I call this the ‘best’ hip mobility exercise for mixed martial artists because it targets 3 areas that are often tight in fighters (and dudes in general):
- Hip flexors
- Hamstrings
- Adductors (groin/inner thigh)
It not only mobilizes and lengthens these muscles, but it also improves your balance, co-ordination and strength at challenging ranges of motion.
Plus it takes the femur through a good rotational range of motion in the joint capsule – something that we don’t do often and doing so with this exercise will help keep the capsule from tightening up and limiting your kicks.
OK , so maybe you won’t get THIS mobile, but if you can do this exercise in perfect form, you’ll be pretty good and you’ll have healthy hips.
The exercise is called the Cossack Warrior and I learned it from Scott Sonnon and my buddy Adam Steer.
Watch the video to learn how to do it:
If you can’t do the full Cossack Warrior, I also show you how to work your way up to it, so make sure you start at whatever level you’re able and work up.
I always tell my athletes – stop the set the instant that form falters. Even better – stop it just before you lose good form.
Your goal should be to perform 20 reps (10 per side) of the Cossack Warrior in perfect form with decent depth.
Try it out, then leave your comment below with how it went or if you have any Q’s and I’ll get back to ya.
And if you could help me out, I’d really appreciate it if you shared this post with your buds. Thanks! :)
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Leave A Reply (34 comments So Far)
chris
Eric,
Fantastic exersise!!!! Did it in the back of my rig at work. And BTW do you have any suggestions on how to keep a good routine going good with a odd schedule. I work medical transport/ems and my schedule is hard to keep a good routine. I have 2 days on 2off, 2 on 4 off 2on. With 12 hr shifts. Any help please? Your the best and keep the body weight exersises coming!!!
Peace out!
Sam
Man…your recommendations especially the cossack warrior move reminds me of this fella Matt furey. But then again…could be the ancient chinese connection cause he learned his trade from the chinese. Haha. Great stuff indeed!! Probably was what i was looking for as i realized my kicks doesn’t have the rotation nor height that i seek!!
wood530
Awesome thx man
wood530
Thx man
Josemm
I like it it is working for me thanks!!!
sean
hey eric already got tacfit program from your link could you send me free cicuits stricking &grappling
Steve
I have some of the best hips for kicking abilities….I’ve been doing this type of exerxice/stretch for as long as I can remember…one of my favorite. I defintely works
YYW
I tried this with additional 12kg KB and 10kg DB and going real deep (calves almost touching the floor) –> overstretched my left gracilis (I think that’s what it’s called after googling), that thin long muscle that ran from the inside-back of the knee all the way to the groin. LOL!
Still a bit tingling when I tried to go down low on the Cossack.
Learned my lesson. Remember warm up, stretch without weights first before getting too enthusiastic.
Eric Reply:
July 15th, 2010 at 2:35 pm
A good lesson for ALL of us… Too bad it had to be you to teach it!!! :)
Thosh
Yea this ones awesome! I feel a difference after the first already and my hip flexors are so damn tight. Thanx, keep em coming!
Adale
Please keep, posting stretching exercises such as these. I’m using this to help increase my flexibility for head-kicks. Thank you very much.
Kunoy
Hey Eric,
This was amazing, I’ve done both of these before but never together. Thanks for the winderful tips and please keep um coming.
Carwin in third round by TKO, after Lesnar gas’s out.
Matt
Great stuff Eric! Amazing what you can do by just blending to separate exercises together.
Even though Carwin has some good wrestling I don’t know if he can shrug off Lesnar’s bulk…if he can he has a chance of knocking him out on the feet in the first or second round…if he can’t then its Lesnar’s ground n pound probably in the same time frame.
jonmarc
another great exercise!my sparring partners laughed at first when i’ve showed them the exercises.now they cringe and grimmace.the “cossack warrior” is gonna make them limp off to some corner.i hope lesnar wins if he does i think he should gain more respect.carwin would be a quality victory i think.i would like to see a mother of all battles a classic 5 rounder, but lesner,1st round ko.im sure your pet squirrel can kick some ass coach,crazy 8ing chico?happy 4th peeps
Andrew
If they stay standing carwin has a slightly better chance but other than that it will be a vicious ground and pound by lesnar for a first round tko (the ref will stop it before carwin gets his face crushed in)…..and awesome workout i could definantly use the extra flexibility for my ground game….
