Adductors

In this tutorial, we're going to talk about the add doctors. So if you look at this bone, there's the pubis. Most of your ad doctors, um, attach here. What are your come towards the back edge. On the front AIDS you have the pectineus.

And if you look at our model here, you're going to think it comes here and then it comes down along that. Then here first you have your ad, uh, abductor brevis that comes down through here, right there. And then you have your EQ Deductr longest if you could go towards the back of this. So we would go back. Then you have your adductor Magnus right through here. Then if we also look at, um, a final ad doctor, it comes all the way down.

The gross ileus comes all the way down towards the knee. The one thing I want you to think about is sometimes, especially if they're tucking, a lot of times those ed doctors get engaged, but not in the sense of what we want the adductor to do. I always have an expression, I want the adductors to be adductors again. So it's trying to get right where that seam is to be working. Um, depending on where the movement is.

So we're going to look at how the adductors are working inside Springs. So Aaron, can you lie on your side please? And I'm gonna do a different, you know in the traditional is usually have your legs out in this angle. So you're in hip flection and I want to get the top hip in hip extension cause I want to relate eventually how the adductors work in standing. Now what sometimes if you just, I'm listening, I'm just putting my hand, I can feel these muscles activating so, and I'm going to just give her leg a little bit of a spin.

So for Aaron right now, because I feel this very fired up, I'm going to work her more internal rotation and different rotations are going to get different fibers of the adductors. Now let's see what she does. She's going to go down. So what's happening with Erin is she's very mobile in her spine. So I want her to keep up. Don't you talk on me? Young lady is, how does she keep, if I was, this is her hip and that stays the same and can maybe move smaller and then she's going to come back up. Now what's happening is as she goes down, she's going into hip flection. So I'm going to turn, turn your leg in and you're going to press lightly back towards me.

So she's going to press down hold. She's going to still keep turned in and go up. So what I want one observe is can she stay in her ad doctor and not her brain go there. That's much better. There we go. We could also do a turned out, which will be more of a challenge for her because she wants to go there. So how does she stay there and then come back. Now one other thing that happens is what's happening is she's moving faster at her shin, then at her, her thighbone.

So bend your knee. I'm going to take you out of this and I want you to lie on your back. Again, you could do this with a magic circle. You're going to bend both knees, but I'm going to bring my elbow in. What's nice to do it without the magic circle is I can listen to what is happening. So again, I'm seeing her little tuck and I want her to move that inside lane down.

Here we go. So Ken, her left. This leg is resting on me and can she move the this leg in and then come back. Now I'm putting my hand here. Say go back. She's trying to do it from here. So send your sit bones down to the table.

So you're in neutral. And can you keep that relationship and think about your inside lane working in. Good. Now I'm going to try another handwork because what I'm seeing as she's coming in so much in my leg is the, um, my arm is, the leg is, she's coming across and she's going in, which is changing her pelvis so she can, she's take a spatial intent of reaching the knee out and then add ducting in. That's uh, that's better. Okay, great.

So we're eventually gonna look at the AB doctors as well. And then we're going to look at how it's in reference to standing. So come back up to sitting and we're going to look at the AB doctors, which is also the hiphop sensors. So if you a matter of fact stand up with facing me so we can look at this. So your gluteus minimus metaphor, I'm sorry, go profile has his attachments here and comes towards a greater trocanter.

So it would be coming here. Your gluteus medius attaches here and goes all the way down and attaches there. And then if you face backwards, your gluteus Maximus comes all the way towards the sacrum and also goes down and goes down through. Now I want her to lie on her back again and straighten your legs. Now what I want you to think about is I'm going to ask her to engage her buttocks, but I'm really want her to think about more the side glutes.

So it's not so much. You know when you squeeze the gluteus Maximus together, it brings the gluteal cleft together. The gluteal cleft is the break between your buttock cheeks. So we're not going to that. If I'm doing a full like shoulder bridge, I'm going to have full gluteal max action, but I'm trying to get more the gluteus media scowling and she's also going to connect to the hamstrings as well. So I want you to activate your buttocks and there we go.

