FAI Game-Changer: Unlock Hip Strength & Stability Now

Do You Have Hip Pain?

Have you been diagnosed with FAI, labral tears, and bad bone shapes?

If so, I’m here to give you 3 steps to change the game forever.

This 3-step “healthy hips” roadmap is backed by science AND proven “in the trenches.”

When I say “in the trenches,” I mean that 30,000+ students have gone before you and used these 3 steps to heal their hips and bodies.

These 3 steps were also one of my biggest secrets in overcoming my FAI and labral tears in 2011.

And now it’s your turn. Ready? Let’s dive right in!

The Foundation: The 3 "I's"

The Roadmap to strong, healthy hips is the 3 “I’s”.

But, before I dive deep and give you 2 specific routines that incorporate the 3 “I’s,” I need to drop a bombshell on ya’...

Did you know recent studies show that bone shapes don’t correlate to pain or movement problems?!

Why is this important?

Because it shows that there is more to hip pain than meets the FA-EYE. Get it? FAI…eye…Cheezy PUNS aside…it’s important to know that pain is complex.

So when Doctors say your “bad bones” are the one true cause of all your pain, you might want to bust out this image by Cholewicki and others in their recent study about the multifactorial causes of pain.

Regardless of which causes of pain are the most important, 1 of the biggest things you could do to help your hips NOW is learn how to make them strong and stable.

In fact, strength and stability could mean the difference between "Chronic hip pain or pain-free hips" or "Being resilient or being fragile."

Spending $50,000 on hip replacement surgery or never needing surgery.

In other words, strength and stability are important!

But, How Do We Train them?

The hips are complex!

There are lots of muscles, tendons, and bones that connect your upper and lower body. So, strengthening and stabilizing them is a hefty job. And with so much going on, it’s no wonder there is a lot of confusion about how to train them.

Some gurus say you should do birdogs and clamshells until you’re blue in the face.

Other gurus say, “Squat till you drop! You’re only in pain because you're too weak!”

Other gurus say that lifting weights is the OPPOSITE of what you should do!

Navigating the Sea of Advice

So what’s the truth?

The truth is, your hips are designed to move in a variety of ways with a variety of loads in a variety of positions. But, most people need to back up a few steps before getting into complex, multijoint, free weight, chaotic, gym or sporting exercises.

In physical therapy and sports medicine, we call this a "Return to Play" (RTP) protocol.

This approach applies to athletes and non-athletes alike because the truth is, if you have a body, you are an athlete. Or at least you should train like one to move and feel as good as possible.

After all, who DOESN’T want to move and feel as good as possible? So, where do we start? What’s step 1?

STEP 1 is Isolate:

Because we have many moving parts in the hips, we pay attention to one muscle or muscle group at a time in the isolation phase. This training helps develop your mind-muscle connection with a single area in the hips.

This mind-muscle connection is like starting to develop a well-tuned orchestra. Isolating your muscles with your thoughts and intentions is like isolating each instrument precisely, eventually allowing for harmonious and powerful movements. Harmonious/coordinated movement is important because the hip joint flexes, extends, abducts, adducts, and rotates. That’s a lot of responsibility!

With Isolation, we can train all these movements individually. And you’ll be surprised at how new and intense the muscular sensations can feel when exploring this part of the training. The bottom line is: To get your orchestra (the muscles) to play harmonious, complex symphonies, start with isolation.

Some example isolation exercises are:

glute marches
side plank knee lowers
swiss ball rollouts,
side plank lowers.

Of course, there are plenty more exercises with nearly limitless variations:

Leg lifts, hip bridges, clamshells, fire hydrants, hip abductions/adductions, hamstring bridges, planks, hip flexor marches, hip circles, single leg bridges, hip thrusts, copenhagens….and more…I breathlessly mention all these to hammer home 1 point: With such infinite variety and progressions and regressions for each one, there is no excuse not to train the hips in some productive way:

You can ALWAYS do something, no matter how rough a starting point you may face.

For example, my client Theresa, who is 71 years old, couldn’t lift her leg off the ground when we first started. Today, she sent me an inspiring video where she was raising her leg for over 15 reps (something she couldn’t do for YEARS!)

Isolation is a beautiful way to improve your mind-muscle connection and increase joint stability and muscle activation. All of these will be useful when we move to step 2, which is…

STEP 2 is Integrate:

Strong hip muscles are essential for various movements, including walking, running, squatting, jumping, deadlifting, and lunging.

Properly performed, compound exercises strengthen the muscles around joints in a cohesive way that isolation exercises can’t. This means better support and stability, less pain, reduced risk of hip injuries, and improved hip function.

AKA, you start to REALLY move and feel better.

