Hip Mobility - What is it and where to find it

Put simply, your hip mobility is defined by your ability to actively move your hip joint through it’s full range of motion.

Your hips can flex, extend, abduct, adduct, externally rotate and internally rotate. Whether you fully understand those terms or not, it doesn’t matter. The point is, your hips can move in lots of different directions, and therefore it’s important to create strength and stability in these movement patterns.

Try squatting down into a deep squat - this is hip flexion - and if you can’t get very deep, that’s okay - it’s just highlighted an area for you to work on. Whilst the source of your inability to flex at the hip may be a result of mobility restrictions at your surrounding joints (ankles / spine), spending more time unloaded in the bottom of your squat will inadvertently help with your ankle mobility as well as your hip mobility. Feel free to use a table or couch to support that bottom position and to keep that chest upright, whilst shifting your weight around in that bottom position. Expect some discomfort here!

Try lying on your belly on the floor. Bend your knee up to 90 degrees (as if you were going to kick your heel into your bum). Keeping your knee at 90 degrees, squeeze your glutes, trying to lift your thigh an inch or two off the floor. This is assessing hip extension past zero degrees. Can you extend your hips without creating any extension through your lower back? If you can’t - it’s just highlighted an area for you to work on. Spend time on your hands and knees, kicking one leg behind you, whilst keeping your other knee and hands on the floor. The focus here is to extend your hips by kicking your leg behind you, and not creating any arch through your lower back. Often if you have an inability to effectively extend your hips, your lower back will do lots of the extension to compensate for it. The focus here is to make sure our hips are our main workers throughout hip extension exercises, not our lower backs.

Whilst this is just the tip of the iceberg, these are two movements you could incorporate twice daily, whilst you’re spending more time at home. Creating a greater level of awareness around your hips and improving their ability to flex and extend whilst maintaining proper positioning, is a great place to start towards an overall healthy and strong body.