The hinge

• Stand tall, feet about hip-width apart, a soft bend in the knees
• Set your neutral spine and brace your middle
• The weight held in both hands, hanging down in front of your legs

Push your hips back behind you, as if you were closing a car door with your backside, and let your chest tip forward as they go. Hips travel back, not down. Let your knees keep only that soft bend they started with, don't let them push forward, and feel a good stretch come on down the backs of your thighs as your hips move back. If your range allows it, let your upper body come the whole way down until it's roughly parallel with the floor, flat as a tabletop from hips to head. Put the same three-three-three tempo on it that you've used all chapter: about three seconds to lower into the hinge, three held at the bottom while you check your back is still one flat line, then three to drive your hips forward and rise back to tall, squeezing your glutes at the top.

• The flat line of your back, held the whole way
• The movement happening at your hips, and the work landing in your hamstrings and glutes, not as a strain in your lower back
• Depth handed to you by your hamstrings, never forced. A short hinge with a flat back beats a deep one that rounds, every time
• No pause at the bottom once there's weight in your hands