“This one’s for you, Joe. What do you do for adductor health, rehab-, strength-, and mobility-wise?”
Joe Sullivan re-tweaks them over and over and over again so that they turn into scar tissue and you’ll never have to worry about them again.
Just kidding.
In actuality, Joe has to take a lot of care with his adductors because in the last year and a half or so, he’s been using them, or at least feeling them, a lot more in his squat. That might be due to the fact he’s competing in wraps and trying to get his hips to open more.
“I will consistently both warm up and cool down with the Copenhagen Adductor Drill, which is basically a side plank with adduction of the legs to wake them up.”
If this movement sounds familiar, it may be because it’s growing in popularity and seen more on social media. But with popularity comes a lack of understanding the purpose of this movement as well as poor technique.
Joe’s seen people doing the movement hunched over and rounded, which defeats the purpose of the Copenhagen Adductor Drill.
“The purpose behind it is you are using the entire body as a system during the movement, just as if you were doing it as a squat. You should prioritize your IAP, the intra-abdominal pressure and the bracing first. You should project your spine like you’re squatting, deadlifting, or whatever, and then warm the adductors up because it’s tying the body together as a unit while also actively warming the adductors up.”
On top of the Copenhagen Adductor Drill, Joe also does a lot of single-leg work because he tends to find when he does that, he slows things down and can focus on the muscles that he needs to use and strengthen them. Slowing things down also helps him work on control. He might notice that things aren’t as good on one side as the other, which informs him that the other side might need more work.
“Single leg work and the Copenhagen are the bomb, and warm your glutes up way more than you think you should or just use them better.”
