“What are the main causes of hip shift in the squat or deadlift? Muscle coordination or imbalance?”
Dr. Jordan Shallow, aka the Muscle Doc, says that both muscle coordination and imbalance may be contributing factors. Ankle mobility or instability in one glute over the other are also possibilities. Maybe you’re shifting due to pain in one of your knees. There are a lot of factors.
“I think a good takeaway from a questions like this in the current landscape of rehab and corrective exercises and this sort of melding of scopes and the practice of coaches and athletes and therapists is don’t think for a second that your Bulgarian Split Squat loaded with one dumbbell is going to automatically affect your hip shift.”
You have to retrain the movement; you can’t out-correct a corrective exercise, and that’s a bad exercise.
Slow down the tempo and take time in the range that seems to be challenging but will still allow you to fix potential issues. Whatever you hone in on to correct the issue, you’re still going to have to practice the squat.
You can still do those corrective exercises, but you have to work on the movement that you’re struggling with.
