You Have Weak Hips, Bro (The HARSH TRUTH!)

You heard me. The majority of gym bros (and even regular people) highly underestimate the value of the hip muscles in daily and athletic activities. Whether you are training for running, powerlifting, or even bodybuilding, the hip musculature play a vital role in aesthetics, injury-prevention, and strength. 

There are a lot of hip muscles. However, for the purposes of training, there are 3 main hip muscles that I recommend nearly everyone to train.

1. Adductors

 

The adductors are a collective group of muscles located in the inner thighs, and include the adductor brevis, longus and magnus. As you can probably guess by the name, the main function of the adductors is to adduct at the hips ie. bring the knees together. This muscle is activated quite well during squats, and so targeting these muscles in isolation can and will improve you squat numbers. 

The adductors: adductor longus, adductor brevis, adductor magnus, and gracillis

There are two ways to train the adductors. The first way is through the seated isolation machine. This will allow for standard progressive overload. The other way to do target the adductors is through the adduction side plank. This is where you elevate a single foot onto a surface (ie. a bench) and keep your other suspended in the air whilst in a side plank position. You can also do the copenhagen plank, which is a dynamic version of the adduction side plank. Either way, doing these free-weight type exercises will improve mobility at the hips whilst also strengthening the obliques to some degree. The only problem with this is that it is harder to progressively overload. The best thing I have found is putting a weight plate on the hips.

2. Abductors

 

Similar to the adductors, the abductors are a group of muscles located near the glutes which abduct at the hip ie. drive the knees outwards. They also play a role in extending and flexing the hip, and when stabilizing the pelvis. These can also be done on the seated isolation machine. I know that it may look sus but...who cares?? Just because it looks 'sus' doesn't mean we should sacrifice the stability and muscular development of our hips and sacrifice our long term gains! You can also do an abduction side plank, with one foot on the ground and the other foot right above it in the air. 

The abductors: gluteus medius, gluteus minimus, and tensor fasciae latae, iliacus and psoas

3. Finally, the HIP FLEXORS!

 

The hip flexors are a trouble area. They insert at the hips and work to flex the hip ie. bring the leg upwards towards the torso. Many sprinters and sports players will need strong and resilient hip flexors in order to prevent over-striding when sprinting or just to maintain knee health. Either way, the hip flexors can be trained quite easily. You can do lying cable hip flexion on the cable machines in the gym. These can be done unilaterally, bilaterally, with a bent knee or with a straight knee. You can also do standing hip flexion by loading a kettlebell or ankle weight onto the feet, or you can do isometric hip flexion by loading a dumbbell onto the knees and holding that position for as long as possible. You could also do some hip flexor stretches to loosen them up and keep them mobile (especially since everyone sits way too much in this era). My personal favourite stretches are the couch stretch and the first basemen stretch.

The hip flexor muscles: iliacus, psoas, pectineus, rectus femoris, and sartorius

There you have it! I recommend you train these muscles 1-2x a week with 3 sets of 10-12 reps. I personally spend 6 weeks doing one type of exercise (ie. hip abduction), and then the next 6 weeks on another exercise (ie. cable hip flexion). But really, you train all 3 of these muscle groups in a single program! They are isolation movement after all, and they should be the sprinkle on top in your program. But if you incorporate these properly, your hips WILL become bulletproof and extremely mobile!