• Separating Hip Fact from Lumbar Fiction – Part 1 – Butt

wink Bombshell – It has nothing to do with tight hamstri

ngs

Low back rounding during squatting, commonly termed

buttwink, is almost always blamed on ‘tight hamstrings’.
It has almost nothing to do with hamstring tightness, an
d everything to do with your pelvic anatomy.

The orientation, depth, thickness and angles of your pel

vis, acetabulum (hip socket) and femur dictate your hip
mobility. No amount of soft tissue or mobility work will c
hange this - it’s bony anatomy. Once you’ve used up wh
at your hips have, the movement is going to come from
somewhere else. Typically this will be the lumbar spine
flexion through posterior pelvic tilt – hence ‘buttwink’.

Under bodyweight-only conditions this ‘unloaded’ motio

n will help maintain healthy joints by taking them throug
h a full range of motion. Under repetitive and/or heavy l
oad for prolonged periods of training – there are two m
ain concerns;

Repetitive lumbar flexion-extension cycles – increasing ri

sk of low back and pelvic/SI joint injury

Femoroacetabular (hip) impingement syndromes 

Whilst there are factors contributing to ‘buttwink’ that n

eed consideration – there may be an upper limit of what
you can achieve. In Part 2 – we’ll start looking at the bon
y anatomy of the pelvis & hips to see how this influence
s your ideal squat stance.
• Separating Hip Fact from Lumbar Fiction – Part 3
–The angle of your dangle – The Femoral Neck 

Moving from the hip socket, to the ball - the ang

le at which it enters the hip socket will also influ
ence your squat stance & depth. 

On the left, the femoral angle is very flat whilst o

n the right is more angled. A flatter femoral neck
is more conducive to deeper squatting by allowi
ng more hip flexion before reaching its end-rang
e, whilst the more angled neck will reach this poi
nt much earlier. 

Like the trade-off between a forward or laterally

placed socket in Part 2, a flatter femoral neck wo
n’t deal with frontal plane (side to side) motion
as well as an angled neck – because the outer as
pects of the femoral neck & acetabulum will co
me into contact much sooner. A deep squat prob
ably comes with a limited ability to laterally shu
ffle. 

Can’t squat deep? You could have an anatomical

advantage to moving laterally instead. Traditiona
l squats may not be your best friend, but you ma
y be able to hit some serious depth in a Cossack
squat instead. 

Tune in for Part 4 and we'll look at another influ

ence of the femoral neck.
• Separating Hip Fact from Lumbar Fiction – Part 4
– Size Matters – Hip Socket Depth & Femoral Ne
ck Thickness

As if guys didn’t have enough to worry about – it

turns out the size of your femoral neck matters t
oo. But don’t worry – bigger isn’t always better.

You need the femur on the right to squat deep.

A thinner & shorter femoral neck, combined wit
h a shallower hip socket allows for greater mobil
ity before running into bony blocks. With a thick
er femoral neck and deeper socket, there will be
less room for the femur to manoeuvre in the ace
tabulum, reducing mobility as a result. The seco
nd picture from Dean Somerset provides a great
illustration of this.

As with everything – there’s trade-offs to both.

Greater hip mobility may allow you to hit a deep
squat, but a thicker hip socket is going to allow f
or more strength & power during single leg work
to 90 degrees hip flexion. Deep squats may not
be your friend here, but chances are you can loa
d up some lunge and split squat variations with s
ome decent weight. 

So far we’ve looked mainly at your squat depth a

nd stance width, in Part 5 we’ll have a look at wh
y your anatomy influences your foot positioning.
 
• Separating Hip Fact from Lumbar Fiction – Part 5
– Femoral Version with determine your feet angl
e excursion

The final anatomical piece of the squatting puzzl

e is your femoral version – the angle at which th
e femoral head (ball) enters the acetabulum (soc
ket). This will impact on the level of out-toe to u
se whilst squatting, and explains why some can s
quat feet forward with no problems, whilst othe
rs may need a more angled position. This picture
is orientated as if you’re looking down at your fe
mur from above. 

The femur on the left is retroverted. It’s flatter a

ngle will often mean a reduction in hip internal r
otation, and may show increased or excessive ex
ternal rotation. On the right, the anteverted hip
with its more angled appearance, will have great
er internal rotation, with limited external rotatio
n.

These hips need to squat differently. A retrovert

ed hip with less internal rotation will much prefe
r a more out-toe’d position to avoid bony blocks,
but this same position would chew up an anteve
rted hip. In contrast, the anteverted hip will pref
er more forward-facing toes, but this would seri
ously restrict motion in the retroverted hip. 