And then go down. And what's kind of interesting about this is I'm still feeling a little bit gluteus Maximus. So what am I seeing is I'm seeing the pubis push forward and I want her to visualize it. This tone goes in and then goes down the leg. Great. Now turn on to your belly for me please.

And there we go. So here again, here's that gluteal fold and I want her to activate this into the bone. And then down. Now I have a great story to tell you. So one of my clients was a Broadway singer and the dancers would always talk about having that little dimple in the hip and they had a little angel that would shoot an arrow that would ping that dimple in. So I want her to think about letting that dip. Yes. And then pull that down. There we go. Great. And do both sides.

And now she's doing more squeezing the her gluteus [inaudible] I want this side and then go down. Eventually when you discover that it's gonna bring your pelvis in the right place. Now I want Aaron to lie on her side right side. And I want her to bend the bottom leg. So I'm going to hold her leg again.

I'm going to bring her into hip extension. I'm going to give her a little more space in her ribs. So here is where the gluteus medius, his and you might end if you feel the greater trow canter. So that's the knobby part. And then if you go to the hip, that's where the gluteus medius is. So I might tap it. And then I'm going to say to Aaron, Aaron, I'm going to let go.

And can you hold the leg right where it is? And right now she's subtle, but especially when you see weak, I can feel it. I can feel her want to do that. So what are she's gonna lightly press against me and we're going to engage that. She still wants to go here. Hello ping ping. Ping bank. No, that's a duck. Tucker row right there.

You're going to hold the leg up. Hold it, hold it. There you go. And now you're going to lower your leg down a bit. Hold. And then you're going to lift it back up. So I'm being very specific and I shouldn't see this change.

She's doing a good job. But sometimes you see clients, they drop in their hip and that becomes really backwards. So again, hold it, hold it. There you go. Psychics a great exercise and flex your foot and swing forward. Cause that's gait. But I'm not gonna let her change her pelvis. And then she's going to go back to here and she's going to go forward. And then she's going to go back. Now, Aaron, I want you to come up to standing.

We should have done this in the beginning, but she'll probably feel different. And I want her to notice the left and the right and most probably, yes it is. Oh yay. You feel drop on the side. And now I want you to stand on your left leg. Great. And now stand on her right leg so you can see it's not working on the side cause she's on leveling on this side. So this is what we're gonna wake up, which is really important in standard two half.

Now I want you to come to all fours. Mmm, let's do the other direction. There you go. And so here's a, you know this, stick your buttocks out. There we go. So I'm going to look at how the glutes are working in this simple, deceptively easy exercise, right? So if this leg stays down, this would be what I start beginning as close chain.

When she lists this leg up straight back. That would be open chain. Let's see what she does. So stretch your right leg back. So do you see her hip is starting to turn and she's unleveling on here. So come back. So I want her to imagine her hips are like a typewriter and it's going to move to the side.

And then here is that gluteus medius. And she might, we'll talk a little, another tutorial more about rotation, but she has to feel this tone. Hug her bone and she's going to lift the other leg up. There we go. There you go. I'm going to get you. There you go. That's great. And then come back down and let's do the other side. So she wants to have the other side hugging in and let's see.

And what happens if you see a good, that tailbone is should be going in between two legs right now she's doing a adjustment through that and and bend this knee. I'm sorry, go out. Go back. I didn't say that right. So here you are. Lift your leg up. But I'm trying to get her not to change unlevel or hip. Stay your leg there and bend your knee.

So if she lifts her leg up, go ahead. That's your glue. Now what's happening is she's so interested in this side, she's firing up on the femoral fold. We need to get that glute happening more through that. So now we're going to look at bringing the idea of ad doctors and AB doctors into standing. And how that's going to change in standing for each client.

Okay? So we're gonna look at the ad doctors in the AB doctors in standing. Um, there are exercises we do within the [inaudible] rep, like the sidelight Springs, uh, single leg kicked double leg kick. They're all wonderful exercises to build strength. But how you feel it in standing is very different. So Aaron, I want you to put this mini that way between her legs and right now.

