Why is Hip Mobility Important?

Hip mobility is extremely important for both athletic tasks as well as the overall health of your joints and your body.  A common finding for the clients we see for lower back or knee pain is limited hip mobility, especially with hip rotation mobility. The hip joint is inherently mobile, the low back and the knee are not.  When you are missing mobility from your hip joint, the mobility still has to come from somewhere. So where does it come from? The lower back and the knee now become increasingly ‘mobile’ to make up for the lack of mobility at the hip joint.  This creates unhappy lower back and knee joints over time.

Not only does a limitation in hip mobility result in unhappy joints, but it wrecks your athletic performance in your sport and in the gym as well.  Tightness in the hips means that you won’t be able to maintain good, strong, athletic positions – and your movement will compensate. As your movement compensates, then other areas of the body end up taking over that are not meant to carry or support heavy and explosive activities.  This is another recipe for both injury and deficits in performance.

How do I Improve Hip Mobility?

Common knowledge suggests that the best way to improve hip mobility is through stretching.  Stretching on its own is commonly not enough to make true and lasting change. As you’ll see with the videos below, there is a dynamic and strengthening component to most of the movements as well.  This simultaneous combination of both strength and mobility creates long lasting and true change that translates into your day to day and workout activities. Check out the videos below to see how to supercharge your hip mobility today

1. 90/90 Hip Mobility

2. 90/90 Hip ER Liftoff

3. 90/90 Hip IR Liftoff

4. 90/90 Traveling Hip Mobility

5. Shin Box Get Up

6. Hip Rotation x 3 Way

7. Hip IR Mobility w/ Foam Roll Squeeze

8. Frog Mobility w/ Hip IR

9. Standing Hip Circles

10. Prying Goblet Squat

Give these a try let us know if you feel a difference.  This has worked with hundreds of clients that we have worked with both locally at our performance physical therapy clinic as well as with online training athletes that we program for.