Home Baseball Content Mobility Exercise of the Week: Table Adductor Dips

Mobility Exercise of the Week: Table Adductor Dips

Written on July 17, 2012 at 6:56 am, by Eric Cressey

In this week’s mobility exercise of the week, I’ve got an excellent drill for reducing stiffness in the hip adductors.  I came up with this exercise when I realized that I wanted to be able to do more drills to improve hip abduction range-of-motion, but I didn’t always want them to be ground-based.  And, just doing lateral lunge variations all the time can get a little boring for athletes.  Enter table adductor dips.

I especially like to use this with our throwers because it actually parallels some of the hip angles we see with the pitching delivery, so it makes for a great warm-up and off-season maintenance/improvement exercise.  I also like it for them because they can do it out on the field without having to roll around in the grass (which would be the case with a lot of other adductor mobility drills).

In terms of coaching cues, it’s important to keep the weight on the support leg’s heel and sit back “into” the hip.  The majority of the weight should be on the down leg, with minimal pressure put on the leg that’s up on the table.

As you go through the exercise, brace the core to ensure that the movement comes through the hips (flexion and abduction) at the bottom position, rather than just allowing the lower back to round.  Having the arms out in front as I do in the video above can help as a counterbalance to prevent your butt from tucking under.  If you’re super stiff, you may want to consider holding a ten-pound plate out at arm’s length as an additional counterbalance.

At the top position, be sure to extend the hips all the way to stand tall between each rep.  I usually cue folks to activate the glute on the support leg to finish each rep.  This will also help guarantee that you’re stretching the adductors in both flexion and a neutral position.

We’ll typically do sets of eight reps on each side during the warm-up period.  This can, however, be held for a longer duration as a static stretch at the end of a training session.

For more drills like this, be sure to check out Assess and Correct: Breaking Barriers to Unlock Performance.

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15 Responses to “Mobility Exercise of the Week: Table Adductor Dips”

  1. Ron Jade Says:

    Does this drill help with sports hernia?

  2. Eric Cressey Says:

    Hi Ron,

    It could exacerbate the issue if it’s already present and irritated (depends on the severity and location of the issue), but from a proactive standpoint, reducing stiffness in the adductors is certainly helpful in preventing sports hernia cases. I discuss this in detail in our Functional Stability Training DVD set (www.functionalstability.com).

  3. Christopher Johnson Says:

    Nice vid. Knows foot position (of both the stance and stretch leg) radically changes the target tissues of this stretch. I really like how you showed the analog of this motion in pitching.

  4. Troy @ Formulated Fitness Says:

    @ Ron Jade

    Make sure you are properly stretched and always loose and limber before any sort of future training. Sports Hernias are very easy to reinjure! Take it slow when coming back from this.

  5. Maki Says:

    I have been using these for sometime now with my clients. It is very nice to see someone like you Eric show this drill because it reinforces that thinking outside the box does work.

  6. Shane Says:

    Very creative Eric. Nice work. Combine with inner thigh foam roll?

  7. Eric Cressey Says:

    Sounds good, Shane!

  8. Ted Browne Says:

    This looks like an excellent stretch to do prior to the baseball yoga drills we’re implementing.

  9. dave Says:

    As an additional challenge…try putting the lifted foot up on a 55 or 65 cm flexibility/swiss ball

  10. Karen S Says:

    Just tried this, Shane.

    Effective!! Nice!

  11. Dessie Says:

    I love this variation of an adductor dynamic mobility drill! So many people have adductor restrictions and they do not even know it. Along with manual techniques and foam rolling of the adductors, this exercise is a great addition. Thanks so much, Eric.

  12. Travis Says:

    Nice drill, only the range you show with a table that high is probably a bit much. When you stabilize the pelvis most people only have about 45 degrees of hip abduction and you’re well above that, meaning a fair amount of motion is also required of the pelvis and spine. Propping the leg up on a chair or something around that height may be a better option to avoid compensation and you should still definitely feel it in the adductors.

  13. John D Says:

    You are dead on correct. People just don’t get it, no matter how often they have heard this advice

  14. Stephen Says:

    Eric, would the adductors become shortened or lengthened in a person with anterior pelvic tilt?

  15. Eric Cressey Says:

    Stephen,

    Generally speaking, shortened.


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