So the hard thing to start learning about is an, I did it for years as a dancer was this was the problem and I shifted my pelvis forward and if I talk and you can just do it yourself, these glutes go on vacation. So I want her to bring her weight back on her heels. She's gonna think I'm crazy. And then I want her to bring her head a little bit back. So eventually I want to build the tone up, not by pushing the pubis forward, but the, the outside and the inside legs helping her do more work.

Depending on your client, they might discover, Oh, one adductor is the weaker one. The AB doctor on the other side is weak, or it might be all at doctors or it might be all AB doctors. It's everybody's different. So what I want Aaron to think about is she's going to gently squeeze her adductors towards the mini and then think of pulling it up towards her pelvic floor. So, um, Aaron's going to shit first. She's going to squeeze the mini. You can use different size blocks depending on your client's hip structure and like structure. So she's gonna add, ducked her inner thighs towards the mini, and then I want her to visualize, she could bring it up towards her pelvic floor.

She's going to laterally shift over to one leg and she's gonna take her other leg backwards into like single leg kick. And then she's going to come back and she's going to shift to the other side. And then she's gonna great and she's going to bring her head backwards. There you go. And then come back. Now I'm going to give her another image because we're going to find out what it is she needs to work on. She's going to still bring her head backwards.

And now I want her to think the outer thighs are squeezing the mini in. And now I want you to stand on one leg. Great. And then I'm going to have her switch and then you're going to stand on the other leg. Great. Okay.

Now Aaron, I want you to face towards me. And so what I want her to discover and you'd to discover is she send away way back to your heels and then put your hands here. So those, I want her to just get that to fire in, which is not a butt squeeze. And then she's going to shift onto her right leg and she has to keep that right ping in. So she wants to unlevel her hip and go ahead and there we go. Yes.

So what my image is is the standing leg is the column and all the muscles around the thigh are its stability. And then she's going to pick her leg up, try the other side, and she's having troubles there. There we go. And then come back in. Great. Now I'm, I'm have the feeling that her, she needs to work more on the outer leg. And so I want you to put your hand here, shift on. And now she's doing a little bit of upper body.

So I want her to shift her ribs a little bit in line with that hip. And now lift your leg up. There we go. And now she's bending her right nitch. Lift up, lift up, lift up. There we go. And then, good. Now we're going to challenge her in a different way. So we're going to have her stand and let's have you, you can have back the mini. You're going to stand one foot on there and you're going to bring, just stand and be on relevant on the other foot. Again, I'm gonna work on, um, this working in, move that temple M more, more. There we go.

Put your hand here. So she, her goal is the, the problem is most people don't understand the endurance that's needed for standing. So she has to keep that dimple in to flex her left foot. That was great. That was great. And then come back down and great. Now do the other side so that the cameras can see. Hopefully she's going to give us some dimple. Um, so what she's, do you see how that just came in? Uh, lift your arm up.

She's doing, do you see that's the dimple we want and I don't know if you can see it. She's leaning like leaning tower of Aaron forward. So I want to get her back. If you go back to the other tutorials, some of the issues also are the calf and the foot, so and uh, move that in. There we go. And now keep that more. Hello temple. Good.

Flex your foot. Oh my gosh. There we go. There we go. Go ahead. Flex your foot. Flex your foot. Flex your foot. Oh my gosh. There we go. Great. Now I want you to, we're going to have her face backwards and this is her. Everybody's challenged. Once somebody is weakened their leg, they're going to do strategies. Okay. There's a strategy of lateral flection of my upper spine.

This is weak. So I'm going to look like my hips are level, but I'm really hiking the J. I'm going to call this the gesture side, the working side. So come back standing on it and go up on your toe. Get that dimple in. Lift, lift. Good. Now visualize. You want to work a lot in the front seat or the front soft, and then flex your foot. There we go. And she just did some wiggling of her right leg. That's going to be great for her because we don't want her to be holding up so much here we, she needs more tempo on this side more. Thank you. That's great. And then come back in and there you go.

Great. Now we're going to come to standing here. We're going to do a chair. So just bring one leg up. So in one way, this exercise is also working both sides and, but she needs to move that dimple in there a little more. Okay. Now what happened? It's very subtle. She's starting to get the dimple in, but she's using the the other side. I'm going to be here of hiking the hip up. So again, I'm going to bring her, bring your hands behind your head, bring your skull back over your heel. There we go. She doesn't feel correct, which is okay because if I, she keeps the pattern of talking.

