Topic: Video: sean o sulivan jerk lunge

[cathal byrd]

slight rotation in this jerk lunge? any ideas on how to remedy this?

[Buck Ramsay]

I've never seen this exercise. What is the purpose? It looks like a potentially good way to injure yourself.

[Jim Hooper]

Cathal, I'd concentrate on improving the range of motion (flexibility) of his hip flexors and quads.  That is most likely the part of the chain that is too short/taut, causing him to rotate his femur internally as his knee angle closes.  If you looked at his lunge from overhead, you'd see that the distance between his hip and his knee (the insertion points of those muscles) shortens when he rotates the femur in -- it becomes the base, as opposed to the hypotenuse, of a right triangle.  He is rotating the femur inside to compensate and make up the distance -- not consciously doing anything "wrong," its just the body's natural way of sensing excess tension and shifting joint angles to relieve it.  It will disappear with 2-3 weeks or so of regular  quad/hip flexor stretching (on both sides), and his jerk receiving position will be more comfortable, more stable, and a place to which he will go faster.  I'll bet this strong lifter rarely splits deeply enough to lock out jerks at eyebrow height, and instead catches them top-of-the-head height or higher, right?  If so, that'll change too, I think, with a dab of increased mobility.   He'll soon learn to drive down lower, and will love the results.   Best of luck, Jim.

[Eamonn Flanagan]

Sounds like great advice from Jim.

Jim, I was wondering, if there is internal rotation at the hip, would that also imply that the adductors could also be tight?

[peter durcan]

hey sean from looking at the video in my opinon it appears that your torso appears to twist inwards before anything else and that your hip just rotates inwards in concordance with it. My hypothesis is that possibly your obliques could do with strenthing so that the load overhead can be maintained with a more rigid torso and hence avoiding the internal rotation of the lower down body segments. I must start doing a few of those lunges they look like a great exercise.