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).  [caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="882"] Figure 2: Hip ER and IR measured on an examination table.[/caption] 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. [embed]https://youtu.be/oeLwLrrsSI4[/embed] 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. [embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TcsiqnDrd0g[/embed] Figure 4: Supine Cross Connect [embed]https://youtu.be/C7hLRzrWF_4[/embed] 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. [embed]https://youtu.be/R26W48oflok[/embed] 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. [embed]https://youtu.be/wXljK0b7vhM[/embed] 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.

Stretching is something most of us do, but have we ever stopped to think about why. Usually the logic is simple. The muscle feels tight, so we stretch it. If a muscle is tight because it is shortened, stretching it to make it longer makes sense. But what if the reason a muscle feels tight has nothing to do with it actually being shortened. If that is the case, how effective is stretching really. Let’s use the hamstrings as an example to explain this idea more clearly. And do not worry. At the end of this article, I will still show you my top three exercises to fix “tight” hamstrings.   Why Everyone Thinks Their Hamstrings Are Tight Almost everyone believes they have tight hamstrings, and almost everyone stretches them. Common ways hamstrings are assessed include the active straight leg raise and the toe touch. Many of us also remember the sit and reach test from physical education class growing up. If you could not lift your leg high enough, touch your toes, or reach far down the ruler, you were told you had tight hamstrings and needed to stretch them. But just because something feels tight does not mean stretching is the solution. How many people have stretched their hamstrings consistently and seen little to no lasting change. If stretching does not change anything long term, maybe the hamstrings are not actually shortened and stretching is not the answer. A common response is, “But I really feel tension in the back of my leg when I try to touch my toes or when my leg is lifted.” That feeling is real. The tension is real. The reason for it is just often misunderstood. To understand why, we need to talk about position. Understanding Hamstring Anatomy The hamstrings originate at the ischial tuberosity of the pelvis, often referred to as the sit bone. They cross the knee joint and attach to the tibia and fibula in the lower leg. An easy way to visualize the hamstrings is to think of them like a rubber band running from the pelvis down to the back of the lower leg. When you lift your leg during a straight leg raise, the hamstrings are lengthened and tension increases. However, because the hamstrings attach to the pelvis, the position of the pelvis plays a major role in how much tension is already present. Pelvis Position Changes Everything Now let’s talk about pelvic position. If someone stands, sits, or lies down in an anterior pelvic tilt, the pelvis is tipped forward. When the pelvis is tipped forward, the hamstrings are already placed under tension. In other words, the rubber band is already stretched before you even move. So when you go to touch your toes or lift your leg, you feel tension much earlier. Your nervous system interprets this as approaching a limit and creates a protective response by stopping the movement. This is not because the hamstrings are short. It is because they are already lengthened due to pelvic position. Figure 5 illustrates this clearly. With a neutral pelvis, the hamstrings sit at a more optimal resting length. With an anteriorly tilted pelvis, the hamstrings are visibly longer and already under tension. When you then try to stretch further, your body says no. Why Stretching Often Fails If your hamstrings already feel stretched due to pelvic position, stretching them more does not solve the problem. In many cases, it simply reinforces the same limitation. This is why some people can stretch daily and never see meaningful changes in flexibility. Before forcing more stretching or having someone push you deeper into a toe touch, it is worth looking at position first. If you improve pelvic alignment or get out of an overly extended posture, you may find that hamstring mobility improves without stretching at all. This often leads to better movement, less pain if pain is present, and reduced injury risk. A Quick Disclaimer This is not an argument that stretching is bad. Stretching can improve tissue quality, elasticity, and durability. It absolutely has a place. However, if stretching has not improved your hamstring mobility, there is a good chance you are addressing the wrong problem. Sometimes the solution is not to stretch harder, but to change position first. If you want to learn how to do that, click below to see my top three exercises to fix “tight” hamstrings.

Many people are told that their knee pain, hip pain, or low back pain is caused by weak hips. This conclusion is often made after strength testing shows difficulty activating muscles like the glutes, which play a major role in hip and pelvis stability. The most common solution is banded hip strengthening. This usually looks like placing a resistance band around the knees for side steps, monster walks, or clamshells. While these exercises are popular, they often fall short and do not lead to meaningful pain relief or long term improvement. Let’s look at why that might be, and what a more effective approach actually looks like. Understanding the Length Tension Relationship All muscles operate under what is known as the length tension relationship. This means the amount of force a muscle can produce depends on the length it starts at. A simple way to understand this is by thinking about a pull up. Starting from a dead hang at the bottom is very difficult. If you start with your elbows already bent, the movement feels much easier. At the very top of the pull up, the last portion is also challenging. The strongest point is somewhere in the middle of the movement. This happens because muscles produce the most force when they are neither fully stretched nor fully shortened. Much like the Goldilocks principle, the middle range is just right. What Is Happening Inside the Muscle Muscle fibers contain tiny structures called actin and myosin. These filaments overlap and interact to create contraction. Myosin heads attach to actin and pull, shortening the muscle. When a muscle is overly stretched, there is less overlap between actin and myosin, making it harder to generate force. When a muscle is fully shortened, there is very little room left for further contraction. In both cases, force production is reduced. Maximum strength occurs when the muscle starts in the middle of its available range, where overlap is optimal. Why Your Hips May Appear Weak Now let’s apply this to the hips. Sometimes hip weakness is real. However, very often the issue is not true weakness but the position the hips are resting in. If the glutes are already held in a shortened or contracted position, they will struggle to squeeze any further. This presents as weakness during testing. On the other hand, if the glutes are excessively lengthened, they may not be able to generate enough force either. These resting positions are influenced by pelvic position. Tight or loose muscles are often the result of the position they are held in, not the original cause of the problem. This is something that can be identified with a proper movement assessment. Why Bands Often Miss the Mark If hip position is the underlying issue, adding a resistance band and doing more strengthening does not solve the problem. In fact, if someone is already in an over contracted state, banded exercises can make things worse by reinforcing poor starting positions. This can further limit force production and continue to feed pain patterns. This is why many people perform band exercises consistently and never feel stronger or more stable. A Better Approach The first priority should be restoring the hips to a more neutral position so they can operate in that strong middle range. Once the hips are in a better position, strengthening exercises become far more effective. At that point, resistance training reinforces good mechanics instead of fighting against them. The exact exercises needed depend on how the hips and pelvis are positioned at baseline. This requires an individualized assessment to determine whether muscles are starting in a contracted or lengthened state and what needs to change to restore balance. After that, strength training can be layered on safely and productively. Whether you are dealing with knee pain, hip pain, low back pain, or simply feel like your performance has plateaued, addressing hip position is often the missing piece. When that foundation is restored, strength gains come more easily and pain is far more likely to resolve.