Iron Cross Stretch Lowers Hip and Low Back Injury Risks

Use the "iron cross" stretch to improve your hip and low back flexiblity and reduce injury risks.

With flexible hips and low back, you will be able to move more fluidly as an athlete and your speed will improve.



How to Do the Iron Cross Stretch

1. Make sure to keep your shoulders pressed to the ground at all times. This will give you maximum stretch in your hip.

2. Lie on your back then take one leg straight overhead and bring across your body down to ground. Don't "log roll" your body as you lower your leg! If you can't touch the ground, do the best you can until your flexibility improves. Hold stretch 20-30 seconds.

Many of you will not be able to touch your toe on the ground.....that's okay, you can do this stretch every day to improve your flexibility.

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Mark Dilworth, BA, PES
Sports Fitness Hut

10 Exercises to Improve Running Speed

If you want to improve your speed and power, you need to work at getting faster. It doesn't just happen. It doesn't have to be complicated workouts, just simple things like these tips and 10 exercises:

1. Starting and acceleration speed is critical during games because you rarely reach maximum speed. Work on quick start drills and plyometric power exercises like squat jumps, long jumps and box jumps (pictured below).

When you do box jumps, the platform needs to high enough to challenge you, but not too high. From an athletic stance, bend your hips and knees and swing your arms back to gather momentum.

Explosively jump onto the box and hold for a second. Step off the box. That's one repetition. Repeat for 6-8 repetitions.

2. Work on your running mechanics every day. Wasted motion and bad running technique will stop you from improving.

3. Strengthen and condition your hips, glutes, thighs and hamstrings. These groups make up your athletic "power center."  Clock or 3-D Lunges work well here.

4. Keep your hips loose and flexible by doing exercises like leg swings (pictured below). Tight hip flexors will cause problems to other areas such as the glutes.

5. "Powerize" your running with exercises like power step ups and squat jumps. Other single leg exercises like lunges are great because single leg exercises use the same pathways that it takes to run.

6. Run fast! You get faster by training fast.  If you play a sport, do your practice drills at full speed.

7. Make squats, deadlifts, good mornings, glute/ham drops and hang cleans regular exercises in your routine.

8. Strengthen your core every day. Exercises like planks, side planks and bridges can be done every day. A strong core is important for speed endurance.

If you will do these simple things on a regular basis, your running speed will improve. You will probably need the help of a professional trainer to make sure you are doing things right. 

Train hard and smart!

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Mark Dilworth, BA, PES
Sports Fitness Hut

Standing Hip Abductor Exercise Improves Lateral Speed and Power

The Standing Hip Abductor Exercise will improve your lateral strength (frontal plane) which will help develop your lateral power and speed.

It is better to do this exercise on your feet since most athletic movements are done on your feet. Besides, the sit-down hip abductor machine doesn't work the hip muscles near enough.



Inadequate training of the gluteus medius (hips) will limit your athletic performance. Weakness in the gluteus medius can result in knee and back injuries.

Weakness in the gluteus medius also contributes to instability when you walk, run and jump. In other words, you will avoid alot of injuries just by training the darn gluteus medius!

Take the necessary steps to improve your lateral strength. Working out on exercise machines will primarily work your muscles in the sagittal plane of motion.

That's okay except that many athletic movements occur in the frontal and transverse planes of motion. So, your program needs to include exercises in all planes of motion.

1) As you perform the movement, keep your leg straight and torso upright. Don't drop your head.

2) Use enough weight so that the hip muscles are adequately trained.

Be sure and download your Free Bodyweight 500 Metabolic Fat Burner Workouts and start shaping your body faster!

Mark Dilworth, BA, PES
Sports Fitness Hut

Stretch Tight Hip Flexors with External and Internal Hip Rotations

If you have tight hip flexors, a good dynamic flexibility exercise for you would be hip rotations.


See Flexibility and Stretching 101

Do external and internal hip rotations every day to improve your speed and athleticism.

If your hip flexor muscles are not flexible, you will not even be a good athlete in your sport(s). Tight hip flexors also lead to some painful injuries (like pulls and strains) that are hard to recover from. Every athletic movement involves your hips so condition them continually.

Great athletes dominate dynamic movements with the hips, glutes, quadriceps and hamstrings. Lateral speed is particularly created and maintained by the strength of the glutes and hips. There are a host of injuries that arise when your hips are tight causing your glutes to not fire properly.

Be sure and download your Free Bodyweight 500 Metabolic Fat Burner Workouts and start shaping your body faster!  There are 3 levels:  beginner, intermediate and advanced.  Start at your level and progress.

Mark Dilworth, BA, PES
Sports Fitness Hut

Gluteus Medius Training Avoids Injuries

Don't neglect to train the gluteus medius. Weakness in the gluteus medius can result in knee and back injuries.

Weakness in the gluteus medius also contributes to instability when you walk, run and jump. In other words, you will avoid alot of injuries just by training the darn gluteus medius!



The gluteus medius is the main hip abductor. It moves your hip away from your body's midline.

See Top 10 Speed Training Tips

Abduction occurs during any athletic movement requiring you to move from side to side such as playing the infield in baseball, defense in basketball and football, and ice skating. The gluteus medius and gluteus minimus also have critical roles in gait (walking) because they stabilize the pelvis. This prevents the pelvis from tilting sideways when you are balancing on one foot.

According to Laura Presswood and colleagues from New Zealand, the following exercises are great for strengthening and conditioning the gluteus medius:

1. Side lying leg lifts
2. Single-leg squats
3. Lunges
4. Cable or resistance band hip abductions
5. Balancing on one leg

I would also add step ups and leg swings to this list.

The gluteus medius causes running injuries for many athletes. Because you run on one leg at a time, a weak gluteus medius will always cause running mechanics problems and injuries.

It is important to keep your hips and glutes conditioned all year.

Be sure and download your Free Bodyweight 500 Metabolic Fat Burner Workouts and start shaping your body faster!  There are 3 levels:  beginner, intermediate and advanced.  Start at your level and progress.

Mark Dilworth, BA, PES
Sports Fitness Hut