Simple Hip Shift Fix

Simple Hip Shift Fix

The reason for a hip shift can be fairly complex at times and could be attributed to a multitude of reasons, but a simple start to look at before all else is foot angle. As you can see (CLICK HERE), Payton in the left video is biased throughout the move to his right side. And if you look at his feet, it’s very slight, but you’ll notice that left foot is angled out just a bit more than the right. Typically what you’ll see if one foot is angled out more than it should be, is the lifter will bias and shift towards the opposite foot. On the right video, you can see the feet adjusted (left foot angle came in) and now Payton’s squat is more neutral. Like I said, simple fix.

It is not always this simple, but as mentioned this a good place to start as it is easy to notate foot angle and easy to implement the changes. To dive more into what I see though, also notice how throughout the entire movement Payton is biased towards the right. That is another sign to me that foot angle could be a resolution. It is not some sudden shift as he comes up out of the whole, but rather a shift where he continually is offset throughout the movement. But what we need to be careful of is that our proper foot angle side to side is dictated by what we can’t see, and that is our hip anatomy. We can’t physically see the anteversion or retroversion of each hip, so it’s always hard to determine if asymmetry in foot angle is actually an issue, or if it’s just our natural stance. Since this is an easy thing to experiment with though, it is something I typically do and have lifter’s make slight adjustments and notate the outcomes. In Payton’s case he slightly moved in the angle of his left foot and it worked. Or he could have slightly moved out the angle of his right foot and we may have seen the same resolution. I have actually had a lifter who’s foot angle was symmetrical and a shift was present, but when we angled out the foot of the side she shifted to, the shift reduced. I give credit to Dean Somerset for this as it was one of his articles on hip shift that pointed this out to me. If you’d like to give that a read, CLICK HERE.