Are Your Hips Strong Enough for Karate?

Since most punch and kick speed comes from the rotation of the hips (and not from the arms and legs) you want to make sure that your hip rotation muscles are strong.

Fortunately, it easy to test them.

Lie on your stomach on the floor, bend your knees 90 degrees, and (keeping your knees together) move your feet apart as far as possible. Now have someone hold your feet apart as you try to bring them together, as you see in this illustration:

Hip Strength Test

If your hip rotation muscles are strong enough for karate, you will be able to throw them back across the room as you bring your feet together.

If you have to struggle to bring your feet together, your hips are too weak for karate.

The easiest, fastest way to increase the strength and speed of your hip rotation muscles is to train with the Power Hip Trainer—the only exercise machine designed to increase the strength and speed of hip rotation for karate students 17 and older.

 

Online Payment Solution
$275 + shipping 30-day Money-back Guarantee
Shipping Somax Hip Trainers ordered Sun-Thurs ship the next day. Orders Fri-Sat ship the following Monday. All orders shipped by Fedex Ground (no P.O. addresses, please) with tracking. A tracking email will be sent to you when it ships. Delivery is five business days or less. Canada orders ship by US Priority Mail; delivery can be up to two weeks because of Canada Post. Hawaii, Alaska and International orders shipped by Fedex Economy Air with delivery in five business days or less. Customs fees and duties for international shipments are not included in our prices and are payable by recipient at time of receipt.

Why you can increase karate punch and kick speed 10 mph

As you saw in the video, this lever system, or speed multiplier, is the ratio between the distance of your hip joints to the center of rotation, and the distance of your hand or foot to the center of rotation.

Any increase in hip speed is multiplied 10X at the hand

Any increase in hip speed is multiplied 10X at the foot

The distance of the hip joint to the center of rotation is 3 inches. The distance from your hand or foot to the center of rotation is 30 inches. 30 ÷ 3 = 10.

Any increase in hip speed will be multiplied 10 times at the hand or foot. It is the easy, effortless way to add 10 mph to your punch or kick speed.

You may be more familiar with another speed multiplier, this one inside a toy propeller.

You know that you can get this toy propeller to fly by turning the stick, but you can't get it to fly by turning the propeller.

Propeller speed multiplier

That's because there is a speed multiplier hidden inside this toy. The distance from the outside of the stick to the center of rotation is 1/8th of an inch. The distance from the tip of the propeller to the center of rotation is 4 inches. 4 ÷ 1/8 = 32. The speed you turn the stick will be multiplied 32 times at the tip of the propeller.

When you try to turn the propeller, there is no leverage. The propeller can't fly.

It's the same in karate. There is no leverage in your arms and legs. The leverage is all in your hips.

That's why, if you want to increase your kick and punch speed, it makes more sense to increase the strength and speed of your hips than to increase the strength of your arms or legs.

There is no leverage in your arms or legs. Period.

So how do you get your hips to go faster?

You can't do it just by trying—because your brain has a speed limiter that controls your hip speed. You need something to break that speed limit.

That something is the Somax Power Hip Trainer.

 

Online Payment Solution
$275 + shipping 30-day Money-back Guarantee
Shipping Somax Hip Trainers ordered Sun-Thurs ship the next day. Orders Fri-Sat ship the following Monday. All orders shipped by Fedex Ground (no P.O. addresses, please) with tracking. A tracking email will be sent to you when it ships. Delivery is five business days or less. Canada orders ship by US Priority Mail; delivery can be up to two weeks because of Canada Post. Hawaii, Alaska and International orders shipped by Fedex Economy Air with delivery in five business days or less. Customs fees and duties for international shipments are not included in our prices and are payable by recipient at time of receipt.

Are Your Hips Flexible Enough for Karate?

Once you have had someone test your hip rotation strength, the next thing you want to do is to measure your hip flexibility. Even if your hips are strong, it will be difficult to rotate them fast if they are stiff.

