Tips to Keep Your Hips Strong and Flexible

In this episode of the Outside Health and Fitness podcast we’re talking about your hips and you’ll learn some fantastic body weight and yoga routines for keeping them strong and flexible. In the Way Outside segment we’ll look at an unusual sport that combines brains and brawn kind of a Rocky meets Einstein mash-up. And I’ll wrap up the show with a fitness challenge to keep you motivated this week.

Tips for Your Hips

I recently got a question from a listener named Zanellie. She wrote in and asked “Hey Steve do you have any tips for exercises on the hips?”

Functions of the Hip Flexor

The hip flexor’s main function is to help the hip joints move properly in their full range. The hip flexor helps you draw your leg to your torso, and also helps you move your legs from side to side and backwards.

So What Do Your Hips Do For You?

Your hips are critically important and provide

• strength,
• stability, and
• support for our spine and organs

Hip Flexibility and Strength in Sports

Strong hip flexors provide great benefits for many athletes in numerous sports but strength training needs to be accompanied with exercises to maintain flexibility and prevent injuries. For runners strong hip flexors allow for a faster and more powerful forward leg movement and upward knee drive. Cyclists often have tight hip flexors because the cycling motion never allows to thigh to fully extend. Keeping the hip flexors limber is essential to avoiding muscle imbalance and post-ride stiffness.

Why Hips Become Less Flexible

When the PSOAS muscle gets tight it impacts your hip flexibility. This can happen because of a sedentary lifestyle and can even tighten based on sleeping in the fetal position.

Exercises to Develop Hip Strength and Flexibility

Superman

• Lie down on your stomach with your hands and feet stretched out like you’re superman flying over metropolis
• slowly raise your arms and legs off the ground and hold this position 

Read more: CLICK HERE

Hip Raise

• Lay down on the floor with your head, torso and buttocks planted firmly on the ground.
• Bend your knees with your feet also planted on the floor.
• Allow your arms and hands to relax by your sides.
• Look up at the ceiling.
• You should be in a straight line from the tip of your head to your tailbone.
• Use the muscles in your abdomen, lower back and hamstrings to lift your hips and buttocks off the ground.
• Raise your hips as high as you can, making a bridge with your pelvis.
• Slowly lower your entire body back down to the ground.
• Do 10 to 12 reps

Squats

When performed properly, Squats build lower body strength and power. These are great exercises for strengthening your hips. To perform squats:

• Stand with your heels slightly wider than hip width apart
• Turn your toes out slightly
• Sit back and down keeping your knees over your toes
• Keep a straight back and gaze forward
• Swing hands forward to maintain balance

Yoga Pigeon Pose

• Start in a push up position on your hand and toes.
• Slide your right knee forward toward your right hand. Angle your knee so the outer ankle is touching the floor.
• Slide your left leg back as far as comfortable.
• Keep your hips square.
• You should feeling a deep stretch in your right hip and the outer thigh.
• You can either stay up on your hands, or fold forward and let your forearms rest on the floor in front of you or fully extended your arm in front of you.
• Breathe slowly and deeply from your belly.
• Hold the stretch 30-60 seconds and release.
• Repeat on the other leg.

Hip Flexor – Psoas Stretch

• Begin in a forward lunge position and place your hands on your knees.
• Press down with your hands and extend the hips forward until you feel a stretch from the front of your hip, groin and thigh.
• Hold the stretch for about 20-30 seconds, release and repeat on the other leg.

Push-up with Single Leg Raise

• Start in a plank position
• Lift one leg so that you’re supported by just your two hands and other leg
• While holding the lifted leg up lower toward the floor in the downward phase of the push up.
• Once at the bottom of the movement with the leg still raised push up to the starting position.
• Return the lifted leg to the floor.
• Lift the other leg and repeat the move.

Read more: CLICK HERE