Tag: back-pain

Hip Airplane: Stop Letting Your Back Do Your Hips’ Job

What It Is

  • Category: Dynamic stability + active mobility drill
  • Focus: Strengthens glute medius/max, deep hip rotators, and core while actively improving hip internal/external rotation range.
  • Why It Works: You’re balancing on one leg, hinging forward at the hips, and then rotating your pelvis open/closed—forcing the stabilizers to work while moving through controlled ranges.

Why It’s Great for Stability + Mobility

  • Stability: Trains the glute medius to hold the pelvis level while dynamic movement happens above.
  • Mobility: Opens and closes the hip capsule actively, increasing usable rotation range (critical for deep squats, lunges, kicking, and acro).
  • Balance: Challenges proprioception
  • Core–hip connection: Forces the obliques, core and back muscles to stabilize the spine while the pelvis rotates.

How to Do Hip Airplanes

1️⃣ Setup

  • Stand tall on one leg (soft bend in knee).
  • Hinge forward from the hips into a single-leg RDL position — back leg extended behind you, torso roughly parallel to the ground.
  • Arms can go out like airplane wings for balance, or hands on hips to feel your pelvic rotation.

2️⃣ Movement

  • Open: Slowly rotate your chest and pelvis outward, so your hips are “stacked” (standing leg hip moving into external rotation).
  • Close: Rotate your chest and pelvis inward, so your hips are “square” or even slightly past square (standing leg hip moving into internal rotation).
  • Keep the knee of your standing leg pointing forward—don’t let it drift side to side.
  • Move with control, pausing briefly in each position.

3️⃣ Reps & Tempo

  • 3–5 reps per side, each rep being open → closed → back to open = 1
  • Slow and controlled: ~3–5 seconds each way

Key Cues

  • Hinge, don’t twist the spine → all the rotation happens at the hip socket.
  • Standing leg stays strong → slight bend, knee over mid-foot.
  • Foot tripod → big toe, little toe, and heel stay grounded.
  • Think of “rotating your belly button” rather than swinging the leg.

Link to Back and Hip Pain

Back pain

  • Limited hip rotation or poor pelvic stability forces the lumbar spine to rotate more than it should, creating micro-twists with every step or bend.
  • Hip airplanes build rotational strength and mobility at the hip, reducing the need for your low back to compensate.

Hip pain

  • Weak glute medius/max can shift excess load onto the hip flexors, adductors, or deep rotators, leading to overuse and irritation.
  • Controlled rotation in hip airplanes improves joint alignment and muscular balance, which can reduce discomfort—especially in mild impingement cases (avoid during acute flare-ups).

Rethinking Back Pain: The Role of Fascia

Today I want to talk about something I’ve seen as a primary source of pain in countless patients—yet it’s rarely mentioned in medical school or by most doctors. While I’m still exploring the best ways to keep fascia healthy over the long term—through stabilizing exercises, muscle balancing, and movement practices—I’ve consistently found that massage, cupping, and acupuncture can bring meaningful relief.

For now, let’s start with the basics: what fascia is, and more specifically, the type I most often hear patients describe as the exact spot of their pain—the thoracolumbar fascia.

What Is Fascia?

Fascia is a type of connective tissue in your body—it’s kind of like a full-body spiderweb made of collagen that surrounds and supports everything: muscles, bones, nerves, blood vessels, and organs. It’s not just passive packing material—it’s dynamic, sensitive, and deeply involved in how your body moves and feels.

🧠 Key Facts

  • Structure: Tough but flexible, fascia is made mostly of collagen fibers arranged in a multidirectional web.
  • Function: It holds things in place, transmits force, reduces friction, and allows structures to slide smoothly over each other.
  • Layers:
    • Superficial fascia: just beneath the skin, often containing fat.
    • Deep fascia: wraps around muscles and bones.
    • Visceral fascia: encases internal organs.

Fascia can get tight, stuck, or inflamed, contributing to pain and mobility restrictions—even far from the original source. It’s richly innervated, meaning it plays a major role in proprioception and pain perception. Manual therapies (like massage, myofascial release, or acupuncture) often aim to restore its glide and elasticity.

🧱 Thoracolumbar Fascia (TLF)

The thoracolumbar fascia (TLF) is a major fascial structure in your lower back—like a thick, multilayered tension bridge connecting your upper and lower body. It’s central to stability, movement, and force transmission, especially through your core and spine.

📍 Location

The TLF spans from the thoracic spine to the sacrum, stretching laterally to the ribs and hips, and includes three layers:

  • Posterior layer: Just under the skin and superficial muscles like the latissimus dorsi.
  • Middle layer: Between the deep back muscles (e.g., multifidus) and quadratus lumborum.
  • Anterior layer: Deepest, lying in front of quadratus lumborum and connecting to the psoas.

🏋️‍♂️ Function and Importance

  1. Core Stability:
    Acts like a natural weightlifting belt by anchoring key muscles:
    • Latissimus dorsi
    • Gluteus maximus
    • Transversus abdominis
    • Internal obliques
      These muscles create tension through the fascia to stabilize the spine.
  2. Force Transmission:
    Transfers power between upper and lower body—especially important in walking, running, lifting, and rotation.
  3. Back Pain:
    Adhesions or tension in the TLF can reduce mobility and contribute to chronic or mechanical low back pain.
  4. Sensory Function:
    Fascia is packed with sensory nerves. Dysfunction here doesn’t just feel tight—it can generate real pain and disrupt body awareness.

🔧 Clinical Implications

  • Manual therapies (massage, cupping, acupuncture) can reduce tension and improve glide between fascial layers.
  • Engaging muscles like the transversus abdominis through exercises (planks, dead bugs, etc.) strengthens the fascial tensioning system.
  • Dysfunction in the glutes, lats, or obliques can create asymmetrical pulls, affecting spinal mechanics via the TLF.

🧩 Summary

The thoracolumbar fascia acts as a central tension system for the torso, tying together posture, movement, stability, and sensation. If something’s off in your core, hips, or back, chances are the TLF is part of the story.