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The Athlete’s Guide: 9 Hip Mobility
Exercises To Improve Stability, Strength &
Flexibility
a couple of years ago / Mobility / By Ben / 16 COMMENTS
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There are four ball and socket joints in your body. All of which are designed to have 360
degrees of motion, more than any other type of joint in the body.
Which brings us to our topic today: the two ball joints that connect your legs to your pelvic
bone, aka your hips.
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>>> Want even more hip mobility help? Check out our FREE hip
mobility workout here.
What Causes Poor Hip Mobility &
Why You're Struggling
In today's society we sit a lot! There is no such thing as bad posture, or bad positions.
However, staying in any one position for too long is an issue! A body in motion, stays in
motion. Hips that move consistently, should be able to move their full range of motion.
Many people recognize that there is an issue with sitting for long periods of time and
think, "Oh I just have 'tight' hip flexors, so I just need to stretch them!" and they stretch
away, never to actually improve their hip mobility.
There are 17 muscles that contribute to your hip movement and your hips can move
across three different planes of motion; forwards/backwards, side-to-side, and rotating.
You'll need to do more than just stretch those hip flexors to open up and improve your
hips for good! Fortunately, we don't think it is too much work, especially with this easy to
follow guide. To improve your hip mobility, more permanently, you'll need to work on
your hip flexibility, hip stability, and hip strength!
Sitting isn't the only problem of course. Hip mobility is complex and there are many
factors that can lead to decreased hip mobility or even pain in hip movement.
We all are built a little differently too. Our hips are at slightly different angles which can
make our positions and depth in movements look different than others. That is okay!
Your anatomical differences still should not feel "tight" or cause pain.
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An acute injury can cause issues with your hip mobility, or you may be struggling with a
more chronic pain issue, like back pain. If you're struggling with hip pain and mobility,
reach out to our physical therapists who will have your goals as an athlete in mind when
designing your rehabilitation program.
Whether you're looking to improve your hip mobility to rehabilitate injury, or improve
your performance in sport, this guide will provide you with the tips and hip mobility
exercises you need to address the flexibility, strength, and stability of your hips! You can
add these exercises in before or after your workouts, or even on a rest day.
Step 1 To Fix Hip Mobility: Improve
Your Hip Flexibility (Not Just
Stretches)
So let’s start with the foundation of great hip mobility - which is flexibility!
Flexibility is the ability of a joint to move through a range of motion.
Remember how we said your hips are attached to your pelvis via a ball?
Well that ball wants to be able to move and express itself in a plethora of range of
motion (ROM). Your hips are the most flexible joints in your body, along with your
shoulders!
Let’s start with our example athlete - we’ll call him Half Repping Harry.
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Harry has been doing CrossFit for two years and still can’t squat below parallel.
Harry always complains about his knees hurting in squats or wrists aching when he does
front squats and he can’t comprehend why his clean and snatch PR’s aren’t anywhere
near his half rep squat PR’s.
If you’re a coach, I’m sure you might be picturing exactly who I’m talking about…
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So, Harry? Are you ready to make your squats look like one of those top Olympic Lifters whose
butts almost leave skid marks on the ground every time they squat?
Then you’re in the right place.
Hip Flexibility Exercises & How To
Improve
I’ve created a hip flexibility video for you (below) to give you 3 drills that are going to trick
your brain into squatting deeper, make your hips open up, and get you started on the
process of squatting “better” - making sure those hips have full range of motion.
How To Transform Your Hip Flexibility (3 Drills)
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If you’re strapped for time, here are pictures and coaching cues of the three hip mobility
exercises from the video that you should start implementing right away.
Hip Mobility Exercise #1 (For Hip Flexibility)- 90/90
Stretch
Step 1: Start with both knees creating 90 degrees, demonstrated below:
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Step 2: Bring chest towards knee, keep back straight and hinge from the hips. Do not
round spine. Feel stretch in the glutes and side of the hip.
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Step 3: Rotate back over the rear leg. If left foot is back, turn over your left shoulder, lean
back and place that left hand on the floor.
» Make sure back knee stays on the ground.
» Feel the stretch in the front part of your hip.
» Complete 10 reps on each side.
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Why we like this hip mobility exercise:
» This stretch does multiple things all in one, so it is a great bang for your buck.
» We get good hip flexion and work on gaining full external and internal rotation. If any of
the three are limited, it can prevent you from getting full depth in your squat.
» Super simple yet super effective.
Hip Mobility Exercise #2 (For Hip Flexibility)- Deep
Ring Squat Stretch
Step 1: Drop into a deep squat while holding rings as a counter balance.
»
»
»
»
»
Be sure to make sure heels stay down.
Get hip crease below the knee.
While in stretch exhale each breathe out hard and empty out your lungs each time.
The exhales will engage the abdominals and help you create a posterior tilt in the hips.