How do you know what’s right for you? Have a p

lay around and see what level of out-toe suits yo
• Get your Glute Gains Going - Part 2 - Muscle Anatomy
& Function

Three glute muscles, three functions; hip extension, ab

duction and external rotation - so what does what? Th
e angle of pennation of the glute maximus (the angle t
he muscle fibres face) runs diagonally from the sacrum
and pelvis to the femur, whilst the gluteus medius and
minimus are more upright and vertical. What does this
mean for function?

The glute max deals with extension, external rotation a

nd abduction of the hip. The upper fibres are responsi
ble for all three of these movements, whilst the lower
fibres are more biased towards hip extension. Unlike t
he upper/inner/outer chest anecdote - separate neuro
muscular compartments have been identified to valida
te this. Your squats, deadlifts and hip thrusts are going
to be the big bang for your buck exercises for glute ma
x in this context.

For the glute medius & minimus, it's about abduction

and control of adduction of the thigh, as well as maint
aining the height and front-to-back position of the pelv
is in single leg exercises. If you're cueing 'knees out' or
avoiding hip hiking during your single leg work - these
are the glutes you're looking for.

Next up - we'll look at what bony anatomy will do for y

our glute training.
• Get your Glute Gains Going - Part 3 - Hip Socket
Anatomy

You can't always cue or coach someone into the

desired movement, sometimes there is bone in t
he way that is not going to listen. Consider this if
someone is having problems with a certain mov
ement that hasn't changed despite a change in e
xercise selection, mobility drills or hands on trea
tment. For glute function - we need to consider t
he shape of the hip socket & femur. 

A more anteverted hip socket is more forward fa

cing with less coverage on the front of the hip a
nd more on the back. This makes it great for squ
atting as the hip can flex more before the femur
reaches the roof of the acetabulum, but the trad
e-off is often less range in hip extension.

If you want more range in hip extension, you ne

ed a retroverted hip socket - one that's more out
wardly facing with less coverage on the back. Thi
s allows the femur to extend further back before
the low back extends. This is probably one of th
e key anatomical differences between an olympi
c lifter (anteverted socket) and a sprinter (retrov
erted socket) 

This isn't to say you can't improve your range of

motion, but there might be an end-point. Next ti
me - we'll look at abduction & external rotation
• Get your Glute Gains Going - Part 4 - Femur Anat
omy

In combination with the orientation of the hip s

ocket, the angle, length and thickness of the fem
oral neck will influence how much abduction an
d external rotation you have. Again - there's no v
alue in jamming into a bony block if you don't ha
ve to.

If you want to hit some sweet ranges of abducti

on or some deep cossack squats, a more angled
femoral neck (coxa valga) is your friend, whilst a
flatter femoral neck (coxa vara) will limit your sid
e to side motion. If you're working more on exte
rnal rotation in open chain (like clams), then a m
ore retroverted femoral neck will give you more
external rotation, but probably at the expense of
internal rotation. 

In closed chain - it may influence the foot positio

n rather than the range of motion available. A m
ore retroverted femoral neck, whether it's in a t
wo- or single-legged exercise, might feel better
with a little more angle and out-toe versus a for
ward facing foot, whilst an anteverted femoral n
eck will be more comfortable facing forwards. 

Bony anatomy is necessary to consider, and may

present an insurmountable obstacle if mobility i
s your quest, but equally important is how you
move your own anatomy. More on that in Part 5
• Get your Glute Gains Going - Part 5 - Extend the Hip, n
ot the Low Back

The term 'glute amnesia' is used a lot, and whilst the g

lutes don't truly 'shut off', I do think that people are le
ss aware of how to extend the hip without the low als
o extending with the anatomy, mobility and control th
ey have. Often, low back extension instead of hip exte
nsion is why your low back feels pumped & sore inste
ad of your glutes. 

The key is to maintain pelvic & rib position. The tende

ncy to go into low back extension will involve an anteri
or tilt of the pelvis and outflaring of the ribs at the exp
ense of hip extension. Think about pulling your belt b
uckle towards your chin to encourage a slight posterio
r pelvic tilt to optimise the use of the glutes, and get a
full exhale to bring your ribs down and abs working ha
rd to hold that position, whilst you then move from th
e hips. 

Still struggling? Try a hip bridge up against a wall and

press with a moderate amount of force into the wall. T
his will keep your ribs down for you and you can focus
on the pelvic position. When you've got control of this
- simply remove the wall and hey presto - hip extensio
n! 

Now that we understand how to extend the hip, let’s l

ook at what influence exercise selection has – tune in
tomorrow!