I'd like you to touch the right side of your pubic bone and your left leg. I kind of make an L sometimes and will touch my pubic bone and my inner thigh.

Just make sure you're touching the pubic bone, a bony spot, and if you can't find your pubic bone, just keep your hand in place and don't let the skin move. And once your right leg up, do not change the distance between your fingers, the pubic bone and the left leg, and then tick tock that right leg. See if you can do it.

Then my friends stay with me. Can you lift the right leg without the pubic bones moving away from the left leg? Just try it. I know it's a lot of like show and tell today. Why this is important, guys is because when we move our right leg, oftentimes our left hip mobilizes as well. You'll see this in Pilates exercises where you're like doing sidekick lift and lower and your Pilates teacher might say, pull your abs in.

Lift the side body, which. Not a great cue. Sorry. Your intention is wonderful. You're trying to get them to stabilize their spine, but their spine is not the immediate problem. Look to have them touch their pubic bone and bottom, like I guarantee that left hip is mobilizing and it should be stabilizing.

This is why a lot of people will feel their non-moving leg more 'cause it's trying to stabilize but can't. Okay, so fixing that left hip first and then, you know, don't ignore the spine, you know? But make sure you fix the more mobile joint that's not stabilizing first. Okay? So play around with this and just, I'm not gonna go any more technical.

I want you to think, I need you to differentiate your hips from other joints. Remember that pubic symphysis, the SI joint and the low back throughout your day, I want you to try to move your right and left leg and touch those other joints and just see if you can do your movement without those joints moving.

Okay. Just try it. And if you can't, well, two things might be happening. You might be doing a complex movement where they, you need to move there, or real end range. So like if you're hanging and pulling your knees to your chest. Yeah. I, I want hip flexion, hip flexion, knee flexion. But there's gonna be a certain point when you're lifting your knees up, you've got to do lumbar flexion.

That's gonna kind of work the abs. It's hard. So when you're bending your knees up. Up and your spine is stabilizing. You're working your abs. But then when you flex your spine to bring the knees up higher to your chest, okay, now we're working the abs in a different way. So not wrong to move your spine and your hip.

We just want to have an assessment. Are we actually doing what we want? What we're saying we're doing? That's the key. Okay. So take it to people like, is this really important? Yeah. If you were cooking. And someone gives you a recipe and you're like, nah, I'm gonna make it my own way. Some of you are gonna adapt the recipe and make something even more delicious.

But most of us, if we're like, yeah, I really wanna make chicken Murphy, which is one of my favorite dishes Brian makes for me, but he doesn't put chicken in it. Okay. It was still delicious. It was kind of sausage and peppers and potatoes love, but it's not chicken murphy. So if you want to improve your hip mobility, you better make sure you're differentiating it from other joints and why this is important.

It's not just based off the joints, it's how your brain is mapping. Okay. Which leads me to question three, which is even more personal. I'm gonna keep it brief. So if this is not your speed, listen to the question, think about it on your own time, or just turn the podcast off. I would like to ask you, how is your urine stream, the amount, the frequency, the urgency, or your ability to fully orgasm?

I am going to talk about urination first. Now, we'll talk about urination issues often in the pre and postnatal community, which kind of makes sense. Think about it. Baby is growing inside pubic synthesis. All the joints have to really spread, especially to give birth. There's gonna be some, uh, brain mapping confusion.

Also, you're carrying a load in a very different place than women normally gain weight, okay? So your hips often have trouble, trouble acclimating to that. So number one, if you're pre and postnatal, you gotta see one of our neuro studio teachers to help remap your hips throughout your pregnancy. Trust me, it'll be a game changer.

But we also see this with men as they age. Oftentimes your doctor will ask, how many times are you waking up to pee at night? And they'll say, oh, 2 3 8 17. This has become normalized. I've even had one of my male clients tell me, he's like, oh, I only wake up twice. And the doctor's like, oh, that's great. I wake up like five times and I'm thinking, tell your doctor he needs to see me now.

What I wanna do is not focusing on orgasms and urination. I'm not gonna go into the neurological process of how those happen. If you're interested, I can do another episode on that. What I wanna really talk about is if you are pushing urine out, your stream is decreasing. You have a lot of urgency, you're peeing a lot or a little.

There is some functional things going on as well as could be neurological. Not in that you have a neurological condition, but you've trained your bladder in a different way. So there's these people called pelvic PTs, which are wonderful. However, it's very important not just to release a tight pelvic floor.

Okay, now what is a pelvic floor? It's kind of all these muscles that work together to hold everything up in it. Okay, now many people, they get tight, especially as we age and with a lot of men as they age. The pro, the pelvic floor kind of suffocates and squeezes the prostate. The prostate is gonna have trouble functioning.

It's gonna get enlarged, making this problem worse. Now, do you see a lot of men of any age really doing a lot of hip mobility exercises. And what I mean is hip mobility makes sure they're differentiating the hip from their pubic synthesis, their lower back, their SI, joint, et cetera. No. Now, why this is important, my friends, every step we take our hip and the rest of our body has to respond to our foot.