Isolation exercises are great, but this stage is where your hips go from unstable and timid to strong and confident. This training also improves daily physical challenges like gardening, moving heavy boxes, picking up kids, etc. The bottom line is: If you’ve struggled with chronic hip pain like I have, it feels AMAZING to be able to lunge down, hold extra weight, and lunge back up with no hip pain.

Still, life can throw some randomness at you, and for that, we need to be able to do

STEP 3 is Improvise:

Isolating your muscles is good. Integrating those movements into more complex movements like squatting, hinging, and lunging is good. BUT, It’s not possible to mindfully train your hips in every single way possible in a gym. A touch of chaos is necessary to complete the package.

When we play sports, dance, or practice martial arts, our hips flex, extend, and rotate in ways we can’t productively repeat in a controlled environment. That’s why this “Improvise” piece of the puzzle is so critical. This is the step that MOST “bulletproofs” you for real life:

Because real life is…chaotic and unpredictable!

After all, you never know when you'll need quick reflexes to dodge the rogue spilled apple sauce, your kid left as a booby trap. Or when you need to embrace your inner ninja to recover from a stumble gracefully and still look cool when the cute girl is watching you at the party. And you definitely don't know when you'll have to perform a spectacular dodge move to avoid an incoming wrench thrown by a Salty old dodgeball coach named Patches O’Hoolihan!

So, how do we put these 3 “I’s” together to create our own “Return To Play” protocol (whether we are returning to play sports or returning to be able to play with our kids)? How do we create a hip-strengthening routine that takes us from weak and feeble to strong and stable?

With the Routines!

Hip Strength & Stability Routines (Beginner/Intermediate)

Starting with the easiest version, here’s a typical routine and progression for a beginner and an intermediate person.

ISOLATE:

Glute bridges 3x10
Side-Planks 3x30 seconds
Lying Leg Raises 3x10
Deadbugs (3x10/side)
Adductor Raises ((3x10/side)

INTEGRATE:

Shallow Bodyweight Squats (3x12)
Romanian Deadlifts (3x12)
Split Squats (3x12/side)

Notice that this routine is ONLY isolation and integration exercises.

If you have a decent amount of pain and problems, you want to stay in the “isolate/integrate” category for a while. This helps you control the speed and range of motion and really dial in firing the right muscles in the right order.

Eventually, you can progress to the next level, a more intermediate routine. This routine is for someone with less pain who is ready for more advanced movements and more chaotic environments. It incorporates isolation, integration, AND improvisation. The whole whammy!

ISOLATE:

Glute Bridge Marches 3x10
Side-Plank Lowers 3x10/side
Side Plank Lowers 3x8
Standing Hip Flexor Activation 3x10 with a pause at the top

INTEGRATE:

Hip Thrusts 3x10
Front Squats 3x6
Lunges 3x8
1-Leg Romanian Deadlifts 3x10

IMPROVISE:

Jogging - 15 min warmup
Skips, Shuffles, Lateral Hops, and Light Plyometrics (Box Jumps) - 15 min
Playing easy pickup Ultimate Frisbee - 60 minutes

These 2 routines are perfectly suitable programs for a generic person…but you’re not generic. That’s why it’s crucial to individualize, “Isolate, Integrate, and Improvise” according to your unique needs.

To help you with that, we offer 1-on-1 coaching at gotrom.com/vip for people with FAI and hip pain. If you need help pinpointing your individual needs and creating a custom routine, we’re here to help because we’ve been in your shoes!

And actually, we used to have trouble tying ours when our hip problems were at their worst! Even if you can’t work 1-on-1 with a hip specialist like myself or one of my Doctors of Physical Therapy who also has FAI– you can learn a lot from self-exploration and experimentation!

This exploration and experimentation is important because…

The Road To Perfect Hip Health Isn’t Exactly Straight!

Even though the roadmap IS clear and defined (isolate, integrate, improvise), like any road, sometimes there is a detour or a roadblock. You may even find yourself backtracking at times. That’s why our “do-it-yourself” Hip Fix program includes a 4-week cycle of assessment and re-assessment. We want to make sure you make progress and don’t stay stuck for too long.

In our Hip Fix 1-on-1 coaching/mentorship program, we take it one step further by giving you 24/7 access to a hip specialist so you can recalibrate on a near-daily basis. This is like having a Doctor of Physical Therapy in your pocket 24/7 to guide you, answer any questions, and help you stay on track.

This “re-calibration” in both programs is like a plane flying with a gyroscope that auto-corrects its flight path.

By recalibrating daily with your 1:1 hip coach or monthly with DIY The Hip Fix, you arrive safe and sound at the final destination (healthy hips).

I hope this 3-step roadmap is as game-changing for you as it was for me when I was battling my own hip problems.

If you found this video helpful, please like it, subscribe, and share it with someone trying to get out of hip pain. Wherever you’re at, no matter how bad it is, please always remember…

You’re just 1 step away from building or rebuilding your perfect body!