If you struggle with tight, cranky hips, you’re not alone. Whether it’s from a love of running, heavy squats, or sitting down for prolonged periods, tight hip flexors are a common complaint.
Tight hip flexors can cause noticeable pain and stiffness, and if you’re not using mobility and stretching exercises to relieve these muscles, you risk developing hip impingements and a whole host of other issues, including knee pain, sciatica (the inflammation of the nerve that runs through your hips), and Iliotibial band syndrome.
Stretching your hips regularly will keep them loose, pain-free, and functional. But where do you start? To find out more, I spoke to yoga teacher and strength coach, Veronica Pancheri, who shared a three-minute routine.
The routine
This hip mobility routine, curated by yoga teacher and strength coach, Veronica Pancheri is designed to improve your lower body’s range of motion, increase blood flow, and enhance joint mobility. It consists of just three moves, making it the perfect way to warm up before a workout and to incorporate into your rest days to keep things moving.
The moves are:
- Kneeling three-way lunge: 30 seconds
- Twisting runners lunge: 30 seconds
- Straddle forward fold: 30 seconds
The aim is to do each move on one side of the body for 30 seconds before melting into your straddle forward fold (also known as a straddle pancake) and then repeating on the other side.
As Veronica explains, “Tight hips can affect pelvis alignment and hip opening drills are critical for helping to release tension, relieve back pain, and allow a more balanced posture.”
The benefits
I love that this hip mobility session can be done literally anywhere, and it slowly warms up the hips, starting with kneeling three-way lunges. These hit the hip flexors from three different angles and planes of motion, before moving laterally into a low runner’s lunge with a twist. This is great for helping the hips move more fluidly on a rotation so you can target your hip muscles throughout the entire joint. You’ll then finish the sequence with a straddle forward fold, for a deeper, slower type of static stretch before performing the moves on the other side.
I added this bite-sized routine to my day for a couple of weeks and found I felt better and stronger in my workouts, with an improved range of motion for big compound moves like squats and deadlifts. My runs also felt easier, as my increased hip mobility led to smoother strides, better shock absorption, and a reduced risk of strains or injuries.
One huge benefit for me was the breathing — I tend to hold my breath when the going gets tough, but during these three minutes, I intentionally moved and breathed deeply and calmly, matching my breath to the movement. My yoga teacher told me that your hips are an important storage vessel for emotional stress and that hip-opening postures like these often release emotion. Whether or not this is true, I felt lighter and freer incorporating these stretches into my daily routine.