Seb
This works great. hope to see more videos like it soon
Ivan
I just did a set of ten each side over my lunch break and I feel unbeleivably more limber than I’ve felt in a long while. This has got to be fantastic for the agility, definately has a spot in my warm-up!
Eric Reply:
July 2nd, 2010 at 2:20 pm
Man that’s what I felt the first time I did it… It was like I instantly had new ranges of motion I’d never used before…
dragonmamma/naomi
Warrior lunges, no problem.
Cossack lunges, definitely need to get lower.
Thanks, I’ll be working on that one.
Gavin
Whats up Eric?
Yeah thats a sweet bodyweight movement for your hip mobility.
I train similar movments in my kettlbell class, my IKKF instructor has shown me the way with regards to the benefits of bodyweight movements.
By the way – do you know you have a squirrel running about in that video……..!?
Could you shoot some more dynamic bodyweight movements that I can use for conditioning. The medicine ball workouts are the muts nuts.
Keep up the good work.
following you from Scotland.
Eric Reply:
July 2nd, 2010 at 1:27 pm
Sounds good – will definitely fire off some more bodyweight stuff…
Muts nuts?!? Never heard it before but it rhymes and I like it!
And I just watched the vid again and realized that it looks like I’m scratching my nuts when I’m talking about the adductors… OOPS!
… And that’s not a squirrel, that’s my dog Chico! He’s a chihuahua… My g/f (now fiancee) got him when he was a pup, and he came with her when we moved in together…
Paul
Looks great like all of your stuff so I’ll give it a crack next training session.
Carwin by knockout 2nd round after weathering the Lesner storm in round 1…..
jacob
Great exercise eric. My hips have been in bad shape after i strained one of my hip flexors during track season a few years back. I only did a few reps of it and my hips feel great. Thanks for the help!
Draje the Wonder
We do this exercise before We start Muay Taih But more advanced,
Carwin 1st round knock out. This is going to show lesnar what fighting is really about in mma.
bRAD
yeah that is an awsome exercise, i do Muay Thai so that’ll be great for the flexors. I love all ur tips mate… Thanx Eric
Carwin 1st round KO
JD Durso
Great exercise, my hips are horrible, i mean really bad..do you think yoga would help? or do you have other ideas?…
If lesner gets caught early yes, carwin ko…but i see lesnar rushing carwin and taking him down and doin the same thing he did to mir…whos gonna get there first?…ring rust should play a factor for lesnar if fight goes on…JD Durso
Ian
Great exercise, I have dodgy hips so hopefully this’ll help.
Carwin by 1st round TKO.
Cheers
Eric
Oh yeah – I call Carwin by first round KO over Lesnar… What about you?
rocci Reply:
July 2nd, 2010 at 2:12 am
lesnar – takedown off the bat – follwed by brutal ground and pound = ref stoppage due to cuts! by the way that exercise is awesome especially trying to do it the next morning after a wrestlings session, you can realy tune into those areas. nice one!
Scotti Jowers Reply:
July 2nd, 2010 at 6:33 pm
Everyone seems to forget that Carwin was a National Champion wrestler at the collegiate level also. I know it was Division II, but he will be so ready for the Lesnar takedown attempts. Carwin in a first round KO or TKO!
rashid abdul-salaam Reply:
July 3rd, 2010 at 5:51 pm
Lesner has been training Catch Wrestling, so i want to see what his ground game is like. If he uses any CW he will destroy Carwin on the ground. If they stand, whoever gets hit first goes to sleep.
Marco Reply:
July 2nd, 2010 at 10:20 pm
i go for carwin i think it’ll last all five rounds but im hoping for carwin to knockout lesnar on da first round