Hold for 15 deep breaths.
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Why we like this hip mobility exercise:
» This one is a great way to teach the brain to get into the deep squat and if you are an
athlete who is stuck in over extension, it will teach your hips how to get a posterior tilt.
» Loading and holding your body with the rings will help create a counterbalance for you
if you struggle with gaining depth and allow you to get deep in the squat.
Hip Mobility Exercise #3 (For Hip Flexibility)- The
Cossack Squat
Step 1: Get in a wide stance like so...
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Step 2: Go down into a deep side squat, to a depth that is comfortable.
» Be sure to keep the heel down and knees tracking over the toe.
» The leg out to the side is there for balance while getting a stretch in the groin.
» If you can’t get deep while keeping the heel down, hold onto a doorway or on a pull up
rig to use as a counter balance.
Step 3: Switch to the other side while staying in a low squat and do the same on the
other leg. Complete 10 cossack squats while holding for 3 seconds on each side.
Why we like this hip flexibility exercise:
» This exercise allows us to load one leg more so we are getting a stretch through load.
» It also allows us to work on ankle mobility at the same time since we are isolating the
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one leg.
» It allows us to stress our adductors (the muscle on the inside of the legs).
Your Hips Mobility & Flexibility:
Why It’s Important
When you start to gain more flexibility, you’re going to start to notice a few things
happen.
1. As your squat gets deeper, your PR’s are going to go down.
Because now you are going to have a longer distance to move that weight, which means
you are going to have to produce more force through more range of motion.
As you start your hip mobility journey, don’t expect to be able to lift the same numbers
you could when you were lifting in a shortened range of motion. So, don’t be surprised if
your numbers start to drop, it is normal.
But don’t fret - because something else that is awesome will start to happen. Which
brings me to our next point.
2. Your OLY PR’s will start to go up!
Why? Because now you are able to catch that clean or snatch in a deeper squat, meaning
you don’t have to make the bar travel up as high to catch it!
Not only that, during front squats you will now be able to mimic the exact squat you do
in the clean. So you’ll be strengthening in better positions that are going to have a
greater carryover effect to your olympic lifts, and thus improve your PR’s.
More flexibility means more capacity to strengthen in the positions required to execute
high level OLY lifts!
3. Hip aches and pains will start to melt away.
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Why? Well for one, now you’ll
start toqbeTweet
able to w
squat
without
looking m
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a lawn chair.
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What will this do? It’s going to help you squat more upright, taking pressure off of your
wrists and elbows during a clean or front squat.
It will also help your shoulders feel better in your snatches because if you start catching
snatches in a more upright position, you’ll be able to receive the bar in a much better
shoulder position.
When we “lawn chair squat” in our snatches, our shoulders are more inclined to roll
forward. Combine this bad position with multiple reps and you have a recipe for some
overworked shoulders.
You never see a high-level olympic lifter receive the bar in this position, because it is not
ideal for maximum efficiency and power.
(In other words... keep yo hips flexible fo' life!)
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Get our Exclusive Hip Mobility MasterClass FREE - Click to
access
Step 2 To Better Hip Mobility:
Improve Your Hip Stability
Alright Harry, now that you have flexible hips... what’s next?
Well, your hips have something called stabilizers. These muscles include the gluteus
medius, the gluteus maximus, piriformis, and core muscles. Their job is to "stabilize" or
hold everything in control while we are in motion.
If we have lots of ROM but no control, this too can also be as equally bad as having tight
hips. Having no control can lead to going into positions past our ROM where we are more
trained in and could cause an injury or aches, if not progressed properly.
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Flexibility allows us to get there, and stability keeps us there! Someone who is flexible bu
maybe not stable, might initially catch a lift in the bottom of the squat, but can’t hold it.
Improve Your Hip Stabilizers With
Hip Stability Exercises
Gain control of all the new range of motion in your hips.
In the video, we dive into 3 hip mobility exercises that are going to re-teach your
stabilizers how to work in the new ROM, and we also get to see Coach Ben struggle with
some of these movements!
Hip Stability & Control - 3 Drills To Help Your Hip Development | WODprep
Here are the three hip mobility exercises in picture form for you...
Hip Mobility Exercise #4 (For Hip Stability)- Side Box
Step Offs
Step 1: Stand up tall with =
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leg off q
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side of w
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box - makeShare
sure you
start with hips
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locks out.
Step 2: Proceed to lower your self like you are going into a squat and lightly tap the
outside heel on the ground.
»
»
»
»
Maintain control throughout the whole range of motion.
Stack your knees so that they don't go in front of your toe line.
Keep your heel down and chest up.
Do 3 sets of 10-15 reps on each leg or until the glutes are burning.
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Why we like this hip stability exercise:
» It develops the often underdeveloped glute medius.
