How to increase standing hip turn out, more safely by looking at your knees and feet

Disclaimer : This information is not guaranteed to be accurate and I am not liable if you make any decisions or take any actions, in terms of medical treatment, health decisions, exercise, behavior or anything else based on the information presented.  I am not telling you any decisions to make even if I use terms like "you" but am using the word "you" as part of a writing style to simplify writing.  Any suggestions for what "you" should do are not for you personally to do but what someone might do as part of a exercise or nutrition program which might help some people's health and make other people's health worse.  You should not do any activity that will make your health worse even if "you" should do it according to the program described.  If the information is wrong and you believe it is true, act on it and it causes you problems, I am not responsible because I have warned you the information is not guaranteed to be accurate.

Coronal Plane - Straight directions of left, right, up and down - Rotations perpendicular to forward and backward

Transverse Plane - Straight direction of left, right, forward and backward - Rotations perpendicular to up and down

Sagital Plane - Straight directions of forward, backward, up and down - Rotations perpendicular to left and right

Hip Turn Out - External rotation of the hip and or transverse plane hip abduction

Look up ballet first position online or in a ballet dictionary

This post is about improving turn out in ballet first position while avoiding the dangerous mistake of rotating your feet instead of rotating your hips

Steps 1 and 2 can be skipped by some people

Step 1 Is a teaching lesson to understand how you can rotate the foot instead of rotating the hip.  It is not an exercise program that can help you achieve more hip turn out in first position, but a teaching lesson about what not to do with your feet while in first position while doing ballet practice or performance.

Step 2 Are stretches which if you can do easily indicate your problem is probably a lack of strength in odd positions not a lack of passive flexibility.  

Step 2 is not a exercise program but just a test to make sure you do not need to add additional passive static stretching in order to increase external hip rotation.  If you can do all the stretches in step 2 then you probably need to focus on the right type of strength training described in step 3 instead of spending a large percentage of your time on more passive static stretching of internal hip rotators through external hip rotation.  I am not saying these stretches are bad or can not or should not be done but just that the focus to reach that specific goal of more turn out in first position should be on strength training in first position by holding first position in the manner described in step 3 as well as possibly other strength training exercises as prescribed by a knowledgable ballet teacher.  Such additional exercises a teacher might prescribe are not listed in this article.  These strength training exercises might include active static stretching or dynamic stretching so might be called stretching but are not primarily passive static stretches against low or no resistance which are focused primarily on flexibility and build little or no strength.

Step 3 Is a method to turn out both hips equally while standing in first position

This is achieved by bending your knees when you turn out your hips to make sure your feet are in the right position until you find a symetric position with the most turn out possible in both hips without violating symetry.  

Once this symetric position is achieved you can do isometric holds with the knees straight or bent and do concentric and eccentric knee straightening and bending exercises from this position

Exercise Schedule, Frequency, Repetetions and Duration for Step 3 exercises

By repetitions I mean how many repetetions you should do of the concentric and eccentric exercises

You should not do the isometric strength training poses that often

Each time you could hold a isometric pose in first position with both knees straight exactly once and with both knees bent exactly once but straighten and bend the knees concentrically and eccentrically for multiple repetitions

You should do this multiple times a day and not hold either of the two isometric positions very long nor do very many concentric and eccentric repetitions such that it does not hurt the next day and can be done a lot of times in a week with very little pain.

The alternative is  to only do this once per day or less but do the same number of concentric and eccentric repetitions and the same total time for isometric poses in a week, only experiencing excruciating pain and possible injury at least if your a beginner

This is because if you do it once a day or less you are doing twice as many concentric and eccentric repetitions or more every time you do it and holding each of the two isometric poses at least twice as long in order to do the same number of eccentric and concentric repetitions and the same total time for isometric poses in a week as when doing those exercises at least twice a day

You only need to do 5 concentric and eccentric repetitions two times per day in order to do 70 concentric and eccentric repetitions per week.  And you only need to isometrically hold a single pose for 5 seconds twice per day in order to hold it isometrically for 70 seconds per week.  That amount maybe too much to be safe for some people, and too little to make any progress for other people.  But, it works out mathematically very nicely if you wish to do the same amount of exercise every day and increase by 10% once per week.  When it is a odd number of repetitions per day you would have to do an unequal amount of exercise in each of your two exercise sessions, but other than that it works out very nicely mathematically.  Every week you can add 7 more seconds to each of your two poses and add 7 more concentric and eccentric knee straightening and bending repetitions until you reach 140 seconds and 140 repetitions after which you can add 14 repetitions and 14 seconds per week. 

