It's all in the hips

Take care of your hips for a better life.

Whether you're an avid CrossFitter or you just want to live a better life, hip health is very important. Use the stretches below to get healthy hips, squat deeper and live pain free. Use the guidance at the bottom of the post for when and how often you should do this routine. If you want to try out Tulsa's Best CrossFit gym for a FREE WEEK, use this link to book your first day.

1. Lying Hip Rotations

This exercise starts the sequence as an easy first movement to warm-up and build toward the rest of the series.

Key Points:

• Lie on back with both knees bent.
• Cross one ankle over the opposite knee.
• Move in and out of the stretch by rotating the hip in and out.
• For the hold, use your hand for assistance to press into the knee.

Modified Version: Sitting on chair or bench, elevate your legs on to a stool or chair (the higher the surface, the more challenging it will be), and externally rotate one leg at a time. Then, play around with crossing one ankle over the other leg and externally rotating from that position. You can have the bottom leg bent fully, or straightened a bit more.

2. Piriformis Stretch

This stretch targets the piriformis (hence the name!), which is a small muscle located deep in the buttock. This muscle tends to get pretty tight from sitting all day.

Key Points:

• Cross one leg fully over the opposite leg, so your knee is crossed over your thigh.
• Pull the crossed knee toward your opposite shoulder, stretching the piriformis muscle.

Modified Version: Sit on a chair with your leg bent (as much or as little as needed for your comfort) on a stool or chair, then cross your other leg over the bent leg. Rotate your chest toward your knee, pulling your body toward your crossed knee. If it is too difficult to do this with one leg crossed over the other, you can just elevate one leg onto a stool or chair and do the same motion.

3. Butterfly Stretch

This classic stretch is very useful for the groin muscles, and for improving hip rotation to the side. Pay close attention to your back and keep it straight and upright as you move through the stretch.

Key Points:

• Sit up with feet together, moving the knees down toward the ground.
• Use your hand to press into the ground and move your groin closer to your heels.

Modified Version: Sitting on a chair, lift your legs on to an elevated surface. Put your feet together, with your knees splayed outward. The key, as you move in and out of the stretch, is to keep your chest up and lean forward as you draw your knees downward.

4. Frog Stretch

At this point in the sequence, we are ready for a bit more intensive stretching for the hips, adding some more weight bearing into the exercise.

Again, take it slow and easy and don’t force a range of motion you may not be ready to achieve. The action here as you move in and out of a stretch is squeezing the knees together as you rock backward and relaxing as you rock forward. After a few repetitions you can sit back and relax into the stretch for upwards of a minute.

Key Points:

• Start on hands and knees, bringing your knees as far apart as is comfortable.
• Rock back and forth in that position.
• Keep the balls of your feet on the ground, with toes pointed outward.

Modified Version: Similar to the butterfly stretch, you’ll start sitting in a chair with your feet up on a chair with your knees splayed outward. This time, though, your feet won’t be touching, and you’ll focus on leaning backward so that you can open your groins as much as possible.

5. Kneeling Lunge

This exercise is somewhat deceptive in terms of how it can affect your hips.

You may need some trial and error to find the best front foot positioning, which happens when your shin is upright when you lean forward, rather than being angled down or back. Keep your hips square and your upper body tall, and you’ll be in the right position. Don’t be afraid to adjust the back leg positioning to get the most out of the stretch to release your hip flexors.

Key Points:

• Get into a lunge position, with knee and foot about hip width apart from the elevated leg.
• Keep the chest tall and the hips square.
• To make the stretch harder, you can pull the back knee up off the ground.

Modified Version: Sit with just one leg supported by a chair, with your other leg bent behind you. Keep the knee lifted off the ground if you can, and try to square up your hips as much as you can. Emphasize opening your rear hip flexor by squeezing your rear glute.

6. Traveling Butterfly

This movement goes from longsitting (on your butt with your legs straight out in front), to the butterfly stretch position.

