Want to Build Hip Strength?
The hips are the largest ball in the socket joint of the body, enabling it to flex and extend through all the anatomical planes. When assessing the hips, there are many cross-functional components allowing power to flow through both the posterior and anterior chains. Many different muscle organs seamlessly work together to form our core.
The muscles include the rectus and tranversus abdomen, along with the internal and external obliques. Those connect with the lower extremities, such as the adductor longus, gluteus maximus, and medius. I could attempt to flatter you with the scientific names of all the muscle groups involved with building hip strength. However, it is nicer to stick with common terms and easier for me to pronounce.
In a perfect world, we would want to start with training the proper pathways for movements across the three anatomical planes. So that when everyday life events happen, such as placing your baby in their crib or putting up the bag of groceries from the floor or an accidental bump that suddenly unpredictably joists your body. As we age, our range of motion begins to decline after age thirty unless we consciously train dynamic mobility. Depending on our exercise age, that would determine how often we would need to implement such practices.
The hips are the big one because it accentually connects the upper body with the lower body. That allows the body to move in a synchronized way. This does not mean the shoulders, spine, feet, and ankles are not as important for movement. Yet the focus here is the hips. Why? Most injuries are indirectly related to the hips (acetabular femoral joint) because if the range of motion or strength is not available, the body then adapts. Placing stress on connective ligaments, muscle fibers, and joints that are not necessarily ready for the load.
I’ll admit, as an athlete, in the beginning, I believed my core to be abdomens only. Thankfully the multitude of strength and conditioning coaches help reshape my thinking. The core is (in none scientific terms) the lower back, abs, obliques, inner and outer quadriceps, hamstrings, and glutes. Fortunately, we can hit all these muscle groups with our basic multijointed movements, for example, most squat variations, et cetera. What happens before we can start to utilize the big structure lifts? Especially when we think about everyday athletes that are not concerned about ball placement to score a goal or absorb and deliver crushing impacts. A safe way to start is from the ground up, with dynamic mobility and anti-rotational/ flexion being the foundation.
Remember, just about every functional movement involves the hips. That makes keeping them mobile and strong, more important as we age. Having hip control will spare you a lot of unnecessary injury and time. It’s not the most exciting exercise to work on, but five to ten minutes is worth adding to the start or/and the end of your workouts. Some dynamic mobility exercises include bird dogs, T- rotation openers, and some anti-rotation ground exercises such as glute bridges with some external resistance. Half kneeling loaded carries are also a good exercise, to full kneeling stability ball holds for progression. The idea is to work from the ground up on our feet to actual movement.
For more in-depth functional exercises for the everyday athlete contact me at admin@bulltraining.online of course I will give as much advice as I can! And if we are a good fit, I offer online one of one coaching for any level athlete. Let’s get to your goal together.
Live life free and stay fit!
J’Nathan Bullock CSCS