She's never going to build the strength. She's probably going to go through some reflex stuff is, which is going to teach her more. And our goal is to get that to work. Now push down, hold. She starting to lean forward. So lift up your ribs and give me more ping here. Now she's also using this. Stay down there to stay there.

Good. This is, I'm putting my hand right here. She needs to work that. Bring the weight back on your heel. Great. And now control up from the back of your leg. Good. Now put your hand here soft. That's what we say in New York. Soft.

And so we want her postier legs to be doing more work. There we go. There we go. And then she's going to bring the whole thing back up. Great. And there we go. And change. Great. Now I want her to, we're gonna bring it in a little bit. Eventually what, what elephant is about. Okay, so she's going to stand back here. Okay.

And she's going to lift one leg up. So it's kind of what we did in um, Quadro pet come around and it's the same idea. So she's gonna stand and she's gonna bend her knees. She's gonna move those pings in, but she's already starting to talk. Now can she send straighten her legs by sending the gluteal fold to the back room. There you go. Now walk your feet back a little bit cause you're tall woman. There you go.

Now she has to keep her standing. Ping in as she lifts the other leg up. Go ahead. There you go. And she's working. There you go. That's great. Now this is really hard first cause she's a little bit knocked need and getting this feeling going more. And then we'll talk in another tutorial about rotators, the importance of this working. So Aaron, let's just move you a little to the right so the camera can see this better.

Walk your feet a little bit back now as if that block was still between her legs. I want her outer thighs to hug her thigh bones in. She's gonna keep this leg that's a standing like, and I'm keeping that tone against the bone and she's gonna lift her other leg up. There we go. Now she starting to go here. So I want her to pull her sip own. There we go. And now lift the leg up. Keep going.

Keep going even more. Bring it there even more. This is so hard, isn't it? There you go. And there we go. So I want to talk about a little bit more the importance of this coordination for the standing leg. So Aaron, please come up to standee and you're going to stand in a long stride like so that's it. And straighten her leg. So I want you to imagine this is footwork. Okay. And if you see where her knee is, it's turning in.

And so I want her, here's her greater trocanter. I want her to visualize, the greater trocanter is going to move closer to the sip bone. And this sip bone is going to move closer to the, um, her opposite pubis. So do you see how that leg alignment already changed? Now? Right now she's here and a little anterior tail, but I want her to discover both legs are gonna work.

So her SIPP, bones move to her. Greater truck enters, move to her sip bones, her sip bones go to the pubis, and then her also, or sip phone slide closer to each heel to come up to come up at. That was great. Now there we go. Now she's going to bend her right knee. So do you see how that knee is starting to turn in? So she has to pull the greater trow cat. She wants to do it from her hip flexor.

That greater trow Cantor comes back to the sip bone, sit bone to the pubis and she's gonna put your hand here, say, hug my bone and now straighten your leg and keep that more more. There you go. And then bend your knee. So this is really important for close chain and organizing the leg. And what happens with a lot of people, they get so interested in straighten the leg that they lose the back of the leg and that this begins to over activate and come to standing. So we're going to use the a reformer to start building up the, the, uh, connections for standing.

So Aaron's going to come into the, well, I have this on only a yellow Sprague and I, uh, come first stent both feed into the well and I want her to come walk closer to there. And the hard part is how to get that gluten put your hand at your gluteal fold field. Remember how we started prone today? I want you to feel that tone move in and slided down to the heel without pushing your pubis forward. Now put one foot back on the carriage. So if the load is too heavy, there's most probably she's going to try to catch it in her hip flexors and we want her, and you can see she's already starting to pitch forward. So we want this tone to move in and down towards her heel.

So both sides are working. So can she press back with her leg and then come back? Now this is really tiny so I could change my pelvis to move it and feel that tone come in. So rye would that gluteal fold? It should be hugging in and pressing back and it's really tiny and push back. There we go.