The first step is to lie on your stomach as before, bend your knees 90 degrees, and—keeping your knees together—move your feet apart as far as possible. Now have someone get down on the floor with a digital camera and take a photo of your legs, as you see here:

Minimum Internal Hip Rotation for Karate

Next print the photo and draw vertical lines through your knees, and lines through the center of each lower leg. Measure the angles between the lines, as you see above. If you don't have a minimum of 60 degrees on each leg, your hips are too stiff for karate.

For instance, if your photo looks like this, your hips are way too stiff for karate.

Next, lie on your side and lift your leg straight up as high as you can. Make sure you keep your ankle higher than your toe (don't turn your foot up toward the ceiling). Have someone get down on the floor and take a photo of each leg, print them, and measure your abduction angle. You should have a minimum of 135 degrees for karate, as you see here:

Minimum Abduction Range for Karate

If you have less than 135 degrees of abduction on each leg, then your hips are too stiff for karate and you will increase the stress on your arms and legs.

If your hips are too stiff for karate, take a look at our Microfiber Reduction program—a special form of connective tissue massage that increases flexibility far beyond what stretching alone can do.

In the meantime, order our Power Hip Trainer to increase the strength and speed of your hip rotation. You'll notice that you gain more speed without more effort, and, at the same time, improve your control. The Somax Power Hip Trainer is the best training aid for students 17 and older.

Test Yourself BEFORE You Buy

Before you purchase a Power Hip Trainer, it is important to measure your hip flexibility and test your hip strength.

#1 Measure Your Hip Flexibility

Measuring hip flexibility

Lie on your stomach on the floor. Keeping your knees together, bend your knees 90° so that the soles of your feet point straight up toward the ceiling.

Keeping your knees together, move your feet away from each other. If you have enough flexibility in your hips for karate, you should be able to move your feet apart a total of 120°. That is 60° on each side.

You need a minimum of 45° on each side to benefit from using the hip trainer. If you don't have 45 degrees, your hips are too stiff to turn fast no matter how much you increase your hip strength. If you have less than 45 degrees on each hip, take a look at our Microfiber Reduction program, which can increase flexibility 100% beyond stretching.

A simple and accurate way to measure is to have someone get down on the floor and take a photo your legs in this position. Then get a print of the photo. As shown above, draw vertical lines through your knees, a line through the center of each lower leg, and measure the angle between the two lines with a protractor (available in any office supply store). Be sure to take the time to measure. Don't try to guess!

If you are not sure how to measure, send us your photo and we will measure for you.

#2 Test Your Hip Strength

Testing your hip strength

With your feet apart and knees together, have someone hold your feet apart as you try to bring them together (be sure to consult with your physician before doing this test, especially if you may have any knee problems).

The hip muscles that you use to bring your feet together are the gluteals: the gluteus maximus, medius and minimus.

These are the largest muscles in your body (that's why the biggest of them is called 'maximus').

If you're like most people, you will not be able to bring your feet together at all. If you can bring them together, it's only with a lot of effort.

What should you be able to do?

If your hip muscles are strong, you'll be able to bring your feet together so powerfully that you can throw your friend back across the room. That's the power potential of your hip muscles!

Test Results

If you have at least 45° of internal rotation on each hip and your hips test weak—then the Power Hip Trainer is for you and will transform your ability to punch and kick.

 

Online Payment Solution
$275 + shipping 30-day Money-back Guarantee
Shipping Somax Hip Trainers ordered Sun-Thurs ship the next day. Orders Fri-Sat ship the following Monday. All orders shipped by Fedex Ground (no P.O. addresses, please) with tracking. A tracking email will be sent to you when it ships. Delivery is five business days or less. Canada orders ship by US Priority Mail; delivery can be up to two weeks because of Canada Post. Hawaii, Alaska and International orders shipped by Fedex Economy Air with delivery in five business days or less. Customs fees and duties for international shipments are not included in our prices and are payable by recipient at time of receipt.

 

^* Individual results may, of course, vary, but in every case we stand by our 30-day money-back guarantee if you are not satisfied.