Enhance your desk job's aftermath with a 10-minute routine, tailored to enhance hip mobility and strength.
In today's sedentary lifestyle, prolonged sitting can take a toll on our hip health. To counteract this, a combination of targeted mobility exercises and strengthening moves is most effective for improving hip mobility and strength. Here's a comprehensive workout routine, based on expert advice, to help you achieve just that.
The workout is split into two parts: dynamic stretches and strengthening moves. The first part takes your hip flexors through their full range of motion with dynamic stretches, designed to restore natural hip motion and flexibility.
**Effective Hip Mobility Exercises:**
1. **Hip Opener (Standing knee circles):** Stand feet shoulder-width apart. Lift one knee, bend it, and circle it in, up, and around, then place it down. Alternate legs for 10 reps. This exercise helps improve hip mobility and flexibility, with consistency being key for lasting improvement.
2. **Frogger Rockback:** Begin in a half-kneeling position and rock hips backward and forward, stretching the hip flexors and improving mobility in multiple planes.
3. **90/90 Hip Switch:** Sit with legs positioned at 90 degrees in front and to the side, then switch sides. This enhances rotational mobility in the hips.
4. **Prone Hip Controlled Articular Rotation (CARs):** On hands and knees, move one bent knee in a semicircle from chest toward the side and back, keeping spine neutral. Repeat 5 times each direction per leg.
5. **Lying Hip Rotation:** Lying on your back, knees bent, drop knees side-to-side slowly to gently mobilize hips.
6. **Pigeon Pose and Lizard Pose:** These yoga-inspired stretches target hip external rotation and flexion, promoting joint range and release of tightness.
7. **Butterfly Stretch:** Sit with soles of feet together and knees dropped open, gently pressing down to stretch inner hips.
8. **Frog Stretch:** On all fours, spread knees and rock hips back toward heels to stretch hip adductors and flexors.
The second part of the workout focuses on building stability and reducing the risk of injury with strengthening exercises.
**Strengthening Exercises to Complement Mobility:**
1. **Bulgarian Split Squat:** Step one leg behind onto a bench, lower into a lunge to build hip strength and stability.
2. **Marching Glute Bridge:** Lie on your back, lift hips into bridge, then alternate lifting knees toward chest to strengthen glutes and hip extensors.
3. **Lateral Lunge Isometrics:** Step laterally, bend the stepping knee, and hold to engage hip abductors and adductors, improving lateral stability.
4. **Kneeling Hip Flexor Eccentric Slides:** Kneel upright, lean back slowly while keeping pelvis stable to eccentrically strengthen hip flexors and extensors.
Perform a circuit of 3-4 exercises 3 times a week to build consistency and long-term gains. Prioritize controlled, slow movements with focus on keeping spine neutral to avoid compensations. Incorporate these exercises especially before and after lower-body workouts or prolonged sitting periods. Gradually progress from beginner-friendly stretches (butterfly, lying rotations) to more advanced poses and strengthening moves.
This integrated approach addresses hip joint range of motion, muscle strength, and stability, effectively countering stiffness and weakness caused by prolonged sitting and improving overall hip health. Strengthening hips supports the core, protects joints, and improves balance, according to Brando, a rehabilitation manager at Hoag Orthopedic Institute. If needed, adjust the workout by pausing the video, as suggested by Lindsey Bomgren, a NASM and ACE-certified trainer, who offers a 10-minute hip mobility and strength routine. The workout is designed to be completed daily, either before a run, after work, or on a lunch break, with the purpose of counteracting the negative effects of prolonged sitting.
This integrated workout routine, designed to improve hip mobility and strength, includes dynamic stretches and strengthening moves. The dynamic stretches, such as Hip Opener, Frogger Rockback, 90/90 Hip Switch, Prone Hip Controlled Articular Rotation (CARs), Lying Hip Rotation, Pigeon Pose and Lizard Pose, Butterfly Stretch, and Frog Stretch, are aimed at restoring hip motion and flexibility. The strengthening exercises, including Bulgarian Split Squat, Marching Glute Bridge, Lateral Lunge Isometrics, and Kneeling Hip Flexor Eccentric Slides, focus on building hip strength and stability to reduce the risk of injury. This combination of mobility exercises and strengthening moves can effectively counteract the negative effects of prolonged sitting on hip health, contributing positively to workplace-wellness, health-and-wellness, fitness-and-exercise, and overall science-backed well-being.
