The physical therapists at E3 Rehab are my favorites when it comes to fortifying your body using the best mobility exercises. If your goal is to unlock tight hips and build a stronger lower body while boosting flexibility, these are the moves for you.
Strengthening your hip flexor muscles and improving your range of motion helps protect your lower back, which translates to better performance when you exercise, especially as you get older.
I stumbled across this video on E3 Rehab’s YouTube and I love that you just need an exercise mat — I adore the selection of best yoga mats tried and tested by our fitness desk — and yourself.
Improve your hip range of motion: stretches and mobility exercises
The demonstration starts with a warning on setting expectations. Big tick for me. Many fitness influencers and even some qualified instructors may promise you the world. “Build abs in 10 minutes” or “Build muscle with just this exercise.”
There's no quick fix for long-lasting good health. What it really means is you’ll need to practice consistently over time to see improvements — better daily functioning, reduced likelihood of injury, and increased athletic performance or movement quality.
After this 30-minute session, you won’t necessarily be doing the splits, but you should notice improvements in flexibility and range of motion around your hips, and marked improvements to your body may happen with time.
The class is divided into four sections with two types of exercises per category: the first is a stretch into the range of motion and the second is a dynamic exercise. Stretches are held whereas moving exercises are for reps, which we detail below.
The guys even talk you through the types of stretches you can do to both stretch and strengthen the target muscles in different ways, so I highly recommend not skipping the exercise intro if you’re keen to learn more about stretching and mobility.
Some exercises cross over into several categories, plus there are many ways to make exercises more difficult. Let's get stuck in.
1. Hip rotation
The aim is to improve hip external rotation (rotating the hip outward) by stretching the hip internal rotators and strengthening the external rotators. According to the rehab guys, the ability to internally rotate the hip can be limited by “bony anatomy” so avoid moving into painful or pinching sensations.
One exercise that appears here is the 90/90 stretch, which you can hold for 30-60 seconds per side. Add a yoga block or place your hands behind you if the exercise is too difficult. If you follow along with the video in real time, you’ll see how to add internal and external rotator strength work to target the hips and glutes using 10-15 reps with a 2-3 second hold.
Other exercises include seated figure-4 stretch and pigeon pose, so there’s a mix of exercises to choose from if hip rotation is a weakness you wish to work on.
2. Hip flexion
To improve your hip flexion (think drawing your knee toward your chest), you’ll focus on stretching your hip extensors and strengthening the hip flexor muscles. Exercises include child’s pose, supine knee-to-chest hold, plus dynamic (moving) variations of both.
More advanced exercises include deep squats (heels elevated), split squats with your feet on plates to increase your range of motion, plus ways to add weights or gym equipment to move muscles through added resistance.
3. Hip extension
To improve hip extension (think about kicking your leg behind you), you’ll stretch the hip flexors and strengthen your hip extensors. Exercises in this part of the mobility routine include the half-kneeling hip stretch, which you can also perform standing or with the back foot elevated. The team recommends 30-60 seconds or 10-15 reps.
Other exercises include glute bridges, leg raises, standing kickbacks and kneeling kickbacks.
4. Groin mobility
Finally, the routine heads into groin mobility to open up the inner thigh muscles. This includes stretching the hip adductors and strengthening the hip abductors, which assist in lifting the leg away from the body.
During these exercises, you’ll extend one leg to the side and perform a stretch or a series of dynamic movements, like lifting the leg sideways into the air or rocking back and forth with the leg extended.
This section is all about the side-to-side motion — think side lunges — that hits the muscles on the inner leg while activating the outer glutes. You can add weights to make the exercise more challenging or just work with your body weight.
One of my favorite plank variations crops up called the Copenhagen plank, which is a side plank elevated away from the ground. It’s a fun but advanced move worth trying if you want to strengthen your core and target the adductors.
The seated butterfly stretch is another classic — sitting with the soles of the feet together and knees apart. It’s one of my favorites to try, and you can place weights on your inner knees to help open your hips.
Verdict
There are plenty of stretches and mobility exercises to work through and you don’t have to use all of them in one go. Build a few into a routine, depending on the time you have, and experiment with different variations until you find the best ones for you.
I recommend selecting two exercises from each category, to begin with, and following along with the video in real-time, pausing to perform the movements for 30-60 seconds or 10-15 reps, depending on which you choose.
Hip mobility is crucial for functional movement, posture and injury prevention. Limited range of motion and poor joint health can have a knock-on effect even just performing daily tasks.
Focus on slowing the moves down and working into the maximum range of motion you have available, keeping the hip flexors and core muscles under tension as you circle and lift your legs.
Plus, with patience, the benefits are out there to be found; research like this systematic review by the Journal of Sports Sciences shows mobility training actively aids sports performance, so it’s worth adding a doable routine into your weekly exercise plans several times a week if you can.
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