Habits and Hustle
Episode 450: Henry Abbott: The Hip Stability Secret for Aging Well + Why ACL Tears Are 8x More Common in Women
Fri, 16 May 2025
Are your hips stable, mobile, or neither? In this Fitness Friday episode on the Habits and Hustle podcast, I talk with Henry Abbott about his insights from elite sports training facilities that can help people prevent injuries and age better. We discuss simple tests you can do at home, why ACL tears are epidemic among female athletes, and the importance of plyometric training for developing "bouncy" strength. Henry also shares the 13-step warm-up routine used by elite athletes, which can transform how you feel in just 10 minutes. Henry Abbott is an award-winning journalist and founder of TrueHoop, a respected basketball media platform. He previously led ESPN's 60-person NBA digital and print team, which published several groundbreaking articles and won a National Magazine Award. His new book "Ballistic: The New Science of Injury-Free Athletic Performance" explores revolutionary approaches to injury prevention through the science of ballistic movements. What we discuss: Hip mobility vs. stability - everyone fits one category Self-tests: pigeon pose and side plank X Mobile hips need strength, stable hips need yoga ACL tears 8x more common in female athletes True causes of ACL injuries Importance of plyometric training Landing mechanics and hip control 13-step warm-up routine Strategies for aging well through hip health Thank you to our sponsor: Therasage: Head over to therasage.com and use code Be Bold for 15% off TruNiagen: Head over to truniagen.com and use code HUSTLE20 to get $20 off any purchase over $100. Magic Mind: Head over to www.magicmind.com/jen and use code Jen at checkout. Air Doctor: Go to airdoctorpro.com and use promo code HUSTLE for up to $300 off and a 3-year warranty on air purifiers. Bio.me: Link to daily prebiotic fiber here, code Jennifer20 for 20% off. Momentous: Shop this link and use code Jen for 20% off DavidProtein: Try David today—buy 4, get the 5th free at davidprotein.com/habitsandhustle To learn more about Henry Abbott: Website: https://www.henryabbott.com/ https://www.truehoop.com/ X: https://x.com/truehoop?lang=en Find more from Jen: Website: https://www.jennifercohen.com/ Instagram: @therealjencohen Books: https://www.jennifercohen.com/books Speaking: https://www.jennifercohen.com/speaking-engagements
Chapter 1: Who is Henry Abbott and what is his expertise?
Today on Habits & Hustle Fitness Friday, I'm joined by Henry Abbott. He's an award-winning journalist and founder of True Hoop. Henry spent years at ESPN before launching True Hoop, where he built a powerful platform that dives deep into the NBA business and the hidden forces shaping pro sports.
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Chapter 2: What is the difference between hip stability and hip mobility?
We all have weird stuff with our hips. Like every single person.
Oh, terrible. That's where my biggest issue is.
Yeah. And so it plays in that space too. It does? Yeah, because... So if you think about the egg again, right? And so now you're this free-falling egg and ideally you're going to... be bouncy because of like a rubber band of your glutes, right? Right. This is practicing kind of getting the force there, if that makes sense.
Okay.
It's just, you know, again, the nerves are going to control all your, there's 600 muscles in the body and they're controlled by the brain, basically. And it's going to like teach them to get it snappier, get it better, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So every single person in the SS at P3 has had hip issues basically, but they fit in one or the other category.
This is probably the most important thing I will tell you today. So everybody's hips are either unstable or immobile and you should know which group you're in and I can tell you how to find out. So actually I asked Marcus at one point, I'm like, well, how do I know if my hips are immobile? And he's like, I think you know.
that's hilarious but just in case you don't like the way you check that one would be to get into like a pigeon or you know pigeon from yoga or do you know standing figure four i don't really want to demonstrate it but like okay so standing figure four so you stand up and then i would take like my right ankle and cross it over my left knee and then sit down yep
While you're still bouncing on one leg and butt back, chest up, and you want to kind of bounce. If you can really sink into that position or sink into a pigeon, I think we all know if you're not sunk in. If you can sink in, then we're going to say your hips are very likely mobile enough. And then for stability, this one's a little hard. If you do a side plank,
but the kind of side plank where your body's a complete X. So your leg is elevated, your arm is elevated, and then this is different than any other side plank I know, all 10 toes pointing forward. So your body's a big X. If you can lock that out and hold it, then we're gonna say that your hips are stable enough.
