- I'm Doctor Ryan DeBell from the Movement Fix, this is?

- Movement Fix Monday.

- This is?

- Doctor Wes Hendricks.

- We're at Reebok CrossFit Back Bay in Boston.

We are friends, colleagues.

- Friends.

I'd say friends, really good friends.

- You practice out of this gym?

- I do.

- We went to school together.

- We did.

- I'm staying at your house.

- You are.

- And I cuddle with your dog.

(laughs)

So what are we talking about in this video?

We're gonna look at isometrics

for a couple videos in a row, right?

- Yep.

- So this first one is like lower body.

A squat, what is it called?

- So it's called a horse-straddle stance

or a horse-straddle squat.

- Horse-straddle stance, horse-straddle squat.

So maybe you could show us what it is,

talk about why isometrics

are something that more people should be working on.

- Yeah, yeah.

- People love banging out reps.

- People love rep sets, more weights,

more reps, more volume,

when maybe this time of the year

the CrossFit Open's over if you're not

progressing onto regionals and/or the games,

it's time to start developing or establishing a plan

for next year and this is just a good way to

develop a good quality base of positions

to build upon for the volume you're gonna put on

over the next coming months.

- Wouldn't you agree that even during times

where you're doing a lot of reps,

not just always at the CrossFit Open

but people should be doing more isometric static holds

and working on owning their positions.

- Absolutely.

Not only owning those positions

but isometrics are gonna be safer.

Less joint shearing, less inflammation release.

Just overall more awesome, Ryan.

- We're awesome.

I like to include things in training that people don't do.

If you're already doing a lot of something,

it makes sense to include some of the things

that you're not doing to be a little bit more well-rounded.

So let's see what this horse squat straddle squat

is all about.

- So the horse stance typically, it's going to be,

well you'll see in a second.

Seven steps out, I'm only at six right now.

You can modify it, drop it down to four or five.

So it's gonna be with the feet together.

You go one, two, three, four, five, six.

So this is where I'm at.

You use the PVC pipe to measure your depth

or make sure you're sitting in that parallel stance

and then you're gonna sit down just like this

and have it sit in the hip crease

and then from there you can hang out

for as long as you want, working on those

ankle, hips, and spinal positioning.

Six months ago I started at 20 seconds.

I'm up to about 90 now for sets on a regular basis.

- Geez.

- Only at that six step out length.

So it takes a long time.

- Yeah.

So someone might see that and be like,

Wes, your knee is dropping in.

Are you concerned that your knee is not in,

like let's say you're doing a heavy back squat

that it's in a different alignment?

- I'm not loading it, so I'm totally comfortable with that.

I'm not going up or down,

there's no concentric or eccentric movement there.

And I'm trying to focus on a good position.

I'm not forcing my knees out violently by any means,

but that's not a compromising position

for the knee right there.

- Got it.

So you start with your feet together,

you're kind of windshield-wiping out.

Let's say someone's never done this before.

Where would you recommend they start?

- I started playing around with this

with a lot of the athletes I train.

And typically four or five is

a good window to start them at.

And even if you can't use the PVC pipe,

just get into a wider stance position

and sit down in this position,

maintaining that good spinal position,

opening up those hips.

- Should I try it in these pants?

- Are those pants stretchy?

- Kinda.

- Then I would try it.

As long as you're not gonna rip it.

- Alright, let's make sure I don't rip my pants.

Remember when I did this last time I was here?

I did like seven.

- You got off the flight, you weren't supple yet.

- My hips were wide.

They hurt from going too wide.

So I think that's something to consider too

if you're doing this the first time.

If you go too wide it's pretty stressful.

- It is.

- Let's see if I can do this.

Alright, so I'm here.

One.

Two.

Do I go that far out or more?

- It doesn't really matter.

We're just splitting hairs at that point in time.

- Three, four, five.

So I'll go like four.

- Yeah, and I just like it because

we have an objective measure so we can

track it over time as opposed to going super wide

one time, narrow the other.

- You could also probably measure your feet too.

This is something else we've been

talking about since we've been here.

Not everything always has to be so precise.

Just go generally four or five out.

So I be here and then I'm gonna go down

as far as I can and try to get to a depth where--

Oh look, I can do it.

- Yeah, that's awesome, that's great.

- I can be here.

Even in the pants.

- That's from all the running we were doing in the rain.

- It's all the running we were doing in the rain.

That was a crazy lightning bolt.

So how long would I hold this?

It's starting to get kind of hard

because I never do this.

- So if there's cramping, if you're feeling

a significant amount of discomfort,

by any means don't force through it.

Just hold it until you're comfortable.

Go by feel.

Not everything has to be this--

- I'm not trying to relax here at all.

This is an active position.

- Yeah, this is an isometric position.

- I could be here kind of collapsed.

That's not what I'm doing.

- We really want to create awareness

of what your feet are doing,

what your knees are doing,

what your hips are doing, what your spine is doing.

- I'll turn to the side so they can see on the camera.

- Yeah, absolutely.

- So generally one, two, three, four-ish.

- Yeah.

- I'll get down there.

And so I just hold this until it gets pretty hard.

How many times would I repeat that?

Would I just do it once?

- So I start with three sets and now

six months later I'm doing five sets

and I normally pair this with another thing

so I just go back and forth.

- Like another isometric that we'll talk about.

- Yeah.

Another drill, but really there's no right or wrong.

However you want to program it

based on your specific goals.

- So let's say I'm doing this

and I've never done this before.

How often should I do this per week?

How would I include it?

- Based on feel, too.

Like if this jacks up your hips and you feel terrible,

don't do it anymore.

You've kind of exceeded--

- Do it less.

Go narrower, or something like that.

- Yeah, more or less go by feel.

I started off with three times a week

and I was pretty sore for a while

until I got used to it.

It's like anything else you do new for the first time.

You're not gonna feel too good at first.

Or it's gonna be different.

- The idea's like, look.

You get in that position, you hold it,

you build some capacity there.

- Yeah, absolutely.

- You build the ability to control the joint

and control your body weight around your hip joint,

different positions, and only good

things are going to come from that.

- Yeah, absolutely.

- Cool.

- I like it.

- Do these horse straddle--

- Let's say horse-straddle stance.

- Horse-straddle stance squat.

There's probably some name out there

that it's actually called.

- It doesn't--

- Look, if you have a problem with this

you can comment on YouTube and say--

- Yeah, please comment.

- You guys are wrong, it's called the

horse whatever thing.

- I don't care.

- It is what it is.

It's a position.

- We're just trying to make people better.

- Trying to make people better.

Our goal is to help people

understand how to move their body and be pain-free.

Wouldn't that be nice?

- Yeah.

- That's what we've got for you guys

this week on Movement Fix Monday.

Where can people follow you?

- Dr. Wes Hendricks.

- On Instagram?

- On Instagram.

- At drWesHendricks?

- Yes sir.

- We'll put the link to that in the show notes--

Show notes.

As if this was a podcast or something.

(laughs)

I'll put the link to that in the YouTube

description, whatever it's called,

and the blog post so you guys follow Wes.

- Or comments.

- He consistently puts out awesome stuff,

more and more, very excited about that.

So check him out.

See you guys next week.

(intense music)