4 of my favorite ways to mobilize and strengthen our hips

If you’ve taken class from me, you know how much I love to mobilize our hips. 

Mine are stubbornly tight, and they got really mad at me after not doing enough stretching after my biking and cobblestone walking trip.

Our hips are built to move in 6 ways: internal rotation, external rotation and flexion and extension, Abduction (legs pulling away from each other) Adduction (legs pulling together). As we age, we want to continue to keep them moving in all 6 ways to help us stay clear of metal hips.

When most people come to me for a Pilates Reformer session they have not moved their hips internally for quite some time, and haven’t worked the inner or outer thighs as well. I get it, we forget it until we can’t move in that way anymore, or get injured.

Anyway… here are 4 of my favorite ways to mobilize and strengthen our hips, that you don’t need any equipment for:

1. Sit on your bottom and bend your knees take your legs wide and sweep your legs side to side- we call this windshield wipers: This can be done lying on your back as well even before you get out of bed.

2. Pilates leg circles- big or small, but keep your torso stable as the thigh bone circles in your hip socket.

3. Sit in a z - sit (mermaid we call it in Pilates) one shin in front and kick the other leg behind you. Either frame your front leg with both hands or don’t use hands at all (harder version) then switch the other leg in front and the front leg in back. You can move legs similar to windshield wipers or lift and lower for more glute strength.

4. Kneel in front of a wall and put your hands on the wall, lift one knee off the floor and circle your leg from the thigh bone. Move slowly with intention, try to circle the whole leg. 3-5 in each direction.

Let me know if you give any of these a try!  If you have any questions about these movements, please reach out to me! I’m happy to help you gain hip strength and mobility. I'll be putting the full videos on my instagram channel as well.