You will eventually have to discontinue these exercises and replace them with something else more difficult when you have no more time in your schedule to increase the concentric and eccentric repetitions or the duration of the two isometric exercises.

I will not say how many repetitions or how much time per week to do for all people as every person is different, but simply say if it hurts a lot you have done too many.

"one should not progress any more than 10% each week in training time, distance covered, or weight used in a given exercise or activity."

https://web.archive.org/web/20210121174024/https://blog.nasm.org/strength-training-new-clients

Step 1 Understand that you can rotate your feet in the transverse plane without rotating your hips.  This exercise will show you what not to do with your feet while standing, even though it is ok to do while sitting.  Those who already know this is possible can skip step 1.

1A starting position

Choose a surface where you can slide your feet on the floor without getting slivers or friction related injuries when you do step 1B and step 1C

Shins or the legs below the knees should be approximately perpendicular to the ground

Sit in a chair with your feet on the floor and  both knees bent

Both Feet flat on the floor.  

Both Feet Flat on the floor in the context of this article means - Both Heels touching the floor.  Both the medial and lateral side of the balls of your right and left feet should touch the floor

Toes should be in neutral neither flexed nor extended and neither medially abducted nor laterally abducted

Two variations of position are available either 1A1 or 1A2

Starting position 1A1

knees together and feet together.  

The Metatarsal Pharangeal Joint of your right and left big toes should touch each other

The Medial Malleolus of the Tibia at the bottom of the right and left ankle should touch each other

By touch I mean as close to touching as possible ignoring the soft tissue between the joints or bones that prevents touching

Starting Position 1A2

If position 1A is impossible to achieve then instead let your knees be apart  and do not have your feet touch each other

Your left and right femur should be approximately parallel to each other.  The inside edges of your right and left thigh should be approximately parallel to each other.  The outside edges of your right and left thigh should be approximately parallel to each other.  Both inside and outside pairs of edges can not remain exactly parallel in most people but I said approximately.

Your right and left foot should be approximately parallel to each other.  The inside edges of your right and left foot should be approximately parallel to each other.  The outside edges of your right and left foot should be approximately parallel to each other.  Both inside and outside pairs of edges can not remain exactly parallel in most people but I said approximately.

1 B Medial Rotation of the foot without hip rotation

Starting in position 1A1

Medially rotate your feet in the transverse plane, moving the back of your feet apart so that your malleous no longer touch each other

Do that while keeping 

the big toes of your two feet touching without medially abducting or laterally abducting your big toes

And while keeping

Your knees together

And while keeping

Both feet flat on the floor

Do not lift your heels off the floor.  Do not lift up the medial nor the lateral side of the balls of your feet off the floor

Next, return to position 1A1

Starting in position 1A2

Medially rotate your feet in the transverse plane, moving the front of your feet closer together

Do that while keeping

A single point on your heel that is a axis of rotation in as close to staying in the same place as you are able to for each foot

And while keeping

Your thighs parallel.  Do not rotate your hips in the transverse plane.  Do not move your knees closer together or farther apart.

And while keeping

Both feet flat on the floor

Do not lift your heels off the floor.  Do not lift up the medial nor the lateral side of the balls of your feet off the floor

Next, return to position 1A2

1 C Lateral Rotation of the foot without hip rotation

Starting in position 1A1

Laterally rotate your foot in the transverse plane, moving the front of your feet apart so that your big toes no longer touch each other and so that the heels of your feet touch each other or come closer to touching each other.

Do that while keeping your knees together

And while keeping

Both feet flat on the floor

Do not lift your heels off the floor.  Do not lift up the medial nor the lateral side of the balls of your feet off the floor

Next, return to position 1A1

Starting in position 1A2

Laterally rotate your feet in the transverse plane, moving the front of your feet further apart

Do that while keeping

A single point on your heel that is a axis of rotation in as close to staying in the same place as you are able to for each foot

And while keeping

Your thighs parallel.  Do not rotate your hips in the transverse plane.  Do not move your knees closer together or farther apart.

