Glenn Dawson of ResetU shows how to nail the pigeon stretch for hip and glute mobility. Start with four foam rolls held 60-90 seconds each, then do a figure-4 stretch and external-rotation lunge. For the pigeon itself, use a pillow under your back knee, keep your front leg flat, and progress by leaning forward onto your elbows.
Hi, Glenn Dawson with ResetU. In this video, I'm going to show you how to get into a pigeon stretch, release that glute tissue, that hip capsule. And if you think this is impossible, a lot of my clients at ResetU have thought it was impossible too. By the end of the video, you can pigeon stretch. Follow along. Step 1 is foam rolling. A lot of times you try to stretch tissue, and if it locks up and gets tight or you feel pain, your body tightens up and stiffens up, and it's not going to lengthen the tissue. Which means you're not actually going to stretch. So we're going to use the foam roller as a tool to reduce the tension in the nervous system and kind of relax the muscles. I want to use the end of a couch here. You can use a bench if you're at the gym, and we're going to do a side saddle release. So if I'm trying to stretch out my right hip capsule, I'm going to go on the inside here and and sit directly on the foam roller. Now, this is going to provide an intense amount of pressure. If it is tight or it feels like it's a lot of pressure, then that means you're on the right track. It means that's tight tissue. From here, you can easily mobilize the tissue, roll back and forth, twist this knee in and get some of the groin area in the tissue. Really, this is one of my favorite foam rolls to just break up the tissue around the pelvis area. It also looks ridiculous. So if you have the confidence to do this in the gym, you deserve this pigeon stretch. You deserve to have proper hip mobility. Once you've done this, move to the next foam roll. The next foam roll we're going to do is the actual glute hip capsule itself. So there's two different ways to open it up. The first one You're going to go into a side plank on the foam roll itself. Now, from here, I want you to clamshell. So you're going to push this knee into the ground, activate, and then release and move the foam roller back and forth. Now, this should feel kind of intense. It's completely okay. You want that outer glute to be released. Each one of these foam rolls I would do at least for 60 to 90 seconds to reduce the tension in the nervous system. Them. It doesn't happen quickly. You want to take your time with this, especially if you want to get progress. Now, once you've done that, move up to the actual hip capsule, or hit it like this if it's too intense, and foam roll out that hip capsule and get it to release. And you can literally feel the head of that hip capsule as you go over. We've got one more section of foam roll before we start a stretch. Last foam roll we're going to do is for your groin. If your hip capsule is tight, it's most likely that your groin is tight on the other side, pulling the knee internally and creating a lot of dysfunction in the hip. So to foam roll your groin, you're literally going to lay your thigh at a right angle, 90-degree angle, on the foam roller. Now from here, our goal is going to be to activate and release the glute itself. So you're going to lift the knee up, hold for 3 to 5 seconds, and then release. Now you're going to feel on the other side of this roller the tissue in the groin start to release as well. We're doing two things at once, two birds with one stone with this one. We're activating the glute and we're releasing the groin. Once you've done that, go ahead and just roll out the groin itself, and then we're going to move to the stretch. All right, now we want to stretch out the glute itself and get into an easier stretch than the pigeon stretch just so we can open up that tissue. We try to go too aggressive too fast, our body won't loosen. First thing you're going to do is just pull your knee to chest. That's it. You should feel a stretch here. If you don't, we're going to make it more intense. So after this, and if this is okay, you're going to do a figure 4 stretch here. And I would hold this stretch for at least 90 seconds, breathing and lowering your heart rate Make sure that your exhale is longer than your inhale and just hold this in place. Now we've got one more stretch to open up your hips before we go into the actual pigeon itself. Now we're going to do an external rotation. Grab a pillow or a knee pad or something like that, because if there is any tension in any of these stretches, it's going to tighten up your nervous system and you're going to have what's called guarding, where your body locks up. We don't want that. So I'll show you the front view and the side view of this. But basically, we're going to open up my right hip capsule. So I'm going to go into a lunge with my decorative pillow on the ground, lean forward into this lunge and use my opposite side hand on the ground. I'm going to look into the knee. And then look away and push away. And you're going to feel binding in this hip capsule. It's going to feel like a spring is getting loaded. I want you to push away, look away within your range of motion 10 times. I'll show you the side view. And this is the last thing that we're doing before we get into the pigeon stretch. All right, you made it. Pigeon stretch time. Put your decorative pillow on the ground. Don't tell your wife that you threw her pillows on the ground and they're dusty now and gross and full of dog hair. Just do it so that you can do this pigeon stretch without any pain. Next, I'm going to line up with my back knee. So this is going to be my back leg so it can land on the pillow. I'm going to put my foot on the couch. Use a couch or something soft, a chair, a bed, and then the lower you start with, the better. So if it's something that's low, easy access, it's going to be easier for you to do this stretch. Then you're going to lower yourself using your arms into the stretch and drop your knee down. Now, the goal is to relax so that this leg here in the front is flat. You want a generous gap in between your heel and your pelvis. You don't want it in here like this. That's It's not really going to help you as much. The whole goal of this pigeon stretch is to give your hip capsule an amazing stretch. Give that glute an amazing stretch. Give that piriformis an amazing stretch. This is not an amazing stretch. It's not going to help you. You want to do it right. Now, if you can do this, I want you to advance the move. Tighten your abs and lean forward. Now, you don't want to round like a lot of people do. Like this because you're teaching your spine bad movement patterns. Inhale, tighten, exhale. I like to move down to my elbows. That way I can keep my chest up and my spine straight. Now from here, just like any other pigeon pose, you would want to hold this for at least 90 seconds. Now, if you're having trouble getting into the stretch itself, One of the tricks you can do if your couch is too high or your bed is too high or your bench is too high is to pad the back knee. Now the back knee is going to be a lot higher. There's going to be less tension for me in the stretch. I don't even feel it at all. So no matter what, if you can't do that first stretch that we did after all that stuff that we did because your hips are so tight, Give yourself the advantage. Stack up this back hip. The higher this back knee is, the less tension on the front hip. Once you've done that, you've got your pigeon stretch. Make sure you share this video because I know you just completed your first ever pigeon stretch and you feel great afterwards. Do the opposite side and subscribe to ResetU.
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