The Tutu Test
Are you able to use your outer glutes to stabilize your hips?
Take this quick test to find out.
The Tutu Test came together after one of this year's Ski Babes asked for some help identifying if she was using her outer glutes or not.
I had just taught a Halloween Ski Babes workout in costume (sweaty ballerina) and realized how helpful it was to be wearing a tutu when demonstrating proper hip alignment!
And so the Tutu Test was born. :)
The goal of the Tutu Test is to help you identify if your outer glutes are doing their part in stabilizing your hips.
And if they're not, I've got techniques in this video to help them pick up the slack.
When you're able to activate your outer glutes, you take some of the load off your IT Bands (if you have a chronically tight IT band this might be part of what's happening).
You'll also have better luck keeping your knees in alignment over your ankles, which is a huge part of helping prevent knee injuries like ACL tears.
The magic of the tutu is that it helps exaggerate what's happening with my hips! The shifts in hip alignment are pretty subtle visually (and may be subtle in the body too, at first) and I want to make sure you can see what we're going for as you play with the different techniques in the video.
Take the test (tutu-optional) and then let me know what you learned!