And while keeping

Both feet flat on the floor

Do not lift your heels off the floor.  Do not lift up the medial nor the lateral side of the balls of your feet off the floor

Next, return to position 1A2

Step 2 Optional Stretches which are not necessary when the problem is strength not flexibility

You can skip reading this step if you already know you are flexible enough but not strong enough

The problem is probably not lack of flexibility but lack of strength in odd positions if your hips can externally rotate more when not weight bearing

You might not be flexible enough if you can not do the butterfly pose with both knees touching the floor while lying on your back and can not do the half lotus pose with your bent knee touching the floor while lying on your back for both sides

Doing some of these poses may injure some people if they try to get in them by rotating at their knee in a direction it is not meant to bend instead of externally rotating at the hip

I will describe some poses to try to figure out if your problem with ballet first position is strength at odd positions only or if flexibility is a limitation that is holding you back from more turn out or external hip rotation in ballet first position with knees straight and the torso not bent forward

Many Yoga poses that involve hip external rotation have the hip flexed in the sagital plane when done as seated poses and need to be changed to  lying down poses with the hip flexed in the sagital plane as little as possible or not at all if you wish to make them more comparable with the hip turn out for standing first position in ballet when the knees are straight and the torso is not bent forward

Many people have enough hip external rotation on each hip individually, when the knee is bent and the hip is abducted in the coronal plane but the hips are not abducted in the coronal plane in the ballet first position when the knees are straight and external rotation is not done at one hip individually but at both hips at the same time so this assessment has some limitations.  

Two hips can be externally rotated at the same time which is ideal for assessment of flexibility limitations in first position for the lying down versions of the poses full lotus and butterfly but these poses are problematic because they abduct the hip in the coronal plane when done lying down and also problematic because both knees are bent in these poses when the knees maybe straight when standing in first position and not doing a plie exercise.  In the case of butterfly someone can try to do it with the knees as straight as possible and touching the heels of the feet together but not the toes or balls of the feet together to make it closer to ballet first position.

If butterfly was done lying down with the knees completely straight and the heels as close to touching as possible but allowed to move apart that would be ballet first position only lying down.  But, trying to achieve such a pose is a strength test not a flexibility test.  Unless, someone else grabs your body and rotates it for you which I imagine would be extremely painful to do for someone with straight legs because of the small lever arm and where exactly are you going to grab someone that hard without their skin slipping resulting in severe injury through bruising, internal or external bleeding or cutting or scraping skin.  Even though it would be easy to safely assist someone in this kind of rotation to test flexibility with a bent knee by simply pushing in the right place without any grabbing.

 Full lotus provides more external rotation than butterfly which is better for assessment but unfortunately can not be done without bending the knees.

The bent knees can be made closer to straight with lying half lotus but only one hip can be externally rotared very much at a time easily with this pose creating limitations in relation of this assessment for flexibility in trying to achieve ballet first position

Seat of nobility but lying down and with the knees straight would be very similar to ballet third or fifth position except lying down instead of standing up, but seat of nobility without holding your feet in place with your hands which requires bending your knees because your arms are not that long, becomes a strength test instead of a flexibility test.  If someone can achieve third or fifth position with full 180 degree symetric turn out then they can probably achieve first position with full 180 degree symetric turn out

http://web.archive.org/web/*/https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Positions_of_the_feet_in_ballet

1 Half Lotus while lying on your back with one knee straight and one knee bent, both sides

1A With one leg or foot on the thigh on the other side

1B With the leg or foot on the distal end of the shin of the other leg.  Although the knee is still bent it should be closer to being straight than in 1A

2 Full Lotus while lying on your back, both sides

3 Supta Baddha Konasana, butterfly pose while lying on your back

3A With knees bent to normal amount

3B With knees as straight as possible and part of both feet touching each other

4 Seat of nobility except lying down instead of sitting

one knee on top of the other knee

hips adducted in the coronal plane

hips externally rotated

knees bent

you can start in sitting seat of nobility grab one foot with each hand then lie down on your back on a soft surface with a soft surface under your head.  If you did this on wood or concrete or some other hard surface instead of a soft surface you could get a concussion if you lied back in a quick and uncontrolled manner and hit your head

youtube.com/watch?v=pwLEkecUU1k

Pose of Nobility to Cow's Head Pose

May 31, 2009  Catherine Carrigan demonstrates Pose of Nobility to Cow's Head Pose.

Catherine Carrigan

http://web.archive.org/web/20220827172459/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pwLEkecUU1k

youtube.com/watch?v=zgHhqw44_kM

Pose of Nobility

Jul 7, 2021

Catherine Carrigan

http://web.archive.org/web/20211226174807/youtube.com/watch?v=zgHhqw44_kM

Here is a similar exercise to these poses

Supine Dynamic Hurdler (Hip Internal/External Rotation Mobility Exercise)

https://web.archive.org/web/20220815051633/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Xm-x7nGjzc

Precision Movement

Step 3

1 Starting position

Standing with your feet parallel to each other.

