HOW TO: HINGE

Guys this ONE thing is holding you back on so many exercises and is most likely the main cause of your lower-back pain and it’s how to properly “HINGE” at the hips.

To be fair, I think for most people it’s the NAME of exercises that throw them off.  For example the “Barbell BENT-OVER row” or “Single-Arm BENT-OVER Row” implies that you just need to… “bend-over”.

But to maximize your efforts and AVOID lower-back pain, what you SHOULD be doing is HINGING at the hips to perform these movements.

So let’s go over what the difference is.

When you “Bend-Over”, your hips for the most part are staying in the same place and the majority of the movement of leaning over to perform an exercise is happening in your lower back.

Now when you HINGE at the hips, your upper-body is still “bending over”, but your lower-back isn’t moving.

So why does one cause lower back pain and the other doesn’t?

Well, when you “Bend-Over” and start performing an exercise like a Barbell Bent-Over Row, it’s your LOWER BACK that has to support all the weight you’re lifting as you try to engage your LATS which SHOULD be the main focus of the exercise.

However, when you hinge at the hips to perform this exercise, all the weight is now supported by your entire lower body and you shouldn’t feel much stress on your lower-back at all.

But now onto the hardest part of all this… TEACHING YOU how to hinge at the hips without being there in person to position you properly.

So this might sound silly, but this is the form cue I use to help my clients and it works EVERYTIME. Guaranteed!

I want you to pretend your feet are stuck in the ground and you REALLLLLLY have to use the bathroom, but the toilet is 2 feet behind you. 



So the ONLY way you stand a chance of reaching it is if you hinge at the hips to sit back while keeping your chest UP.


Now in this example I’m going into a fully seated position.  This is an exaggeration of course, but goes a long way in teaching how it feels to sit back versus simply bending over.

After practicing this a few times, your body will remember how it feels to hinge properly and you’ll find it a lot easier to get into the proper position when performing movements like a barbell bent-over row.



Once you master hinging at the hips, you’ll see your strength start to increase drastically on all your “bent-over” exercises, including even “Romanian Deadlifts” which is a GREAT movement to target your hamstrings hard.

Hinging will also help you perfect your Deadlift form as well, but there’s a lot more that goes into a Deadlift so that can be a separate video.

In the meantime however, I’ll link to this article on deadlift form I did a while back.  It’s a true gem so be sure to check it out!

Comment below if you have any questions and if your workout is feeling a bit stale, try my 5 Day Body Building Split for FREE! 

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