Now I'm just feeling with her that I feel that knee is jamming up so that a left knee spatially just moves a little down as your head goes up. Yes ma'am. And you're going to press back there IGA. So you know she could even have her hands here. So the front femoral fold should be on vacation. Her dings need to work a lot more. Right here, right here. Great.

Now Aaron, I want you to take this back foot and put it on the the knee on the carriage. That's it. Now, right now what happens is put your hand here and I want you to swing your hip out to the right. Rotate. Uh, there we go. Then I want her to use her legs. Her greater trow candor comes. Now she's trying to fix it with her back and it's trying to get that spiral and swing your tail out to the right and then use greater trocanter to the sip bone, to the pubis more and more and more. More. Now she still needs more and she's going to straighten that leg. Go ahead.

Okay, and then come back in. Now bend your knee. You're going to pull this back more. Great. Keep it, stop. Keep pulling it back. Yes. But now she's pulling, pushing back more with the left leg on what she heard. Nope. Pushed back with the right and then come back. Now some of the, if you go back to the tutorials about the hamstrings and the quads, she has a lot of hyperextension so we're also going to have, you know, if she was my client, I also would be working on using those quads.

She needs a really use this. This is so hard for her. There we go. And great. Now stay there and now bend your knee and press the carriage back more. Bend your front knee and go into a lunge. Bend that knee. Now pull that greater toe canter back.

There we go. There we go. She wants to use her hip flexors than you. There you go. Bend your knee. She's working. There you go. And then press back and through. Thank you. That's great. So this is um, a practice I have to do every day. I have ACL tears, uh, in both knees and for what she's doing, I have to learn to move it back, which helps my knee.

And then I have to get all those muscles working cause those ACL are not there. And so it's work. It's also going to put your hamstring at a different life. Now I want you to come in and we're going to do elephant. So we've been doing different versions of elephant bringing in different thoughts.

I just love elephant because the client can see what she or he is doing. So she's going to come to standee, straight back elephant. Now you're going to shift a little forward for me cause we're not even worried about the upper body. We're not even going to move the machine. She could look at her legs. So she looked down at her niece, her niece are turned in, and I want her to get that tone to move in. And she and I don't know, she can see it. Those knees started realigning. So she's going to laterally shift to her, right?

She's going to add to her left leg into her, right? Just bring it across and touch your left leg back on the headdress. Just touch it back. Point on Tondo and then bring it back and then come back to two legs. So what we're working on is can she keep this support of the working leg as she shifts over, she's going to add duck this like, and she's using her back more to come in and then she's gonna touch that leg back. And she did a great job.

And when I'm putting my hand on her femoral fold, it's, it's very release. A lot of times the minute somebody takes their leg back, they tuck and they get that to work and great. And now you're going to do a full reach. You leg back. Good. And here's what she did on Quadra pet. She's going to lift her left leg up. She's using both glutes, but I'm not, and it's going to be a different range of motion. Now, if I wanted her to do an arabesque, I'm going to have her initiate this in and she's moving that leg back.

So there is gray and I'm going to ask her to pull that back again. This back, this back. There you go. And then bring her leg back and then come back home. You could do the whole, you know, moving the machine, but her doing this is learning about that whole stability of the leg. I also, you know, if she was more an adductor, uh, she's homework needs to work on her AB doctors. Some people might need to get more the lift on the inside of the leg to do this simple exercise. So come up to standing and come home.

Now just stand up and face towards the uh, audience and now put your hands on your gluteal fault. Again, she's getting her pelvis forward because she shifts forward. But ask her to stand back, feel her this tone, move in and then go down to her heels to help change the, uh, how she aligns up in this tutorial we talked about the lateral leg, the add doctors and the AB doctors. You're going to have to discover with your practice or your client, what is their strengths and what are their weaknesses and which ones are going to help them find their standing leg. What is hard about what we do in our supine prone, they're wonderful building blocks, but finding the coordination and standing is very different.

In some ways it's, you know, I could do a hundred leg lifts and get a burn, but to understand, and San is just totally different, you know? And that's what's so hard about that. So in the next tutorial we'll go a little bit through the rotators and then we'll also talk about bringing everything together depending on what is happening. And then the reformer class that I will teach will be building from ground zero through the foot to the hip so that you can go to fabulous side split.