Knees straight but not hyperextended

Knees and or the medial malleous of the ankles together touching each other.  Hips will be slightly adducted in the coronal plane to accomplish this

Hips neither externally or internally rotated but in neutral

Torso Straight Vertical neither bent, backward or forward and hips neither flexed nor extended but neutral in the sagital plane

Both Feet flat on the floor.  

Both Feet Flat on the floor in the context of this article means - Both Heels touching the floor.  Both the medial and lateral side of the balls of your right and left feet should touch the floor

2 Bend or demi plie 

Keep both feet flat on the floor

Knee should not be bent so far that you can not see your toes if you bend your neck to look down.  

If you bend your neck to look down then do not bend your torso forward or backward but keep it straight and vertical

3 Turn Out at the hips while keeping your knees bent

Keep both feet flat on the floor

The feet should rotate in the transverse plane as a result of staying in neutral relative to the hips when the hips turn out

These exercises should not be done with the feet rotated in the transverse plane through any means other than hip turn in or hip turn out.  Do not cause transverse foot rotation through transverse rotation of the knee, shin - tibia and fibula, ankle or foot joints.

The turn out at the hips should be done without straightening the knees nor bending the knees so far that you can no longer see your toes when you bend your neck down

The turn out should be done in such a way that hip, knee, ankle and foot position is symetric in the sagital plane.  If that means you have to reduce the amount of turn out on one hip to maintain symetry than do so.  The other side that you have more difficulty turning out should gradually improve over doing this exercise multiple times over many days and after the difficult side improves you can increase the amount of turn out on the easy side.

You should reduce turn out in the side that has greater turn out and increase turn out on the side with more turn out repeatedly until both sides have the maximum amount of turn out that is possible without losing sagital plane symetry or losing balance.  For some people they may feel like they will fall over if they turn out to far even though both feet are flat on the floor

You can use a stable safe object to touch with your hands to keep from falling down when adjusting turn out, but do not use a object that is unstable or dangerous to use to maintain balance

Once turn out is in the proper position you should be able to maintain balance without touching the object with your hand.  If you need to touch the object with your hand to stay in that position than reduce your turn out until you are in a symetric position where you can balance without touching the object

It might not be symetric if you have different body part lengths on your left and right side, but in such a case make it as close to symetric as reasonable even though it is impossible to be truly symetric

Bend your neck to look down at the position of your knees and feet to ensure your feet did not rotate in the transverse plane through the incorrect means of any cause other than hip turn out.  Your knees should block the view of part but not all of your feet.  Where your knees block the view of what part of your feet let's you evaluate if your feet are in the correct position

When you bend your neck to look down then do not bend your torso forward or backward but keep it straight and vertical

4 Isometric Hold with knees bent

Stay in the same position as the previous step except return the neck to neutral show that it is no longer bent down.  

Keep both feet flat on the floor

Do not bend your torso forward or backward but keep it straight and vertical

Hold yourself in this position for isometric strength training the possible duration is explained earlier in detail in this article

5 Isometric Hold with knees straight

Stay in the same position as the previous step except straighten your knees without hyperextending them

Keep both feet flat on the floor

If your knees can not straighten conpletely because they touch each other because your feet are to close than symetrically abduct both hips in the coronal plane as little as possible in order to move both feet into a position that is symetric, in which you can completely straighten your knees.  When doing so, keep the hips turned out the same amount as the position in the previous step, no more and no less if possible

You can touch a safe stable object  with your hands to make sure you do not lose balance getting into this position, but if you can not maintain balance in this position without using the object once you get there then your hips might be turned out too much and you should alter this position by reducing hip turn out to enable you to balance without holding the object and to maintain sagital plane symetry as much as reasonably possible

Hold yourself in this position for isometric strength training the possible duration is explained earlier in detail in this article

6 Concentric and Eccentric Exercises

Starting in the position from exercise 5

Keep both feet flat on the floor

Bend and straighten your knees repeatedly

The possible number of repetitions is explained earlier in detail in this article

At the end of your last repetition keep your knees bent and do not straighten them and hold the position still until you look down to confirm your hips, knees and ankles were alligned properly

Bend your neck to look down at the position of your knees and feet to ensure your feet did not rotate in the transverse plane through the incorrect means of any cause other than hip turn out.  Your knees should block the view of part but not all of your feet.  Where your knees block the view of what part of your feet let's you evaluate if your feet are in the correct position

When you bend your neck to look down then do not bend your torso forward or backward but keep it straight and vertical

After you looked down to confirm proper allignment at the end of your last repetition then you have completed the exercise sequence

If you did not have proper allignment then you need to do the exercise differently the next time to ensure proper allignment

Copyright Carl Janssen 2022