If you're having trouble making gains due to tight hips, it might be because your hip mobility is poor. This guide provides recommendations for exercises to improve hip mobility, including strengthening, stabilizing, and mobilizing exercises.
The hip joint is often forgotten, ignored, and neglected compared to the low back and knee.
It is important for everyone to have mobile hips as this not only improves your ability but also reduces your risk of injury.
This will be the only article you will need in regards to stretching your hips.
What is hip mobility?
Hip mobility refers to how far the joint can move and how effectively it can move. You need hip mobility to do most lower limb activities, such as running and doing compound exercises (exercises that use more than one muscle group at a time, such as squats and kettlebell swings).
If the hip joint istightorhas alack ofmobility, this can putextra strainonother areas ofthe body, includingthe low back, knees and ankles.
Hip mobility refers to the ability to move the hip joint in a 360-degree range of motion. This is made possible by a combination of six different movements.
- Flexion and extension – movement forwards and backward
- Abduction and adduction – the movement away and towards the mid-line of the body
- Internal and external rotation – pivoting of the hip joint inwards and outwards
The hip joint can be thought of as a ball and socket. The ball-shaped head of the femur He fits snugly into the socket (acetabulum) of the pelvis.
There are twenty-one muscles that run across the joint and help control and maneuver the hip through multiple movements. These structures allow the hip to move in various directions.
Why does hip mobility matter?
The hip joint serves to:
- Absorb the weight of the trunk & head
- Allow a greater degree of movement (e.g. squat deeper). The large degree of movement and power generated through the hips facilitates compound exercises, such as squats or kettlebell swings.
If you don't have good hip mobility, your form and technique will also be bad. It's like trying to swing a kettlebell while wearing tight jeans (don't actually do this).
When the thighbone, pelvis, and spine move together to produce a greater range of motion than any one of those body parts could produce on its own.
If you don't take care of your body, other parts will have to work harder to make up for it and could get injured as a result. Too much stress on the body can cause problems like back pain, hip conditions, and knee injuries.
If you have poor hip mobility, it can lead to more strain on your back and spine.
If you try to lift heavy objects without having proper hip mobility, you are more likely to injure your back, for example, by rupturing a disc or damaging the sciatic nerve.
Alarmingly, inadequate hip movement or strength is also ?associated with various other lower limb conditions and injuries?, including:
- Hip impingement
- Poor ankle posture
- Hip and knee osteoarthritis
- ACL injuries
- Patellofemoral joint injuries
Hip mobility is essential not just for sports and exercise performance, but also for preventing injuries. A lack of mobility in any part of the body can lead to a domino effect of problems.
How to Increase hip mobility
If you want to improve your hip mobility, you need to focus on three things: flexibility, stability, and strength. By improving any or all of these qualities, you'll be able to increase your hip mobility.
Every athlete needs to focus on improving specific areas that they are weaker in, in order to create a more well-rounded performance. For example, if someone has great hip flexibility, but lack the strength to lift heavy weights, they should focus on exercises that will target and improve their hip strength.
There are three main characteristics of hip mobility: flexibility, stability, and strengthening. Flexibility is like the steering wheel of a car. Stability is like the brakes. Strengthening is like the engine.
1. Hip flexibility
Flexibility is a term that refers to how much a joint can move. This can be measured by how far someone can move their joints in static or non-moving positions. For example, if someone is trying to do the splits, they may be limited by how tight their adductor or groin muscles are.
Hip flexibility can be compared to the wheels of the car. If the axel is not working or the wheel is not fully inflated, the car's ability to move is limited.
2. Hip stability
There are specific muscles that stabilize the hip and help it to move. These muscles include the deep external rotators (e.g. piriformis, obturator externus, pectineus, etc.), gluteus minimus, and hamstrings.
The role of most muscles is to guide movement, rather than to create power or acceleration. This is similar to the role of a car's steering wheel, which controls the car, rather than providing power or acceleration.
3. Hip strength
The ability to generate power and contract describes strength, not hip stability. Larger and more robust muscles are typically associated with strength, such as the gluteus maximus and adductors. All the action happens here, like the car engine.
6 Best Hip Mobility Exercises and Why They Matter
How Does the Hip Work?
To understand what hip mobility is and what hip mobility exercises to do, we need to first understand how the hip works and the movements it helps us make:
The hip basically has 3 main movements. These are:
- Hip Rotation: This involves moving the foot left and right, as well as moving the straightened leg towards the toes.
- Hip Flexion and Extension: This involves moving the leg forward and backward.
- Hip Abduction and Adduction: This involves moving the leg out to the side, and in towards the other leg.
Does Stretching Help with Mobility?
While stretching is a common method for improving mobility, its benefits are typically short lived. This is because stretching alone only provides a ‘temporary’ increase in range of motion.
If you don't do some form of dedicated strength work, your progress will quickly stop.
There are 17 muscles in your hips that allow for different kinds of movement. Your hips can move across three different planes of motion, as we discussed earlier.
