Exercises You Should Be Doing: Half Kneeling Adductor Dips

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Have to keep this one short today because I’m grinding away trying to prepare for this nutrition presentation I’m giving this weekend at Wheelock College. I actually left work early yesterday to head into the city to meet up with the head honcho of the food services department, and got an inside look at what types of foods the cafeteria offers the students.

On the way there, though, I came to the realization that when I was a freshman entering college, the kids I’ll be speaking to were just entering kindergarten! *Opens up laptop, clicks on power point presentation and erases references to Melrose Place, Party of Five, and Salt-n-Pepa*

Nevertheless, I’m looking forward to Sunday and I’m pretty confident that my presentation, if all goes to according to plan, will go down as one of the best ever given in the history of mankind. Excuse me, I have a few phone calls to make. Yes, hello? Is this Mike’s Demolition? Yeah, I’ll be needing three cases of TNT. Do you happen to sell lasers?

On to the exercise!

What Is It: Half Kneeling Adductor Dips

Who Did I Steal It From: former San Francisco Giants prospect Steve Hammond, who demonstrated it to me last winter while he was in town training (hence the winter hat I’m wearing in the video). While the winter hat can be explained, I can’t say the same thing about the music playing in the background. Suffice it to say, I PROMISE there were no burning crucifixes covered in pigs blood in the making of this video.

What Does It Do: The groin area – which is just a garbage term for the adductor complex (magnus, longus, brevis) – is a really, really dense area of muscle to say the least. As is the case for many people, it’s an area that’s often troublesome and can play a significant role in many lower extremity dysfunctions, as well as many issues up the kinetic chain. Be that as it may, the half kneeling adductor dip is a fantastic movement that helps to “open up” that area and get things moving a little more smoothly.

Speaking from an anecdotal standpoint, and as someone who has atrocious hip internal rotation (at least actively), when I’m diligent with this exercise I feel infinitely better. Moreover, for people who suffer from chronic knee pain, as well as sports hernias, this exercise is invaluable.

As such, to get the full benefit of this exercise, you’d want to first foam roll the adductors like so. Careful, this may not be safe to view at work:

Once you’ve addressed any trigger points and/or adhesions in that area, you want to now mobilize the tissue with the aforementioned video above.

Key Coaching Cues: Assume a half kneeling position, and be sure to place the hips in terminal hip extension – many people will try to cheat and flex at the hip. From there, simply “dip” to wear you feel a good stretch (don’t be surprised if you can’t get too low), hold for a one second count, and return back to the starting position. As part of a dynamic warm-up, perform 6-8 repetitions per side. As well, you could also include this exercise as a “filler” in between sets of your actual training session.

As always, I’d love to hear your thoughts. Give it a try and let me know what you think!

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