10 hip strength = mobility moves
As we have emerged from the winter into a more active spring and summer, we need to dust off all the parts that may have been hibernating. These 10 exercises, with variations, are all a must for my personal hip health and maintenance. They are also among my go-tos for back and knee pain with my students.
The hip is a ball and socket joint with 360 degrees of range, including flexion, extension, abduction, adduction, internal rotation, and external rotation.
There is a massive responsibility to take care of this joint, and that means strengthening all of the muscles in balance with each other.
The hip structure derives from the pelvis and connects to an abundance of muscular systems in our body, which most greatly affect our daily life: the abdominals, the gluteals, the adductors and abductors, the quadriceps, and hamstrings, to name a few.
So when we say hip work, this means all of it.
For so many years, I overstretched my hip flexors specifically. It is important to remember that tight muscles do not equal strong. In fact, it’s quite the opposite.
My Pilates brain knows this to be true: Strengthen in a full range of motion. But my dance brain would continually override this knowledge and stretch-stretch-stretch…. Until one day, my hip locked up and screamed at me.
When I shifted this mindset to be more consistent, strengthening instead, with clean placement of a neutral pelvis to create space in my hip socket, my hip pain ceased… this was after doing regenerative medicine, PRP in both of my hips 2 yrs apart, with Physio Logic Medicine.
I will let the movement speak for itself.
I hope you find a newfound love for hip work after trying these exercises. As always, I advise you to seek a professional to guide you to understand your proper alignment and muscle recruitment.
1 Squat shift to the side
1B Squat shift to hover
1C Squat shift to standing
2 Windshield Wipers with hand support
3 Hip Flexor Fans
3B Windshield Wipers with no support
4 Seated Hip Flexor Lift
5 Pelvic Curl with Band
5B Single Leg Bridge
6 Stretches- Hamstring, IT Band, & Adductor
Gluteals Kneeling Series:
7 Hip Extension Bent Knee
8 Hip Abduction Bent Knee
9 Hip Extension Straight Leg
(From BASI Pilates Comprehensive Program)
Gluteals Side Lying Series:
10 Side Leg Lifts
10B Forward with Lift
10C Forward with Drops
(From BASI Pilates Comprehensive Program. Please note that forward with drops is done at hip height and lower vs the variation shown here. Also, this series is minus Adductor Lift.)
FOLLOW US
For full length videos that benefit our scholarship program visit Virtualogic.earth