DISCLAIMER 
There are risks inherent in any form of exercise. Learning what your body needs to 
move and feel better is a process. If you aren’t willing to take on full responsibility for 
the upsides and downsides, then do not use this program. 

You might strain a muscle here and there. You might make something hurt more 
temporarily. Maybe you’ll figure out a way to seriously injure yourself (although we 
really don’t expect that).  

Using this program is at your own risk.  

REFUNDS 
We understand that online learning doesn’t work for everyone and every situation. If you 
find that this program is not a good fit for you, don’t worry. Please contact us via email at 
support@thefaifix.com  

COPYRIGHT 2020 

 
No portion of this workbook or of the FAI Fix program may be reproduced or redistributed without the written 
consent of Upright Health, Inc. and Got ROM, Inc. 

 
   

 
 
 

PROGRAMMING RECOMMENDATIONS 
 
You should have read through the FAI Fix Basic program and now be familiar with the 
general theories.  
In summary: keep muscles balanced.  
If you’re doing a lot of strenuous physical training, you want to make sure you’re 
maintaining flexibility and strength in balanced ways. That takes attention and 
repetition and repetition and repetition. 
You’re an athlete, so we’re assuming you’re doing some heavy lifting, training, and/or 
sport at least three times a week. That’s a lot of time under tension for your muscles. 
You need to have time to undo that tension and restore proper movement mechanics.  
There are two aspects to your program when working around a hip impingement 
issue: 
1. The Recovery Program (pain reduction, mobility improvements, etc.) 
2. The Re-education/Strength Training Program (maintain or increase strength 
without risking injury) 
 

   

 
 
 

RECOVERY PROGRAM FOR ATHLETES 

4-7  times  per  week  do  tissue  work,  stretching  and  light  re-education  of  movement 
patterns.  This  is  the  “recovery”  part  of  the  program  intended  to  decrease  muscle 
density,  increase  range  of  motion,  and  have  you  feeling  less and less pain or tightness 
in your body. 
 
There are no hard and fast rules for when to do these exercises. Ultimately everyone’s 
schedule,  life,  and  situation  is  unique  so  you  must  experiment  and  find  what  works 
best  for  you.  Many  people  have  found that doing these mobility, tissue and stretching 
exercises  prior  to  working  out  often  makes  the  workout  feel  better.  Think  of  it  as 
“tuning up the car”before you go to race it.  
Another  good time to do these exercises is when you are in a quiet, undistracted place 
where you can put your full effort and full attention on the task at hand.  
The closest thing to a “golden rule” we can give you is this: do the exercises whenever 
and wherever you are most likely to do it consistently and with the best focus and 
quality of effort.  
 
If you find you benefit by doing the recovery work in between sets of strength 
exercises, that is absolutely 100% fine and for many athletes may be a necessity!  
 
TISSUE WORK: 10-20+ minutes, 4-7 days a week, at least once a day 
To  start,  you  must  spend  at  least  5  minutes  on  your  quads,  glutes,  and  adductors  on 
your  affected  side.  If  it’s  both  sides,  then  you’re  doing  your  left  quads  for  5  minutes, 
your  right  quads  for  5  minutes,  your  left  adductors  for  5  minutes,  and  your  right 
adductors for 5 minutes.  
 
Often,  it  is  also  a  very  good  idea  to do short bouts of tissue work before, during, after 
sets  of  exercises  that  you  find  irritating.  For  example, a few minutes of tissue work on 
the  quads  just  before  a  set  of  squats  can  often  completely  eliminate  pinching  and 
friction in the hips and knees. 
 

 
 
 

STRETCHING: 10-20+ minutes, 4-7 days a week, at least once a day 

At  the beginning, you are going to have areas that are particularly tight and restricted. 
Focus  on  those.  Quads,  hip  flexors,  and  adductors  are  almost  always  a  problematic 
area  for  athletes  -  especially  the  parts  of  the  muscles  nearest  the  joint  that  is 
restricted (the hip in this case). DO NOT neglect them. 
 
During  deload  weeks  focus  your  efforts  on  stretching  to  maintain  flexibility.  Heavy 
lifting  can  get  muscles  locked  into  shortened  positions.  After  months  of  high 
intensity/high volume training, you can easily lose flexibility if you aren’t attentive.  
 
 
   

 
 
 

FAI FIX RECOVERY TRACKER 

 

START DATE  END DATE 

   

TISSUE WORK (1-5 mins. per spot)  NOTES 

1. Quads:     
 
2. Adductors:   
 
3. Hip Flexors:   
 
4. Glutes / Hamstrings:    
 
 

STRETCHING (1-3 min. holds)  NOTES 

1. Quads:     
 
2. Adductors:   
 
3. Hip Flexors:   
 
4. Glutes   
 
5. Hamstrings:   
 
 

 
 
 

RE-EDUCATION / STRENGTH TRAINING 

 
Overview 
If you are an athlete doing strength training, we want you to progress safely and in a 
logical manner. 
 
You should be striving for every movement to feel graceful, coordinated and 
balanced. Imagine that (like in gymnastics) you were going to be judged on how 
aesthetically pleasing your movement quality is. This is the foremost priority. Lifting 
heavier, faster and for more reps is a distant second. 
 
Guide 
You should be doing your Re-education / Strength Training work 2 to 4 times per 
week. Focus on perfecting your movement patterns. Then add weight/resistance. 
The emphasis is on perfecting movement patterns, not on moving the most weight 
possible. 
 