Right. So as we age, our sensory feedback that our foot is getting and our ability to process it is not as good. Are there things you can do? Of course. But what happens is people's hips stop responding appropriately. They stop moving their hip joint, and what happens is when they're standing still, when they're walking, their hip isn't stabilizing and mobilizing as it should.

So again. The body so brilliantly compensated and kind of grips the pelvic floor used for structural support. Listen, I say this all the time. Train your body to respond, not to react. And a lot of us, our body is reacting kind of fast and aggressive rather than, oh, I got this. Okay. So again, I don't wanna go too into all the details because this episode is about the hip.

But if you're having any of these problems. I want you to find somebody who can help you. I want you to try just what I told you here today. Even if you just differentiate your hip first thing in the morning before you go to bed throughout the day while you're brushing your teeth, three reps here and there paying attention when you're at the gym, because at the gym, working out is not a guarantee of improving your proprioception.

Where, which means where your body is in space, how your brain knows it. It's often just reinforcing the patterns you have and if you're having trouble with any of those things, I listed back pain, you could be actually what we call competitive plasticity. You're making that movement pattern stronger rather than creating a new one.

Is it easy? I mean, it depends how you look at it. Some people think learning a new language is easy. I don't, some people think cooking is easy. I don't. I think creating a new movement pattern's easy. A lot of people don't. But it's possible. And I've got a great team that can help you. So I don't want you to feel alone, number one.

And if you're a movement professional thinking, oh, I wanna learn more, come on over. We got courses for that. We got you. It's super important. And I did mention orgasm. So what I'm going to say, many women are taught to pull in their pelvic floor or do different things in pelvic floor to make intercourse more pleasurable or what have you for their partner. However, it can often inhibit an orgasm, okay? When you are trying to have an orgasm, if your hips are gripping or your pelvic floor can't relax, that is going to inhibit things. There is a medication that's very popular for a lot of men to use, okay? There is a pelvic floor muscle at the base of the penis that if the hips can't fully reflexly, stabilize, and really work, that pelvic floor is gonna be gripping.

And it's basically like taking a rubber band and tying it around, which will inhibit blood flow and inhibit urine, eja ejaculation and other things. So maybe you don't wanna talk about this with your clients. That's totally fine. Send them to a pelvic floor therapist. But when if you are a movement professional, you better check in that you are doing your work so that the pelvic floor therapist work can really help this person.

Because we could be releasing, doing internals and doing exercises, but if you're reinforcing the pattern that got you there, that's where you're gonna really feel stuck. It often takes a village, find people you trust and will listen. But if you are having any of these issues. I want you to know that by better mobilizing your hip, and I don't just mean by stretching it or doing mobility drill drills, I mean by differentiating it from other nearby joints, improving your motor control and making sure you're focusing on the sensory input.

And what do I mean by that? Touching things. Okay. You might think you're moving your hip beautifully. I do this all in my advanced course. I get a room full of 60 teachers. Ask them to do that hip thing touching their pubic bones and people are like, holy crap. Oh my God. And I'm like, I know it's okay. And then they'll get into sideline leg exercises and they'll be wanting to touch the movement leg.

I go, no, touch the non-moving leg. Notice what happens. And some people say, Meg, it actually feels better when I lift my leg, let my pubic bone shift and then stabilize. There I go. Yeah, I know your pelvis is a little stuck at around that other leg. That's okay. Don't guess alignment and don't assume what you're feeling is gospel.

Okay? Because our proprioception can play tricks on us. So I know I threw a lot at you guys today. Let's just re let recap. Let's go back. Number one, I want you to try to move your hip joint, move that leg, both of 'em. In a lot of different directions, and I want you to try to move it without changing the joint angle position of your foot, toes, and ankles.

I didn't even think of this one. One of my clients loves when I just take a towel, a towel, drape it over his foot and ankle because he can feel when he pushes into it. Some people like an ankle weight. Just lay it out. It's giving your brain that sensory input. I also want you to say, Hey, can I move my hip when my foot is fixed, when my heel is lifted, when it's upside down and backwards when I'm in a handstand, can I maintain my handstand and do a pushup without my feet moving?

It's hard. Number two, can I actually differentiate my right hip from my left hip? We're gonna use feedback from our pubic bone, so we're gonna touch the pelvis and touch the other leg. Because when we're moving one leg, the pelvis should not move towards and away from that leg. If it does no drama, that just means that hip is moving and we're gonna have to revisit that.

Cool. And number three, if you're having urination issues, even constipation, if you're having trouble orgasm, if you're having trouble feeling aroused, if you are feeling like you have to pee all the time or you have to pee and your stream isn't good. You should see a doctor, but also know that we need to support our organs with foundational things.

You would never paint and put a roof on a house with a cracked foundation. So doing all your pelvic floor homework, taking medication for your prostate or whatever you need to do is great, but if your hips can't respond and that pelvic floor is working overtime, we are going to be chasing our tail. All right, so get those hips moving.

Check your work. Make chicken Murphy. Don't just make sausage and peppers. Check your work, make sure it's good, and reach out if I can support you. So thank you guys so much, and uh, I look forward to seeing you on the next one.