» It creates good single leg stability and control.
» It's a good starting progression for the pistol.
Hip Mobility Exercise #5 (For Hip Stability)- Single Leg
Deadlift
Step 1: Stand with one kettlebell in your hand with hips locked out.
Step 2: Proceed to lower the weight to the ground with a straight back while keeping the
knee “soft” . Do not keep the knee locked out.
When executing this exercise - start light and work your way up to a comfortable weight.
You should be able to feel the exercise in your hamstrings and glutes, if it’s in your lower
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back, shorten the range or lower theq
weight.
If it's painful on your hamstrings, shorten the range of motion to take out some of the
tension to shorten the range of motion - lower the KB to a 45 bumper plate or some sort
of small ledge.
For this exercise, complete 3 sets of 6-8 reps.
Why we like this hip stability exercise:
» It is very important to train single leg exercises in the double leg positions and lifts that
we do.
» It helps create structural balance between the adductors and abductors.
» Helps prevent groin pulls and will help you learn to control your new mobility.
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Hip Mobility Exercise #6 (For Hip Stability) - Bulgarian
Split Squats
Step 1: With your back foot elevated and two dumbbells in your hand- proceed to drop
into a lunge like so:
» When executing the bulgarian split squat - be sure to keep you knee tracking inline with
your toes.
» Allow your knee to come towards the end of your toe line to mimic more of a single leg
squat.
» Executing this movement will help you work on knee tracking for your two legged
squats.
» For this exercise, complete 3 sets of 6-8 reps.
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Why we like this hip stability exercise:
» This exercise mimics the squat very well but only on one leg.
» It will help work with knee tracking and strengthening glutes and quads.
» This will provide more stability and control in your squats.
Here’s what’s cool about training hip stabilizers. In the gym you may be consciously
thinking about them... but=once
you go
apply
to sport
and movement
where
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you’re not thinking about them, you’ll find that the new movement and stabilization you
trained will start to become subconscious.
That’s when the magic starts to happen. You can start training harder, putting on more
volume, doing more, because your body and hips are moving more efficiently.
Not only that, they will help take unwanted movement and torque out of the knees, you’l
start loading your glutes more instead of your lower back and you start to feel right as
rain.
Now for the fun part…. you’ll be able to start slabbing on some serious strength, in the
appropriate fashion.
Which brings us to step 3 on your hip mobility checklist...
Step 3 To Better Hip Mobility:
Increase Your Hip Strength
Make sure you have some seriously strong hips.
Why?
“
Because the hips are your big weight bearing joints, for them to stay healthy,
they like to be loaded and moved for life.
Your hip strength is what produces your movement!
Because let’s face it; if your hips aren’t strong, you will be that old person who has a
tough time getting up and down, can hardly move, and can no longer do the things they
want to.
Hip Strengthening Exercises
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Did you know though that there is more to hip strength than just big movements like
squats and deadlifts?
Look at any big-time lifter, or high-level athlete, and they are always adding extra
movements and auxiliary lifts to make sure all their prime movers in their hips are
developed appropriately and have adequate strength.
If we do single leg and muscle isolation movements, you will actually make your hips
stronger, which in turn will make your squat, deadlift, clean, snatch, OHS, thruster, all go
up!
Let me show you three of our favorite side-strength exercises that you can easily throw
into your weekly routine after a heavy day of squatting. Let’s make sure those hips are
stttrrronnnggg!
Hip Mobility & Strength: 3 Drills For Stronger Hips | WODprep
Hip Exercise #7 (For Hip Strength) - Hip Thrust
Start out with dumbbells and
as you q
progress
strength,
up to m
a barbell
to
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achieve heavier loads.
Step 1: Put upper back on bench and DB in hip crease.
Start with locked out hips, like so...
Step 2: Dip slightly.
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Step 3: Drive hips towards ceiling and lock them back out in position 1.
When executing this exercise, if you feel it in your lower back and not your glutes, that
means you usually are using too heavy of a weight. If need be you can use body weight.
For this exercise you will complete 3 sets until failure. The glutes are a slow twitch muscle
so they must be trained till fatigue for maximum development.
Why we like this hip strength exercise:
» It trains all three gluteal muscles and helps develop and isolate the glute maximus.
» If you are an athlete who has weak or inactive glutes, this will help develop them like
doing a bicep curl for your biceps, if we can isolate them, make them stronger, it will only
make your squat stronger.
Hip Exercise #8 (For Hip Strength)- Glute Ham
Developer
Step 1: Have a partner put a foam roller underneath your ankles and your knees on a
pad. Start with hips locked out and belly button pulled in:
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Step 2: Tilt forward slowly while controlling the descent with the hamstrings.
Step 3: Once you feel as if you can’t control the descent anymore, proceed to fall into the
push up position.
