How to: Hip Mobility Exercises

Why Is Hip Mobility Important?

If your hip mobility isn’t awesome, you are unable to draw power from them and you are setting yourself up for pain and injury. Whether you are trying to deadlift a PB (personal best) or Performing AMRAP (as many reps as possible), you want to move as efficiently as possible. Improve your movement efficiency with these hip mobility exercises to unlock extra energy from your Glutes.

Good Hip Mobility = Good Movement

The hips can be thought of as the foundations for a building, if you build a house on sand it will quickly sink or get washed away. This analogy rings true for the human body. Think of the foundation in this case as your hips and the house is your body. When you walk, run, catch, throw, jump then land you (should) transfer force and energy through our hips.

This stored energy can then be transformed into energy or momentum to keep us walking, running, throwing . . . you know where I’m going with this. This is why it is important for your hips to be strong and stable. To perform these hip mobility exercises to get your hips mobile enough to do the things you love kick a footy, skip, squat, and move.

PSST . . . Heres a FREEBIE I made for you

Our Favourite Hip Mobility Exercises:

The average person spends 9 hrs a day sitting, this lack of movement makes your muscles contract (shorten) and you loose mobility. You can reverse the harm of being so sedentary in the comfort of your own home. Instead of going home and sitting on your couch, put it to good use with the couch stretch

The couch stretch

Adopt a kneeling position in front of something that you can use to hold your foot up (i.e., a couch).
Your back knee should be completely flexed, meaning your heel is as close as possible to your butt. (chuck a pillow or towel under the knee if this is painful)
It’s easy to compensate in this position by hyperextending your lower back, but it’s crucial that you don’t (to ensure you aren’t holding a broomstick/mop next to your body to ensure a straight line from your knee that’s on the couch to your shoulder and ear).
Focus on squeezing your glutes and hamstrings to drive your hips forward.
If your right foot is back, you should feel an intense stretch on the right front side of your hip (stretch to a comfortable position, never stretch through pain). Hold it for a minute, and then switch sides

Visit Our Brookvale Clinic

Foam Roll Adductors:

Lay down on your stomach
Place Foam roller lengthways beside the leg
Lift leg and bend hip to 45* and place on the foam roller
Roll up and down foam roller 5x from inside of the knee to as close to the groin as you can get
Roll down to the bottom of the thigh (inside of the knee), Slowly straighten the knee
Repeat 5 times
Roll up to the middle of adductors
Straighten knee 5 times
Roll up as close to the groin as possible
Straighten knee 5 times

Repeat on the opposite side.

Glute bridge with band/belt

Lay on your back (feet under knees hip-width apart with a band/belt around the thighs), and line up your hips, knees and toes.
Find “neutral spine” posture & perform abdominal bracing.
Push thighs out into the band/belt until they are hip-width apart. Squeeze the glutes (buttocks) and slowly raise the pelvis up.
Repeat 8 times, complete 3 sets
You should feel a burn in your butt, not on the sides of your hips