It’s meant to be a dynamic motion, and you won’t hold any position here for more than a few seconds. This is a great way to improve circulation and get the hips moving after the stretching you did in the last 5 moves.

Key Points:

• Sit on your butt with feet straight in front of you (longsitting).
• Use your hands to push the hips forward toward your heels, so you wind up in the butterfly position.
• Move between the long sitting and butterfly positions.

Modified Version: You’ll notice there is no modified version of this exercise included in the video above. That’s because it’s a little difficult to do this one on chairs or an elevated surface without making the exercise more difficult! This is a good example of when it’s okay to just skip an exercise if it’s too challenging for you.

7. Squatting Internal Rotations

This is another dynamic movement like the traveling butterfly, which I’ve put toward the end to encourage blood flow and circulation after all the previous stretches.

Don’t hold the end position very long at all. Just keep moving and give yourself some time to work through the movement.

Key Points:

• Start in a deep squat position (as deep as you can go).
• Rotate one knee inward, down toward the ground.
• This stretch can be done sitting on a small stool if you cannot get into a comfortable squat position.

Modified Version: For this modified exercise, you’ll use a chair (or any sturdy object that’s the right height for you) to support you as you lower into a squat. Then go through the internal rotations while holding on for support. This way you can adjust your depth and range of motion as much as you need to.

8. Pigeon Stretch

The pigeon stretch is another classic stretch that can help you work on, not just your hip mobility, but also your hamstring and spine flexibility.

Key Points:

• Start with your front knee bent to a 90-degree angle. The back knee can be as bent or extended as is comfortable for you.
• Rotate the back hip toward the front heel, and then toward the back foot.
• Keep the chest up tall, and only bear as much weight as you can comfortably.
• If you feel comfortable with the knee bent, you can work on straightening out the back leg into the full pigeon pose.

Modified Version: Sitting on a chair, lift one leg up on to another chair with the knee bent in front of you, allowing your rear leg to fall comfortably to the side. Use as many supports as you need to to make the front leg as comfortable as possible. Lift your chest and hinge from the hips to lean forward toward your front leg.

Hip Stretching Recommendations: How to Use this Hip Mobility Routine

Whatever level you’re practicing at (whether you’re doing the regular or modified routine), you’re probably wondering how to get the most from this routine. There are no hard and fast rules, but here are some helpful guidelines.

How many reps/sets should you do?

When doing your hip stretches, you don’t need to be doing tons of reps and sets of these exercises—you’re much better off doing fewer reps if it means you can practice more often.

Here’s what I recommend when you’re starting out:

• 5-10 contractions per side
• a 10-30 second hold
• repeat for each exercise

That should take a maximum of about 10 minutes.

If you have more time or you’re feeling particularly tight one day, feel free to do more reps, but don’t spend more than 20 minutes on this routine unless you are spending a dedicated session on stretching.

How often should you practice?

Every day, if you can! This routine is gentle enough that you don’t have to worry about overdoing it (especially if you’re staying in a low rep range). And the modified version of the routine gives you good options for practicing in any chair, even if you’re at work or doing other things.

General principles for training frequency:

• short, frequent sessions are best
• make use of the chair variations at work

When should you practice?

This routine makes for a good warm-up or cool down for your other training, but it can really be practiced at any time. Some people enjoy doing this routine when they first wake up to shake off the cobwebs, or just before going to sleep to get a nice stretch in. Really, you can do this routine whenever it works best for you.

The best times to work on hip mobility:

• in the morning to get your day started
• as part of your regular training – doesn’t matter if it’s before or after, just fit it in wherever it feels best or you

Free Your Hips for Freedom of Motion

Tight hips aren’t just inconvenient—they can hold you back from doing the things that are important to you, or trying new things you’d like to.

Spending a few minutes every day (or as often as you can) on improving your hip mobility can have a huge impact on helping you feel freer in your body, and more capable of doing whatever you want and need to.

And if you want to improve your hip mobility even more, our GMB Mobility program will help you do that in conjunction with improving your mobility, strength, and control throughout your body.

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