If you are a coach then this article is for you, however if you are an individual looking to teach yourself, please see my article on learning to hip hinge as it will be more appropriate for you.

Teaching the Pelvic Tilt

Teaching anterior and posterior pelvic tilt will help your clients understand that the pelvis can be manipulated and it will influence further movements and how they impact the body. When I am teaching the pelvic tilt I like to use a tall knelling pelvic tilt as it takes away the question of what to do with the knees. Once the clients understands both the anterior and posterior pelvic tilt in the tall kneeling position, we move to a lying position, this will allow them to perform it on the floor using the floor as an external cue. When lying on the floor and in the posterior pelvic tilt the lower back will be pressed into the floor, like when performing the dead-bug. When lying on the floor and in an anterior pelvic tilt the lower back will be lifted off the floor, this is the position we want when we perform a hinge movement.

I like to use the pelvic tilt in warm ups for hinge movements with new clients who are still learning the hinge to underline the importance of this position for performing the hinge correctly. Another way to show the importance is to perform a hinge with a posterior pelvic tilt and the client will see just how rounded the lower back is and that there is no stretch in the hamstrings.

A great cue for the pelvic tilt is to tell the client that the hips are a bowl full of water and if we want to pour the water out of the front, we need to perform an anterior pelvic tilt and the inverse for a posterior pelvic tilt.

Teaching The Knee Bend

All hinge variations start with a slight bend in the knees and the hips. This needs to be reinforced in clients from the beginning. If there is no bend in the knees or the hips we cannot find the correct positioning for the hinge. I like to cue the bend at the knees and the hips for every repetition that is performed, this and the posterior pelvic tilt will allow you to find the correct starting position for the hips.

Teaching The Hinge

Now we have taught the client how to find the correct positioning with the pelvic tilt and bend at the knees and hips, it is essential that they learn how to hinge. The first hinge movement I use with every client is the wall touch. The wall touch allows us to use the wall as the external cue, helping new clients navigate the hinge as their body awareness will likely not be good enough to perform the hinge with proficiency. The wall touch needs to be performed progressively, slowly moving away from the wall until they feel the stretch in the hamstrings.

During the wall touch, the client will need to maintain the anterior pelvic tilt and soft knees, whilst not lowering the hips towards the floor. This may take several attempts before they become proficient enough to perform a variation without an external cue.

Teaching the End Range

It is very important that individuals understand when the straight leg deadlift (yes, this is a confusing name for an exercise that requires the knees to be bent) ends. The end point of the straight leg deadlift is when the pull on the hamstrings prevents you from lowering the torso any further. Clients will often feel like they need to go lower, therefore losing their back positioning, this is why they need to understand the end position is when they feel a strong pull on the hamstrings. I like to show clients what they are doing wrong, this involves showing the hinge that they are correctly performing, then continuing to lower the chest and losing the lower back position.

Teaching the Full Extension

As we have put so much emphasis on the knee bend, a lot of clients will be tempted to keep the knees bent at the end of each repetition when they should be in extension. This is why teaching clients to come to full extension at the end of each repetition will be very important.

Differentiating The Conventional Deadlift and Straight Leg Deadlift

This can be very hard for new clients to understand, the difference between these two hinge variations is very clear to coaches, but new clients can and will get them mixed up often. The biggest difference is what happens at the knees, the knees flex (bend) much more aggressively in the conventional deadlift, this knee flexion turns the movement into a much more full body movement which is why we use it for full body strength. Whereas the straight leg deadlift is amazing at isolating both the hamstrings and lower back muscles, which is why it is typically done with much less weight. This should be explained to clients, when they understand why we do one or the other it becomes easier to explain which you would like them to perform.

These should only be differentiated once you have performed a full cycle of a straight leg variation with the client and both variations should not be introduced at the same time otherwise the client will get confused.

Use Beginner Weighted Variations

The first time a client uses a weighted variation of a hinge after having used the wall touch exercise, the variation you select should be very simple. My go to selection for the first weighted hinge is the Sumo KB Deadlift , it allows clients to mimic the wall touch with a light weight between their legs and the wide stance can help us work around any mobility restrictions.

Teach the Uni-Lateral Hinge

Now the easy hinge variations are done with (i’m being sarcastic) we get to move onto the even harder variations. I do not attempt single leg hinge variations until a client has really understood both bi-lateral hinge variations. Uni-lateral hinging is very technical and requires good stability and control in the hip. The principles are exactly the same, anterior pelvic tilt, bend at the knees and the hips, slowly move the chest to the floor. However this time it is done on a single leg, the biggest problem your clients will have here will be keeping the hips inline. This needs to be cued consistently and the hands should be used to help guide their hips to stay inline (obviously they need to have consented that you can touch them).

Warn them not to get frustrated here, this is not something that they will be able to “get” in the first session unless they are very athletic. It is important to start with a simple uni-lateral variation, this will be a variation where both feet are placed on the floor, a staggered stance single leg straight leg deadlift is a great starting point.

Getting Strong

Once your clients are technically proficient in the hinge, they can now get strong in these new positions, allowing them to transform both their health and athletic performance. Good luck teaching the hinge and if you have any questions, feel free to reach out to sean@programme.app.