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Chapter 3: How can you test your hip mobility and stability at home?
So that's interesting. So, and you need to be both, right?
You need both. We all need both.
You need stability and mobility.
This is how we're going to age well. Yeah.
And that's so important for aging. So let me just repeat that because I think that's really important. So to age well, for your body to age well, we need to have hips that are stable and mobile. Totally. Right. And the way to check that is to either go into a standing figure four to see if you can sit down.
Right.
Or the pigeon. Right.
Right.
And you'll know if you're mobile or not. And if whatever, and the side plank with your hand out, fingers open.
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Chapter 4: Why do mobile and stable hips require different types of exercise?
And leg up.
And leg up. That in itself is very hard.
It's so hard.
Yeah, that's really hard.
This is like 5% of people are going to pass this test, I think. Right.
So then let's just say 5% of people pass. Then what does the other 95% of people do?
So I think if you, so you need work on hip stability and it's very knowable, right? I, you know, I guarantee that within a mile of here are 10 trainers who know how to help you with that. If that's what you're working on, right now you have a target, right? You can do it on YouTube probably, but you want someone to.
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Chapter 5: What is the importance of having both hip mobility and stability for aging well?
But let me just finish that because whatever, if you, if, if you cannot do that, right. If you're, if you're unable to sink into the figure eight or sorry, the, the, the pigeon, that means you're immobile. And that means you should be doing less weights, more yoga.
Yeah.
And if you are able to do that, but your hips are unstable, you know that by doing the plank. Yeah, exactly right. Because what happens? You just can't lift your leg or what happens?
Oh, what happens to me is I just feel weak. Right. You just can't get up. You can't do it. Right. I can like, I can, I can. And then what?
Do you need more weights then? Yeah.
So you're tweaking your routine a little bit. Right. I think you, you know, whatever, whatever you're doing to work out. I think a lot of us, you know, when you're 25, you can do it all wrong and it's fine. Right. Right.
No, but what I mean is if you're in that side plank.
Yeah.
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Chapter 6: How do hip mobility and stability differences vary between men and women?
how do you know if you're stable or mobile or whatever you're gonna be shaking or collapsing or quitting you know if you're unstable then you go to do the yoga or the weights then if you're you go do the weights yeah the way it's going to be more strong yeah you're going to be squatting and you know um i i've i've always had a mobile hips like everyone in my family no not my wife's family but everyone like my blood relatives yeah we are the immobile hip crowd
Right. That's very common for guys though.
Oh, totally. We're cool like that.
Chapter 7: What are common issues caused by lack of hip control and how do they impact movement?
Right. But I think mostly women maybe have more mobility in their hips and men have less.
Yeah. I mean, there are women who have immobile hips for sure. And there are men who have mobile hips. But like, yeah, you're right. That's definitely... Mobility is more likely in women for sure. And so I always thought of... very mobile hips is just like way better, right? Like the yoga teacher, I'd be like, oh man, like she's going to live forever with this, right? Right.
But only from this product that I learned, like, no, like a lot of super mobile people need hip replacements because they just don't have the musculature to keep it together. Think about how we're talking about, oh, here's the thing I learned that blew my mind. In my assessment when they assessed me, I mentioned you're standing on a box and you step off and land on the force plate.
Well, when I stepped off, my hips dipped. The foot that's out over the space, that hip just fell. They stopped the video and they're like, why are you doing that? I'm like, I don't know. I thought that was what we do, you know? That's not what we do. Like you're supposed to keep your hips level, right?
It's supposed to be like when you do most exercises, like the glute on the standing leg should be engaged and it's supposed to hold that stuff together, right? And then the other one can be mobile and bouncy, right? But you're supposed to control your hips. I was walking around without good control of my hips in
And I feel like that's what happens to a lot of these elite yoga athletes is that they're, you know, if they were running down that mountain path or whatever, their hips are going to be flopping around.
Well, I think it's because you could be too mobile. It's like the Goldilocks thing, right? With anything, right? You could be too much. It's like you have to be just enough. Just enough stability, just enough mobility, or else if you're too mobile, you can also injure yourself.
This is what I've learned recently.
Is it just weights or yoga? Because I find people who do weights are much more stiff versus people who do more malleable stuff like yoga. So getting back to my first question then, what is the top injury for women and what is the top injury for men?
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