Review - Free The Hips by John Izzo

[Steve-O-68]

I got a copy of ‘Free The Hips’ by one of our resident experts, John Izzo, and there’s a lot of good stuff on this DVD. It’s a fly on the wall production that was recorded during a seminar where he explained the importance of hip mobility and muscle activation to other trainers.

First, John gives them a quick anatomy lesson, describing the location and function of the hip flexors and extensors. Then, he showed some examples of posterior and anterior pelvic tilt, causes of the tilt, and who’s likely to have some type of pelvic tilt.
Next, he gets to the meat and potatoes… specific exercises to help ‘free the hips’. There are various glute med and glute max exercises, psoas activation exercises, dynamic warmup drills, hip mobility drills, DL stretch, etc. Some of the drills he got from Mike Boyle, some of them he made up, so there may be some that you’ve seen before, and some that are new. John demonstrates them first, then has his students do them. He gets hands on a time or two to make sure the drills are done properly. I followed along, and while some were new and a touch awkward at first (like the cross over lunge), I could tell each move would do what it was intended to do – increase muscle activation and hip mobility.
Pros:
Good solid info, that was well thought out.
It was unrehearsed, shot from the hip (pun alert!), so it didn’t feel staged.
It wasn’t overly technical, and was easy to understand and follow along.
Cons:
Sound quality… you have to turn your TV up a little to hear it, but that’s expected since it was shot in a gym.
Since it was part of a larger seminar, he mentions things that were discussed previously, but you can pick up the other DVDs if you want to get that info (I assume).
I didn’t get to see the ‘inter-gender spotting techniques’ that he talks about just before the video ends. I was looking forward to squats...
John’s a very well spoken person, and has surprisingly quick feet! The total run time was 35 minutes, but it was full of useful info. I’ve already incorporated some of the mobility and activation drills into my warmup.

[Kevin T.]

Thanks for the review Steve!

[John Izzo]

Thanks Steve,
My DVDs are filmed during my workshops which I conduct for trainers with 1-2 years experience. They are "fly on the wall" productions and nothing is staged...matter a fact--I sometimes forget there is a camera on me.

I developed "Free the Hips" a year ago when mobility was becoming (and still is) an important component in any exercise program. Hope you enjoy.

[Maki Riddington]

John,

Didn't you have a special price package of all your DVDs? I can't seem to find it anymore.

[John Izzo]

Originally Posted by Maki Riddington

John,

Didn't you have a special price package of all your DVDs? I can't seem to find it anymore.

Actually, it was a package deal for the CD-ROM version of the videos. www.AbleBodiedExercise.com

Great deal. Only thing, people were telling me they'd rather watch them in DVD format, than on their computer monitor.

[Maki Riddington]

Thanks.