5 HIP MOBILITY EXERCISES TO BE STRONGER AND PAIN-FREE

Have you ever felt tight in your hips or worse some pain with the lack of hip mobility?

It’s not fun, it keeps you from enjoying your workouts, and limits what you can do like playing with your kids. Currently, I am only 30 years old, so not that old, but I want to keep my joints moving and feeling good, especially as I get older. I believe you would want the same thing, I mean, who doesn’t want to move and feel better?

The last thing you or anyone else would want is a bad hip that needs surgery and limit you from the things you enjoy. That’s why I am so passionate about hip mobility, strength training in all planes of movement, and movement in general.

You can be proactive in how your body moves and feels as you age. With this article, I would like to give you exercises you can do to help keep your hips mobile and strong, forever.

1.   HIP 90/90

An exercise that does both internal and external rotation in the hip joint must be on this list for your hip mobility. It is a great bang for your buck mobility exercise for your hips.

The hip is a ball and socket joint, like the shoulder joint, both very mobile and allows circumduction movements. Circumduction is a circular, or conical movement.

This means the hip can create a lot of movement, so you need to regularly put the joint in these ranges of motion. The hip 90/90 and many of its variations are a great bang for your buck for hip mobility.

Watch this video to learn how to do the hip 90/90. Do 5 reps for each side and take your time.

2.   Adductor Rock Back for Hip Mobility

Adductors are underrated and need some love. These muscles feel tight and can limit your hip mobility. I like rock backs because they can help you engage the muscles and prepare your body and joints for the upcoming workout.

Here is a video for you to learn the movement and how to apply tension to the muscles to gain mobility in the new range of motion.

You should perform 5 slow reps for each side and then hold the tension for 10 seconds.

3.   LATERAL SQUAT

The first two exercises were there to expose your joints and muscles to a new range of motion. Hopefully, you created some tension and got some work in at that end range of motion.

Lateral squatting will both, mobilize and strengthen the muscles and joints in the frontal plane of movement. Moving in the frontal plane, or side to side is highly underrated.

Go to a public gym and look around, what you will see is a lot and I mean a lot of sagittal planes of movement. The sagittal plane is an up-and-down type of movement such as your squats and bench press.

If you want to have mobile and strong hips, move in all planes of movement. The lateral squat is a great one to add to your routine to have better hip mobility.

4.   FRONT FOOT ELEVATED SPLIT SQUATS

Another strength exercise for you that also acts as a hip mobility exercise, this time for the front part of the hip.

This exercise is unique because you can focus on the sagittal plane, but you can also add in some rotation. Goes back to training multiple planes of movement.

I will admit, this exercise can be very tough, especially if you have tight hip flexors. That is why this exercise is great, it is a loaded stretch of the hip flexors and quads for the back stance leg.

Load your front leg up on a 6 in. platform, and you will train your hips in a deep range of motion. I advise starting with bodyweight with an eccentric load (that means slow lower), then progressing from there.

5.   SINGLE LEG HINGE OR KICKSTAND

The last exercise and this one will challenge your hip mobility in all 3 planes of movement at once. When you do a good single-leg hinge the hips have to resist movement from side to side and rotation as you move in the sagittal plane.

You can also control the hips to add a small amount of internal rotation to get the glutes screaming. If you have some stability issues, you can add the kickstand for stability. This exercise is great for developing the hamstrings and butt.

You cannot go wrong with training the hamstrings and butt for strong and mobile hips. A mentor of mine says this, “A strong ass saves lives.” This is in reference to older adults falling and getting hurt. To help reduce the risk of falling develop a strong ass.

BETTER HIP MOBILITY

There are your 5 exercises to help you build strong and mobile hips. Obviously, there are many more exercises, the goal is to introduce you to exercises that are out of the norm to help with your hip mobility.

The goal of the gym is to help enhance your quality of life, and when you only do things under the bar or on a machine, you’re missing out. The body is meant to move more than just up and down. You only get one body so take of it.

Thank you for reading. If you have any questions please email me at cory@caruthersfitness.com