Fire Hydrants with Foot Drop

All-LevelsExternal Rotation
Written By Danielle Enos (Dani Winks)

Flexopedia > Adductors & Hip External Rotation

Fire Hydrants with Foot Drop

Muscle Group Stretched: Adductors

Muscle Group Strengthened: Glutes, Hip External Rotators

Type of Stretch: Active Dynamic

Difficulty: All Levels

Suggested Prerequisites: none

This variation of the fire hydrant glute strengthener adds a challenge of also working our hip external rotation. Hip external rotation is critical for helping keep our pelvis in the proper position in middle splits, and allowing it to rotate forwards in our straddle pancakes. Our hip external rotators are also stabilizers that we want to be strong and able to fire in other hip positions as well (even when we aren’t actively trying to rotate our thighs), like in front splits.

How To

Step 1

Start in a tabletop position, kneeling with hands on the floor underneath your shoulders.

Step 2

Keeping both hip bones pointing towards the floor, lift one knee out to the side. Make sure the hip bone doesn’t lift along with the leg, only the leg should be moving (your hips are going to want to tilt/lift, your challenge is to keep them level.)

Step 3

Once the knee is lifted out to the side, keeping your knee lifted, rotate your thigh towards the ceiling, dropping your foot towards the floor (your foot may or may not actually touch the floor).

Step 4

Rotate the thigh back to neutral (facing forwards) then drop the knee back to the floor.

That’s one rep (lifting the knee, rotating and un-rotating the thigh, dropping the knee).

Repeat for 8-12 reps.

Modifications

Need to make it easier?

Place a block under the base knee (the leg that’s not moving). While this doesn’t technically change the range of motion at all, it can feel easier to lift the working leg

Want to make it harder?

Hold the externally rotated leg position for a second or two before un-rotating the thigh and dropping the leg back to the starting position.

Add a resistance band around your thighs by your knees.

 
 
Danielle Enos (Dani Winks)

Dani is a Minneapolis-based flexibility coach and professional contortionist who loves sharing her enthusiasm for flexibility training with the world.

https://www.daniwinksflexibility.com
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