In this instructional video, Glenn Dawson explains that hypermobile individuals—such as yoga instructors, gymnasts, or MMA fighters—often experience pelvic and lower‑back pain due to instability rather than a lack of flexibility. He argues that additional stretching is unnecessary for these people and instead introduces three targeted stability exercises to re‑program the pelvis and spine: (1) the Dead Bug, performed on the back with a focus on core activation, neutral spine, and controlled opposite‑limb extensions; (2) the Bird Dog, executed on hands‑and‑knees while maintaining a neutral spine, emphasizing slow, paused repetitions to build hip‑spine coordination; and (3) an Abductor Side Plank/Clamshell hybrid, done on the knees to strengthen the gluteus medius and outer hip, using timed holds. Dawson provides specific set/rep schemes, tempo cues, and the importance of fatigue‑based progression rather than failure. He also directs viewers to a self‑assessment tool (requiring only a broomstick and 18 seconds) linked in the description, and promotes a broader “reset protocol” for continued strength training to prevent pain recurrence. The video blends practical exercise instruction with education on why hypermobility‑related pain occurs and how to address it without additional stretching.
Chapters
Did you know that hypermobile people, people that are really flexible, can have pain too? Whether it's a Pilates instructor, yoga instructor, MMA fighter, gymnast, they can have pain too just from their pelvis not being stable. They can have SI joint pain, hip pain, all kinds of issues. So when you did your squat test, you were that flexible person that squatted all the way down, way below parallel. You're hypermobile. In this video, I have 3 movements to show you to get rid of that pain and solidify your pelvis so it doesn't have to come back. None of them are stretches. Hypermobile people don't need to stretch anymore. You're already good at that. You're fine. Don't worry about it. Do these 3 movements to get out of pain. If you're some weirdo that just turned into our YouTube channel and has no idea what I'm talking about, look in the description of this video. You can get your own self-assessment right now, and all you need is a broomstick and 18 seconds. Let's get started. For hypermobile people, it's very important to retrain your spine. So we're not going to be rounding your spine a lot, doing too much of those weird things. We want to keep it neutral as long as possible, as structurally sound as possible. So the first thing we're going to do is actually on our backs, we're going to do a dead bug. Now this move may feel like it's beneath you, but doing it proper and with perfect repetitions is what we're looking for. Retraining your body to do everything the way it's supposed to. Start off on your back, laying flat on the ground. Then I want you to lift your arms up straight. Lift your knees up to make 90-degree angles. Now, from this point, you're going to extend your opposite leg and opposite arm. Hold and bring it back nice and slow. Each time you do this, focus on flexing your core, your lower abs, the muscles in your shoulders, even in your armpits and your lats, and have everything work together. I would do 3 sets of this until fatigue, not failure, until fatigue, till the muscles are firing, and keep your back flat and straight. Once you've done that, move to the second move. The second move we're going to do is a bird dog. It's very important to keep a neutral spine in this. So don't put in too much extension or too much flexion. Certainly don't cat-camel this. We don't need that. Don't twerk. That's not what this is for. Tighten your abs. Try to push your belly button towards your spine. Lock everything in place. I like to even twist my elbows into the ground. So I'm locking down my abs, locking down my core at the same time. And then from here, you're going to extend your arm and your leg at the same time. Once you've done that, bring them back in so that your elbow meets your other hand and then extend again, keeping that spine neutral. Do 5 each side for 2 sets. And program the stability. It's very important that you pause as you do this so that you're creating stability. You don't want to rep these fast. You want to retrain your spine to stay in one spot the entire time while your hips stay in one spot. After this, we have one more move to stabilize everything. All right. So we've stabilized the front and the back of the pelvis and the spine. Now we got to do the side. So we're going to do an abductor side plank or an abductor clamshell, whatever you want to call it. We're going to do that. So I want you to go onto your knees and you're going to lift this hip up as high as you can. So in a side plank, lift up and hold. Now from there, you're going to lift your top leg, hold and squeeze. Now this is really a workout for the bottom hip in the bottom glute med or glute medius. The outer part of your glute. I want you to do at least 5 holds and then switch to the other side. This looks easy, but I've had professional athletes go through this and it's difficult for them. So it's hard for you. Lower the tempo that you're holding, maybe like a 2 or 3 second hold. Start from there and just focus on having perfect repetitions. Once you've done one side 5 times, switch it, do the other side. Now that's going to stabilize as much as we can the muscles around your pelvis and your spine. Is your body reprogrammed for success yet though? No, you need strength training for that. To do that, you need to take the next step in our reset protocol so that you can never have to worry about pain coming back. Look in the description of the video. I have a gift for you right there where you can go take the next step. See ya.
