The Importance of Hip Strength to Eliminate Tight and Painful Hips

Do you ever experience tightness or soreness in your hips? If so, you’re not alone. This is a common issue for many people, especially those who sit for long periods or engage in activities that require repetitive hip motions. Fortunately, there are ways to release tight, sore hips and improve your hip strength. In this blog post, we’ll discuss some tips for strengthening your hips through flexion, extension, abduction, internal and external rotation.

Hip Flexion: The first movement you’ll want to work on to relieve tight hips is hip flexion. This is the motion of bringing your thigh towards your chest. One great exercise to help with this is the seated knee to chest stretch. Sit on the floor with your legs extended in front of you. Bend one knee and bring it towards your chest, holding it with your hands. Hold for 30 seconds and switch sides. Another great way to work on hip flexion is by doing squats. When you squat down, you engage your hip flexors, which helps to strengthen them.

Hip Extension: Hip extension is the motion of bringing your thigh behind your body. To work on this, try doing some bridges. Lie on your back with your knees bent and feet flat on the floor. Lift your hips up towards the ceiling, squeezing your glutes at the top. Lower down and repeat. You can also do some lunges to help with hip extension. When you step forward into a lunge, you’re engaging your glutes and hamstrings, which will help to strengthen your hips.

Hip Abduction: This is the motion of raising your leg to the side. To work on hip abduction, try doing some clamshells. Lie on your side with your knees bent and feet together. Keeping your feet touching, lift your top knee up towards the ceiling, then lower back down. You can also do some lateral band walks. Place a resistance band around your ankles and step to the side, then step back in the other direction.

Internal and External Rotation: Internal rotation is the motion of turning your thigh inward, while external rotation is the motion of turning your thigh outward. You can work on these movements by using a resistance band. Sit on the floor with your legs extended out in front of you. Place the resistance band around your feet and hold onto the ends. Rotate your legs inward against the band, then rotate outward against the band.

Put it All Together: Once you’ve worked on each of these movements individually, try putting them all together in a flow sequence. Some great exercises for this include the bird dog, fire hydrant, and hip circles. By doing these flows, you’ll be strengthening all of the major muscles around your hips, which should help to relieve tightness and soreness.

By incorporating these exercises and movements into your routine, you can build hip strength and flexibility, which will ultimately help to relieve tightness and soreness. Take your time, don’t push yourself too hard, and listen to your body. And if you’re experiencing persistent hip pain, be sure to talk to a healthcare professional. With some time and effort, you’ll be well on your way to happy, healthy hips.

Check out our 3 video series to restore stiff and painful hips HERE