Get warmed up for 10 minutes, then perform any extra necessary tissue work or brief 
stretching for another 5 minutes before starting the exercise routine. If you feel your 
warmups (e.g. jumping jacks, biking, light jog) causes certain hip muscles to tighten up, 
be sure to address them right away. 
 
Rest for 1-3 minutes between each exercise to ensure fatigue does not result in a 
compromise of form. Some exercises may not require much rest, some may require 
more. If you are capable of shorter rest periods without compromising form, feel free 
to take shorter rests. 
 
This template workout shows you how to structure a full body resistance workout in a 
way that develops better hip control and strength for your sport. Since every sport 
and every athlete has different workout needs, you'll need to adapt to your specific 
situation. 
 
   

 
 
 

STEP 1: WARMUP OF CORE / HIPS / 

SHOULDERS 
 
This stage helps prepare your body for maintaining good pelvic and rib cage position 
so that you are less likely to have impingement with the full body movements you'll be 
doing in your workout. You can do this part just prior to your upper / lower body 
workouts or at another time of day.  
Repeat the circuit below 2-3x while resting enough to allow perfect technique to be 
maintained. 
 

Circuit (2-3 rounds)  REPS 

A1. Plank  30-120 sec.. 

A2. Side Plank  30-60 sec. / side 

A3. Hollow Body Core Progressions  30-60 sec. 

- choose appropriate level 

A4. Light Hip Exercise 1  10-20 reps OR 60 sec. 

- e.g. bridges, fire hydrants 

A5.Light Shoulder Exercise 2  10-20 reps or 60 sec. 

- e.g. pec stretch, lat stretch, arm circles 
 

 
 
 
 
   

 
 
 

STEP 2: WORKOUT 
 
Rest 1-3 minutes between sets. Remember to rest enough to make sure you can 
always maintain proper form. Exhaustion to the point of sloppiness is NEVER the 
goal!  
We have omitted sets and reps in this sample as they can vary greatly based on your 
sport, your technical competence, and strength. More detailed discussion follows.  
 

Circuit  SETS / REPS 

B1. Split Squat Progressions   
- Split Squat, Reverse Lunge, Bulgarian Split Squat 
 

B2. Upper Body Exercise   

- Barbell Bench Press, Dumbbell Bench Press, Overhead 
Press, etc.  
- Practice maintaining perfect rib, spine, and hip position 
  

C1. Squat Progressions (if ready)   

- Goblet Squat, Front Squat, Back Squat 
 

C2. Upper Body Exercise   

- Chin Ups, Pull Ups, Inverted Rows, Seated Rows 
- Practice maintaining perfect rib, spine, and hip position  
 

D1. Accessory Glute / Hamstring Exercise   

- Back extensions, Barbell Hip Thrusts, RDLs, Deadlifts, etc. 
 

D2. Accessory Arms   

- Biceps, shoulders, or sport specific exercises 
 

D3. Accessory Arms   

- Triceps, shoulders, or sport specific exercises 
 

 
 
 

Guidance on Sets and Reps in Your Workout 

In general, working on groups B and C for 2-5 sets of 5 to 8 reps will usually be 
reasonable.  
If, for example, 2 sets of 8 of the split squats seems to stimulate strength 
improvement without form compromise, then that's fine.  
If you feel you need heavier weight to build more strength and the heavier weight 
results in a breakdown in form, you will want to increase the sets and reduce the reps.  
Conversely, if you feel your endurance in a certain motion is lacking, you may want to 
reduce the weight you use and increase the number of repetitions.  
For group D, you may adjust again based on your goals. Accessory exercises target 
specific muscle groups, so lighter weights and doing 2-3 sets with higher rep ranges 
(8-15) are recommended. 
If you are a bodybuilder (this applies to other athletes as well, but in particular to 
body builders), please remember that high volume work on any muscle group should 
be accompanied with a big dose of stretching and tissue work so you don’t lose range 
of motion and put yourself into pain!  
 
 
   

 
 
 

STEP 3: FIX YOUR DEADLIFT 

 
Athletes almost always need to work on building deadlift strength. For common 
deadlift issues, check the online course for pointers and corrections for issues that 
may be affecting your deadlift.  
Before any deadlift workouts, you should actively address any flexibility issues that 
inhibit proper form and do deadlift corrective drills to prepare your body for a proper 
deadlift.  
 

Deadlift Day  SETS / REPS 

Warmup  5-10 min 

Tissue work/stretching based on your needs  5-10 min 

Corrective Drills applicable to you  5-10 min 

Deadlift variation(s)  varies 

- conventional, sumo, single leg, etc. 
 
 
 
 
 

   

 
 
 

CONCLUSION 
 
You  now  have  many  tools  to  work  on  “tuning  up”  your  body  as  well  as  guidelines  on 
what to do in the gym to stay healthy and strong! 
Keep  walking  down  the  path  of  being  a  healthy  life-long  athlete  and  understand  that 
this  is  a  gradual  process.  In  fact,  the  process  never  ends!  Every  second  of  every  day 
your  body  is  always  re-modeling  itself  based  on  what  you  do  (or  don’t  do)  with  your 
body.  
Remember to keep thinking: what am I training my body for? 
If  every  day  you  are  massaging  your  body,  stretching  it,  and  maintaining  your  hard 
earned  ranges  of  motion,  your  body  will  reward  you  with  a  lifetime  of  pain  free 
movement!  
Stay on the move, get strong, and enjoy your athletic life. 

 
 
Shane and Matt