The Power Of The Shin Box For Any Grappler

Last week I wrote about high-value, time-efficient methods that deliver a multitude of benefits for grappling, longevity, and life.

There are only so many hours in the day and you want to spend time on things that deliver a high return on investment.

Ideally, things that can provide strength, mobility, injury prevention, correctives, and training in multiple planes of motion all in one.

The Shin Box is one of those things.

Let’s look at the benefits of the Shin Box for a grappler, or anyone interested in resilience and longevity.

1. Assessment

The Shin Box is brilliant for exposing asymmetries in your hips.

Often, grapplers can easily hold a hands-free Shin Box position, with minimal effort and a near vertical spine on one side, but completely crumble on the other. 

Usually, that’s a sign of a hip mobility issue on one side. The hip is lacking access to its full range of motion, so you see the hip hike and the spine curve.

(You can see above the Shin Box on the right is better and easier for me to hold than on the left. Keep reading to see how that affects my pain/performance.)

Some may argue that asymmetries don’t directly correspond to higher rates of injury or pain, however, I believe that restoring range of motion can only help with performance and injury prevention.

If you don’t have access to your full range of motion, your body will compensate to create it elsewhere.

As grapplers, complete access to internal and external rotation of the hip is vital for performance. You need dynamic ranges of both hip ER and IR for all aspects of grappling including top, bottom, and standing positions.

Exposing your limitations through the Shin Box will direct you where to put your attention.

2. Warm Up

The Shin Box is a phenomenal warmup drill for BJJ. It targets all of the hip rotators, glute, core, and lower back muscles that need to be active and engaged for high performance grappling.

In fact, the Shin Box itself is a position you will regularly experience while grappling. It’s how you finish an omoplata, it’s the S-Mount, it’s how you come up for many sweeps, and its very similar to holding the Single-Leg X or Ashi Garami position.

Some mistakenly equate the Shin Box to the 90/90 mobility drill, however, the knees are more flexed in the former, which is closer to the positions you’ll experience while rolling.

The Shin Box also has countless variations and combinations you can transition to, making it a dynamic movement that prepares the body in very relevant way for BJJ.

3. Mobility

As mentioned, grapplers need complete access to hip internal and external rotation. Poor hip mobility can lead to decreased performance, increased risk of injury, and ultimately pain.

When I was struggling with debilitating back pain, I came to find that the root of my pain was lack of hip internal rotation on my right side.

Essentially, my femur was already stuck at its end range and had no room to rotate further. This caused my lower back to get extremely tight and caused me to express rotation at my lumbar spine. Because I couldn’t rotate any further in my hip, the low back took up the job of rotation. This led to a herniated disc and years of pain.

I used the Shin Box to help restore hip internal rotation, and eventually my pain decreased and I was able to train again.

I now use the Shin Box daily to mobilize my hips, and always before training.

4. Strength At End Range

It’s one thing to have range of motion and another to have strength in that range.

Once I restored my hip rotation with the Shin Box, I then added weight to start strengthening my newfound ranges.

Loading the Shin Box helps to develop strength in all of the small hip muscles you need while grappling. This will directly transfer to more powerful sweeps, passes, and submissions.

It will also make you more resilient in these positions when you experience them against your will on the mat.

5. Multiple Planes of Motion

 

I’ve stated before that humans were designed to rotate and that rotation is the most important quality to train.

The Shin Box provides the opportunity to improve hip and thoracic rotation while taking the body thought multiple planes of motion.

One of the most neglected aspects of training is developing strength in the transverse plane, yet that is where life, sport, and grappling happens.

The Shin Box not only mobilizes you for the transverse plane, it strengthens you there, providing both range of motion and resilience.

The Shin Box can also be combined with countless other movements to provide a unique training stimulus that will translate directly to what you’ll experience on the mat.

GET MORE FROM THE SHIN BOX

Ultimately, the Shin Box is one of those high ROI moves that provides exactly what you need as a grappler.

It can be used for a variety of goals including as an assessment, a warmup mobility drill, and to build strength in multiple planes.

It’s one of the superior injury prevention tools in a grappler’s arsenal, and should be included in your routine daily.

Master The SHin Box and Build Functional BJJ Hip And Core Mobility and Power Here.