Turnout: Anatomy, Assessment, and Improvement Strategies

How Can I Improve My Turnout?

Improving turnout, particularly at the hip joint, involves a comprehensive approach focusing on strengthening the deep external rotators, enhancing hip mobility, and ensuring optimal pelvic stability. True turnout originates from the hips, not the knees or ankles, and requires consistent, mindful practice.

Understanding Turnout: Anatomy and Biomechanics

Turnout refers to the external rotation of the leg from the hip joint, where the femur rotates outwards within the acetabulum (hip socket). While often associated with dance, improving turnout is beneficial for overall hip health, stability, and performance in various athletic endeavors.

Key Anatomical Players:

• Bones: The femur (thigh bone) and the pelvis (specifically the acetabulum, the hip socket).
• Joints: The hip joint is a ball-and-socket joint, allowing for a wide range of motion, including external rotation.
• Muscles: The primary muscles responsible for external rotation are the deep six external rotators: piriformis, obturator internus, obturator externus, gemellus superior, gemellus inferior, and quadratus femoris. Other muscles like the gluteus maximus, gluteus medius (posterior fibers), and even the psoas can contribute to or influence external rotation. The adductors (inner thigh muscles) also play a crucial role, as their flexibility can restrict or facilitate turnout.

Factors Influencing Turnout: Turnout capability is a blend of skeletal structure and muscular flexibility/strength.

• Skeletal Factors: The shape of the femoral head and neck, the angle of the femoral neck, and the depth and orientation of the acetabulum can inherently limit or facilitate natural turnout. These are fixed and cannot be changed.
• Muscular Factors: This is where improvement is possible. Tightness in internal rotators or adductors, weakness in external rotators, or imbalances in surrounding musculature can restrict range of motion.

Assessing Your Current Turnout

Before embarking on an improvement program, it's crucial to understand your current range of motion and identify potential limitations.

• Importance of Assessment: This helps distinguish between skeletal limitations and muscular restrictions, guiding your training focus.
• Simple Self-Assessment Methods:
  • Supine External Rotation: Lie on your back with knees bent and feet flat. Let your knees fall open to the sides, keeping your pelvis stable. Observe the angle your thighs make with the floor. This indicates your passive external rotation.
  • Prone External Rotation: Lie on your stomach with knees bent 90 degrees, shins pointing towards the ceiling. Let your lower legs fall outwards, keeping your hips stable on the floor. This assesses internal rotation flexibility, which can impact external rotation.
  • First Position (Standing): Stand with heels together and feet turned out. Observe how much turn-out comes from the hips versus compensation from the knees (valgus stress) or ankles (pronation). True turnout maintains knee alignment over the second toe.

Strategies for Improving Muscular Turnout

Improving turnout is not about forcing the joint, but about optimizing the interplay of muscles around the hip.

• Focus on External Rotator Strength: Weakness in these deep muscles prevents them from effectively rotating the femur outwards. Strengthening them is paramount.
• Enhance Hip Flexor and Adductor Flexibility: Tight hip flexors (like the psoas) and adductors can restrict the full range of external rotation. Releasing tension in these areas is crucial.
• Improve Core Stability: A stable pelvis and strong core provide a solid base from which the hip muscles can operate efficiently, preventing compensatory movements.
• Pelvic Alignment: Maintaining a neutral pelvis prevents anterior or posterior tilting, which can artificially increase or decrease apparent turnout and create imbalances.
• Nerve Glides/Mobility: Sometimes, nerve impingement or restrictions can limit range of motion. Gentle nerve glides can improve neural mobility.

Targeted Exercises for Turnout Improvement

Incorporate these exercises into your routine, focusing on precise, controlled movements rather than large ranges of motion initially.

• Strengthening External Rotators:

  • Clamshells: Lie on your side, knees bent, feet stacked. Keeping feet together, lift your top knee towards the ceiling, engaging your glutes. Control the descent.
  • Band External Rotation (Seated/Standing): Sit or stand with a resistance band around your knees. Gently press your knees outwards against the band, engaging the external rotators.
  • Standing Turnout with Neutral Pelvis: Stand tall, maintaining a neutral pelvis. Slowly turn out one leg from the hip, keeping the knee aligned over the foot. Avoid tilting the pelvis or rolling the ankle.
  • Frog Pumps: Lie on your back, bring the soles of your feet together, and let your knees fall open. Lift your hips off the floor, squeezing your glutes, then slowly lower.

• Flexibility and Mobility:

  • Frog Stretch: Kneel with knees wide apart, shins parallel. Slowly lower your hips towards the floor, feeling the stretch in your inner thighs and hips.
  • Piriformis Stretch: Lie on your back, cross one ankle over the opposite knee. Gently pull the bottom knee towards your chest, feeling the stretch in the gluteal area.
  • Psoas Release: Kneel in a lunge position. Gently tuck your tailbone under, feeling a stretch in the front of the hip. Avoid arching the lower back.
  • Adductor (Inner Thigh) Stretches: Seated straddle stretch or standing side lunge stretches.
  • Figure-4 Stretch: Similar to piriformis stretch, effective for general hip external rotator flexibility.

• Core Stability Integration:

  • Pelvic Tilts (Supine): Lie on your back, knees bent. Gently flatten your lower back into the floor (posterior tilt), then arch it slightly (anterior tilt). Practice finding and holding a neutral pelvis.
  • Bird-Dog: On hands and knees, extend opposite arm and leg while maintaining a stable core and neutral spine.
  • Plank Variations: Engage the deep core muscles, crucial for pelvic stability.

Important Considerations and Precautions

• Listen to Your Body: Never force turnout. Pain is a sign to stop or modify the exercise. Pushing beyond your anatomical limits can lead to injury.
• Consistency is Key: Improvement in flexibility and strength takes time. Regular, consistent practice (daily or several times a week) is more effective than sporadic intense sessions.
• Avoid Forcing Turnout from Knees or Ankles: True turnout originates from the hip. Forcing it from the lower leg places undue stress on the knees and ankles, leading to pain, instability, and potential long-term injury. Always ensure your knee tracks over your second toe when performing turnout exercises.
• Seek Professional Guidance: If you experience persistent pain, have significant limitations, or are unsure about proper form, consult with a qualified physical therapist, kinesiologist, or experienced fitness professional. They can provide a personalized assessment and tailored program.
• Skeletal Limitations: Understand that some individuals have bony structures that naturally limit turnout. While muscular improvement is always possible, there may be an ultimate anatomical limit to your range of motion. Focus on optimizing what you have rather than striving for an unattainable ideal.

Conclusion

Improving turnout is a nuanced process that requires a holistic understanding of hip anatomy and biomechanics. By consistently strengthening the external rotators, increasing flexibility in opposing muscle groups, and maintaining core and pelvic stability, you can safely and effectively enhance your hip's external rotation capability. Remember, patience, precision, and listening to your body are paramount to achieving sustainable and injury-free progress.