28 Nov Shallow Hips, Loose Rigs, and Hard Lessons: Commentary on My First 2013 Visit With McGill
Article Rundown
- Revisiting my 2013 McGill assessment where we discovered my loose, hypermobile pelvis.
- McGill’s hands-on testing showed how my hips were bossing around my spine.
- Learning to stiffen the pelvic ring became the key to eliminating pain and rebuilding capacity.
- These early lessons shaped the blueprint I still use today: assess, remove pain triggers, then rebuild.
Shallow Hips, Loose Rigs, and Hard Lessons
Today I’m breaking down another piece of history from my very first visit with Professor Stuart McGill back in 2013. We’re putting out a whole commentary series where I revisit those old assessment videos, answer common questions, and provide context for what was actually happening in each clip. In this installment, we’re looking specifically at the “shallow hips” and “loose pelvic ring” testing that McGill put me through—long before I understood what any of it meant.
This was all brand-new to me at the time. We had already walked through the dead bug variation, the lifter’s wedge, and the explosive McGill pull-up. But this particular session zeroed in on the pelvic ring and how my hips were influencing, or in this case bossing around, my spine.
Testing the Pelvic Ring: What McGill Was Actually Doing
In the clip, you’ll see McGill walking around me, hugging my iliac crest, bracing my pelvis with his hands, and essentially shadowing my movement. For someone who’s never been through a McGill assessment, it probably looks a little odd—his head under my arm, his hands wrapped around the hips, following me step-for-step. But this was textbook McGill: hands-on assessment, no guessing, no assumptions, and no wasted time.
I had just finished a pelvic rock-back as part of a hip scour test. McGill wanted to see whether manually stiffening the pelvic ring changed my symptoms. At the time, I didn’t know how to articulate what I was feeling. I just knew something felt “off.” I felt tightness when I moved, but I didn’t have the language yet to explain instability, shear, or linkage issues. I was just a powerlifter with a wrecked back trying to get answers.
What he discovered was that I had a hypermobile pelvis—what many lifters with repeated butt-wink under load will end up developing over time. My hips were dictating the motion of my spine instead of my core setting the stiffness and letting the hips move independently. In other words, my pelvis was too loose, and that looseness was feeding pain.
Why Getting Out of Bed Wrong Was Wrecking Me
There’s a moment in the video where you see me struggle just to sit up from the table. I come up with that classic “twisty, bendy, lateral flexion” pattern—exactly what you shouldn’t do first thing in the morning. At the time, my discs were hydrated, stiff, and sensitive. Any combination of flexion, lateral bending, shear, or instability would light me up.
Looking back, it’s almost funny how naïve I was. I’m sure McGill thought, “Of course your back hurts when you sit up like that.” He wasn’t condescending about it—he was incredibly kind and patient. But the ignorance was very real. I talk about this moment in Gift of Injury: had I gone into that session closed-minded, defensive, or unwilling to acknowledge how wrong I was about my own back, none of the progress that followed would have happened.
The assessment planted the seeds for everything that came afterward: rebuilding pain-free movement, regaining capacity, becoming symptom-free day-to-day, and eventually squatting 1,300 pounds without a return to back pain. In that same stretch of time, I also had the back capacity to bring twin girls into the world—another milestone that wouldn’t have been possible without addressing the mechanical issues McGill uncovered in that first visit.
Finding the “Corset” Effect and Identifying What Made Me Feel Better
As McGill shifted his hands around my pelvic ring during the test, we were looking for something very specific: What position feels more stable?
For me, the higher support—closer to the iliac crest—felt the most secure. The lower positions felt cumbersome and didn’t relieve anything. That’s actually common. Just in my estimation, around 7 or 8 out of 10 people with a loose pelvis prefer the higher support. The stiffness in that area gave me the exact sensation I had been missing. It felt like someone put a corset around my midsection and finally taught my spine how to breathe again.
This was the beginning of understanding how to build my internal girdle—not just through the Big 3, but by eliminating all the provocative movements that were irritating the pelvis in the first place. Once I stopped constantly winking, flexing, shearing, and moving through pain, everything changed. The exercises in Gift of Injury—suitcase carries, bird dogs, side planks, and the more advanced variations—helped stiffen the ring and gave me control that I hadn’t felt in years.
Raw Off-Season Training Before Raw Was “Cool”
Another interesting detail in the video: you’ll see clips of me lifting raw, then gradually layering in gear as the meet approached. This was back before training raw in the off-season was even a trend. I would start the training cycle with only my belt, then add briefs, then knee wraps, and eventually the full suit as the weight climbed. Gear was always built on top of raw strength and capacity.
But all that loading made the pelvis instability even more pronounced. Years of butt wink under heavy load loosened the ring and set the stage for pain. Once McGill identified the issue and we addressed it systematically, everything—from sitting up in bed to squatting world-class numbers—became possible again.
Why These Tests Matter for Athletes Today
The reason we test hips, femoral nerve roots, sciatic roots, lumbar segments, thoracic mobility, shoulders, and every other linkage is because guessing fails people. The lifters and athletes I work with now are often those who have already burned through the 30-minute or one-hour sessions with multiple practitioners. They need a different approach—one driven by precise assessment, not assumptions.
What helped me in 2013 is the same process I use today: find what provokes pain, find what removes pain, and build a strategy around those answers. For me, stiffening the pelvic ring was a huge piece of the puzzle. For others, it might be something entirely different. That’s why the testing matters.
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