Articles
The Russian Baby Maker: The Best Hip Stretch You've Never Heard Of
January 30 2012
January 30 2012
I’ve mentioned the Russian Baby Maker a few times now on the website but have only managed to describe it briefly within a long article about warming-up. It’s a bit tough to describe without images and the name is sufficiently intriguing enough to generate quite a few requests for more information (Yes, I named it; no, I won't explain. You may be assured it's funny.)
The most important thing to know when doing the RBM is that the point is to spread the hips, not the knees. We’re trying to push the proximal ends of the femurs out to the sides, not the distal ends.
Put your feet a little wider than where you would normally squat, toes turned out only slightly, and lean down to grab the tops of your feet. Bend your knees a bit and push your elbows back inside your thighs toward your groin; your elbows should be bent, not straight. Push your elbows out against the insides of your thighs as you drop your hips until you’re in a partial squat, pushing out hard with the elbows, and resting at least part of your bodyweight on the arms so that your own weight further spreads the thighs.
Don’t try to sit all the way down into a full squat with an upright torso; you may actually be leaned quite far over and only slightly below parallel. If you don’t feel a stretch in your adductor/hamstring/inner-leg-parts origins, you’re doing something wrong.
This is definitely one of the static stretches that I find appropriate for pre-training. Hold for 10-30 seconds or so for 1-3 sets and see how your squats feel afterward.
The most important thing to know when doing the RBM is that the point is to spread the hips, not the knees. We’re trying to push the proximal ends of the femurs out to the sides, not the distal ends.
Put your feet a little wider than where you would normally squat, toes turned out only slightly, and lean down to grab the tops of your feet. Bend your knees a bit and push your elbows back inside your thighs toward your groin; your elbows should be bent, not straight. Push your elbows out against the insides of your thighs as you drop your hips until you’re in a partial squat, pushing out hard with the elbows, and resting at least part of your bodyweight on the arms so that your own weight further spreads the thighs.
Don’t try to sit all the way down into a full squat with an upright torso; you may actually be leaned quite far over and only slightly below parallel. If you don’t feel a stretch in your adductor/hamstring/inner-leg-parts origins, you’re doing something wrong.
This is definitely one of the static stretches that I find appropriate for pre-training. Hold for 10-30 seconds or so for 1-3 sets and see how your squats feel afterward.
i would argue that anyone needing an explanation to assure the hilarity after seeing the picture(s) was born without a sense of humor.
Stretching will not improve power and mobility if muscles are splinting due to imbalance or injury prevention sensing by muscle spindle cells within the muscle fibers.
Stretching is VERY controversial in the literature now. "Weakens muscles....Decreased Athletic Performance....No Effect Upon DOMS...etc"
IMHO, find the cause of the tightness first, then address the ROM issue. Just forcing the joint into an expected ROM, will never address the neuro component causing it.
And, it doesn't matter what you call a stretch, "Double King Crab, Pincer Stretch", or Russian Baby Whatever, if you force myofibrils within the muscle spindle cells, apart, and elongate them, you will never achieve the power and mobility you need for performance.
On an different note: I placed second in a local weightlifting meet: masters 94kg! Stoked, because it was my first ever meet!