Author: Dr. Colin Butler, DPT, ATC
Hips are not born to be “tight,” but with how often people describe their hips as feeling more like rusty gears than Stretch Armstrong, it is easy to believe they are.
The good news is that, for most people, hip mobility issues can be significantly improved by shifting how you think about what is actually limiting your motion.
Before we talk about solutions, let’s look at the anatomy of the hips and then break down how to identify what deserves your attention.
Anatomy
Think of the pelvis as the house that your hips live in. It is made up of two wing-like structures called innominates, which are connected by the sacrum. Your lower back connects directly into the top of the sacrum, forming a complex relationship between the spine, pelvis, and hip joints.
In a previous post, I talked about why “stretching” a muscle that has the perception of tension, or that might be a contributor to a reduction of joint motion might be a simplistic, reductionist way of viewing how the body creates movement.
Muscles attach to tendons, which attach to bones. If we only pursue the feeling of a stretch in an area that feels restricted, we may miss the underlying factor that is actually driving that sensation.
To make this more actionable, let’s break hip mobility into a few buckets.
Bucket 1: What Does My Total Hip Rotation Look Like?
One of the easiest ways to assess hip mobility is to look at total hip rotation. This means adding together your hip external rotation and hip internal rotation. (Figure 2).
A general benchmark for most people is around 100 degrees of total rotation between these two movements. When this is present, it suggests that the innominates can move well relative to the sacrum and that the hips have access to a wide range of positions.
If you are missing a significant amount of total hip rotation, a good starting point is learning to move with less muscular tension and restoring relative motion between the pelvis and sacrum.
A simple and effective option is sidelying rolling with lateral pelvic compression. This exercise helps reduce unnecessary muscular effort, restore rotation, and build awareness of how your hips actually move. That awareness becomes incredibly valuable as exercises become more challenging.
Figure 3: Sidelying Rolling with Lateral Pelvic Compression
Other commonly used movements that serve a similar purpose include the supine cross connect and the hooklying two arm reach.
Figure 4: Supine Cross Connect
Figure 5: Hooklying Two Arm Reach
Both of these exercises help reorient the pelvis as a unit and can rapidly restore access to hip rotation when position is the primary limitation.
If you are missing total hip rotation, start here. Restoring potential movement comes first.
Bucket 2: What Are My Tissues Calibrated To Do?
Think about guitar strings. Their tension changes depending on how they are used and how the guitarist prefers them tuned.
Your body works in a similar way. Beyond muscles and bones, connective tissues play a huge role in absorbing and transmitting force. These tissues adapt to the demands placed on them.
If you recently restored hip rotation but still feel stiff or restricted, it may be time to recalibrate how your connective tissues handle force.
A great starting point is a goblet box squat with a rockback. This symmetrical movement encourages the body to absorb force and reduce stiffness by relaxing into the bottom position.
Figure 6: Goblet Box Squat with Rockback
Once that feels comfortable, a lateral lunge with a static hold introduces similar demands but emphasizes side-to-side motion. This helps the body learn to manage force in frontal plane positions that are often undertrained.
Figure 7: Lateral Lunge with Static Hold
Putting It All Together
If you are missing a large amount of hip rotation, focus first on getting the pelvis into positions that allow that motion to exist. This restores your potential to move freely in multiple directions.
Once that potential is there, the next step is tuning your body’s connective tissues to do what you actually need them to do. That means being able to absorb force when necessary and create force when needed.
Both qualities matter. Mastering them is what allows you to move well, train hard, and stay active without constantly feeling stiff.
Give these strategies a try and see how your hip mobility changes when you stop chasing stretches and start respecting position and force instead.
