Skin the Cat Full Hip Lift

Join the tribe of Movement & Calisthenics Athletes

People just like you that are working with their own body weight to get strength, lose fat build muscle, recover from injuries and live their best lives!

Skin the cat full hip lift is a variation of a full skin the cat. This very oddly named exercise promotes excellent shoulder mobility and back and core strength that is highly transferable to a lot of skills. You wouldn’t want to miss training with this skill if you want to improve faster.

Doing a full skin the cat involves a full 360-degree rotation on the rings. This variation focuses on the other half of the rotation when you’re already in shoulder extension. The exercise allows you to master the other half of the full skin the cat while you’re still mastering the full movement. This involves mainly your chest and anterior deltoids to hoist you back to the inverted position

It’s also a good idea to learn the bent arm bent legs skin the cat first before attempting the exercise so you’ll get a feel of the motion. Most of all, train your shoulder mobility first!

👍HOW TO KNOW WHEN IT’S SAFE TO ATTEMPT?

The exercise is an intermediate level skill. A good amount of shoulder mobility is required as well as good arm, core and back strength. Prerequisites are as follows:

  • Decent shoulder extension
  • Straight arm bent knees skin the cat

✅Summarized Benefits

  1. Increase shoulder mobility
  2. Improve core stabilization
  3. Increase body awareness
  4. Strengthen back, chest, arms and shoulder muscles
  5. Good preparation for straight arm work
  6. Gains transferable to numerous skill work

How to Perform💪

  1. Place hands on the rings and hang with legs together and straight.
  2. Tuck knees up into the chest and lean back rotating legs around.
  3. Hang with shoulders extended and legs together hanging downward.
  4. Lift your hips rotating you into an inverted position
  5. Let your hips drop back again so you’ll hang in shoulder extension with legs still together hanging downward
  6. Repeat the lifting of the hips and down for another repetition
  7. Repeat for a set number of reps

👉Keep in mind

Make sure you have good shoulder mobility before attempting the move. That’s the main thing. There are a number of exercises for shoulder mobility and extension. Choose one then progress from there slowly.

Going to the starting position of the workout could also be challenging for some. It’s mainly a pulling exercise that requires you a good amount of strength on your lats and core. If you’re only practicing the skin the cat full hip lift, you can bend your knees first in the initial step to the starting position.

Don’t forget to practice the other half of the rotation of the skin the cat for balance. Doing this over and over without working on the other half might cause muscle imbalances. We wound’t want that.

Coaching Pointers

Starting Position:

  • Hang on the rings
  • Pull back to rotate over to the starting position in a controlled manner
  • Maintain body tension
  • Feet together pointing down
  • Arms straight
  • Stop at reverse hang

Movement Position:

  • Push with your chest and shoulder and lift hips upwards
  • Stop at a completely vertical position
  • Legs together 45 degrees to the ground
  • Arms straight
  • Maintain tight core

Finish Position:

  • Control slowly down to starting
  • reverse hang
  • Maintain body tension
  • Back to starting reverse hang then repeat for reps