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Step 4: To get back up use a push-up-like motion to help assist you in coming back up
while also pulling back up with the hamstrings. Use as little or as much push-up as you
need to get back up.
Step 5: Finish in the locked out position, like so:
When completing this exercise - be sure to only do it until sub failure.
Your hamstrings will feel like they are ripping if your hamstrings are weak. Try to go light
on them and not control as much of the ROM if you feel like this.
For this, 3 sets until sub failure reps. (Right before the failure position)
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Why we like this hip strength exercise:
» It strengthens the hamstrings and glutes at the same time, it will help protect your
knees and hips when squatting and provide a better and strong reflex in the bottom of
the squat.
» All of these things will help increase your squat number.
Hip Exercise #9 (For Hip Strength) - Midline holds
This can be performed with Kettlebells, D-Balls, or Atas stones.
Step 1: Pick up and hold whichever apparatus you choose.
» While executing this exercise, be sure to keep your belly button pulled in and chest
upright.
» If you keep the weight in front of your body you should feel your erector spinae
muscles in your back working to hold you upright.
» For this you can hold till failure or take the weight for a walk till failure.
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Why we like this hip strength exercise:
This exercise will strengthen your midline which will help take pressure and load off of
your hips. Training this upright position will help you from folding in on a squat and
collapsing your chest on the way up during heavy weight.
So There It Is, Your Hip Mobility
Checklist:
» Hip Flexibility
» Hip Stability
» Hip Strength
If you can execute these things and go ALL IN on making sure your hips are performing
as they should be, you’ll be on your way to better fitness, better movement, and a better
quality of life.
Looking for 1-on-1 coaching to help you reach your health and fitness goals? Get in touch
with us today.
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About the Author Ben
The CEO and Head Coach at WODprep, Ben is passionate
about helping fitness athletes of all abilities get their
competitive edge and learn new skills! He's currently living
in Denver, Colorado with his wife and two dogs, and
whenever possible the two love to travel and explore new
places around the world (and meet new WODprep athletes).
follow me on:
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Kathy
June 21, 2019
So how often would you recommend doing the 3 drill groupings to better hip mobility?
Sorry if I missed that somewhere…
Vote:
1
Reply to Kathy
Garry Dubbs
June 21, 2019
Kathy, thanks for commenting! We recommend anywhere between 1-3x per week
pending on your goals and or needs.
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If there is one area that you think you REALLY need to improve, you could try 2-3x
per week.
If you think you only need maintenance, 1x per week will be fine.
Hope this helps!
Vote:
1
Reply to Garry Dubbs
Logan
April 23, 2021
To add to this question, would it be done before a workout or in its own
session with a certain amount of hours or days before next work out?
Vote:
1
Reply to Logan
Kellee
June 22, 2019
Great article. Funny and helpful
Vote:
2
Reply to Kellee
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Matthias
June 24, 2019
Hi wodprep-team,
Thank you for this article.
One question:
How do I know, if the major culprit of a weak squat are my hips and not for example
my ankles?
Vote:
1
Reply to Matthias
Garry Dubbs
June 24, 2019
It’s hard to determine from over the computer, however, we are going to cover that
topic inside of the coaching video tomorrow night.
So if you need more guidance be sure you don’t miss it. Hope to see you there! The
sign up is here:
https://wodprep.com/hips/
Vote:
2
Reply to Garry Dubbs
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The Best Damn Shoulder Mobility Article On The Internet
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Drum
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August 10, 2019
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I love this article! Very informative. I am sure it will help a lot of people.
It may also be a good idea to supplement it with this information I found. You could
check it out here if you like, https://bit.ly/2KpLWhy
Vote:
0
Reply to Drum
Michael
October 10, 2019
I loved it! i have been using https://probarmobility.com/ for my routines, and also
broomstick is a great alternative for this if you don’t have one yet.
Vote:
0
Reply to Michael
Delmer Viramontes
November 22, 2019
Amazing exercise, I try all and its work and help me to improve my hip pain problem.
Where to get Backpain chair for hip pain suffers.
Vote:
3
Reply to Delmer Viramontes
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Hip Mobility and Tight Hamstring Improvements – TORQUE
BARBELL
December 27, 2019
[…] https://wodprep.com/blog/hip-mobility-exercises/ […]
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Joshua D Diaz
July 6, 2020
Any suggestions for a person with acetabulum fracture?
Vote:
0
Reply to Joshua D Diaz
Garry
July 8, 2020
Get cleared by your local doctor to do basic hip strengthening and mobility drills
first! Then if cleared, should be good!
Vote:
0
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Joel
May 5, 2021
Ben, thanks for the content! Do you recommend those MOBs as workouts on their own
2–3 times a week interspersed between regular training days, or would you pick a few
and add them to your regular routine each week? Kind of like Pavel would suggest.
Vote:
0
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