To improve your hip mobility, you need to improve your hip flexibility, stability, and strength. This can be done by stretching your hip flexors and focusing on your hips.
The following are a few hip mobility exercises that incorporate stretching and strengthening to increase your active range of motion, i.e., your mobility.
If you are a runner and hoping to improve your performance or avoid injury, then working on your hip mobility is a definite technique to help you reach your goals.
Why Is Mobility Important for Runners?
Mobility drills help us to be more aware of our bodies and how far we can move, which then leads to better running form and fewer injuries!
This exercise helps to increase the range of motion in your hip joint, which can be helpful in loosening up tight areas.
An example of this would be if someone's hips were too tight, causing them to rotate with each step. This would then create torque on their knees, leading to pain. Another example would be if someone was unable to fully extend their back kick, thus not creating an optimal force against the ground for speed.
You can avoid injury and regain strength and flexibility after injury by doing mobility exercises.
To be effective, mobility exercises must address both joint flexibility and muscle strength. In particular, hip mobility can play a big part in preventing runners from getting injured.
This workout for runners is quick and yields great results.
What Causes Poor Hip Mobility?
If you spend a lot of time sitting, you're more likely to have hip mobility issues. Just stretching won't help, as we explained earlier.
Of course, sitting isn’t the only issue.
There are many factors that can contribute to decreased hip mobility or pain and discomfort while moving the hips.
The other thing is that we’re all built differently.
Different people have hips at different angles, so their positions and depths in motions may vary. It's normal for there to be differences, and these anatomical differences shouldn't cause any pain or discomfort.
Your hip pain may be due to an acute injury or a more chronic condition, such as back pain.
If you're experiencing hip pain and reduced mobility, reach out to your physical therapist. They will tailor your rehabilitation program to your specific condition.
What’s the Best Mobility Exercise?
The deep squat is the most common mobility exercise to identify and correct imbalances. It increases strength throughout the body, requires you to engage your core, and is a functional movement.
Surprisingly hard to do a perfect squat:
- Feet hip width apart
- Weight evenly distributed through feet
- Butt pushing backward
- Back straight, chest and shoulders up
- Knees remain in line with feet – if they fall outside your toes don’t go any farther down
- Work to squat down with your bum below knees (all of the above still correct)
6 Hip Mobility Exercises for Runners
How can you make your hips less tight? It's not just about stretching, doing these mobility exercises will give you both flexibility and strength.
The best part about these exercises is that you don't have to go to the gym to do them. You can do them anywhere, and you only need a few things to do all of them.
If you don't want to watch the video demonstration, here is a quick review of each move.
1. Standing figure Eight
Stand on your right leg and bring your left knee up to 90 degrees. Then, move your left knee in a figure 8 motion.
Doing this exercise might feel awkward, but that's okay. You need to work the hip in multiple different planes.
2. Hurdle Step
Swing your left leg over the hurdle, then your right.
You should jump so that your leg is high in the air.
3. Frog Stretch
After about 30 seconds, drop your forearms to the floor—for an extra challenge, reach all the way forward so your palms are on the floor. Start this pose by sitting with both of your legs stretched out behind you and your knees wider than your yoga mat. After 30 seconds, lower your forearms to the floor. For an additional challenge, try reaching forward so that your palms are flat on the floor.
Slowly push back until you feel a stretch in your inner thigh. If you don't feel a stretch, try widening your legs or making sure they are straight.
4. Pigeon Pose
The move is great for working the hips, glutes, and IT Band.
Improving your posture can help improve your overall running form.
Start in a plank position, then pull your right knee up to your chest and towards the ground, with your foot pointing towards the opposite hip.
Make sure your hips are remaining square to the front of your mat, then lean forward over your foot if you need more stretch.
5. TFL Roll
I want to introduce you to a muscle that you might not have paid attention to before: your TFL. A small PT ball is needed to work on this muscle, not a foam roller.
You should put the ball where the pocket on a pair of jeans would be and then roll it around slowly. This exercise will help to make your hips and pelvis more stable.
Not many people are aware of this big trick for reducing hip pain!
6. Foam Roller Rotation
In order to work the muscles even more, we will be rolling back and forth instead of just staying in one spot. (Remember that you should never roll your IT Band)
Start by lying on your right side with your foam roller underneath your hip. Point your foot forward, then rotate your foot up toward the sky.
The following 6 exercises will help improve your hip mobility, allowing for full range of motion in your hips and improving your overall running performance.
There are other exercises you can try to improve your hip mobility, including the butterfly stretch, lying piriformis stretch, kneeling lunge stretches, hip internal rotation, and hip flexor stretch.
Mobility Beyond Our Hips
Although I focused mainly on the hips in this instance, it is not the only thing that is important for runners. Your whole body is connected, so any tension that you hold in your shoulders is also significant.
I perform other mobility moves during the week to help loosen my shoulders as I spend a lot of time typing on the keyboard.
You might feel like you have to do a lot to improve your running, but it's better to work on one or two things at a time.
