If you’ve ever experienced tight hips, you know how uncomfortable it can be, making everyday movement painful.
As a personal trainer, I can spend much of my day standing up but I’m also a journalist, which means long hours spent sitting at my desk. Extended periods of sitting can cause tightness in the hip flexors—the muscles at the front of your hips.
Tight, painful hips can also occur from overuse, such as doing long runs. This is something I’ve experienced all too often. To keep hip flexors flexible, I rely on targeted stretches that loosen them up.
Stretching and mobilizing the hips doesn’t just make everyday movement easier, it also improves performance for exercises like deadlifts and lunges. Maintaining hip mobility can also enhance your posture, in turn helping to reduce back pain.
Ready to show your hips some love? Give these three moves a try.
1. Deep lunge
Sets: 3 Time: 5-10sec each side
- Stand upright and take a large step forward with one foot.
- Drop your back knee so that it touches the floor.
- Lean forward as far as you can into your front leg, holding the position.
- Push yourself back up to standing, switch legs and repeat.
2. 90/90
Sets: 1 Reps: 10 each side
- Sit with both legs bent at 90° , knees pointing upwards and feet flat on the floor, slightly wider than hip-width apart.
- Keeping your back straight, place your hands on the floor behind you for support, if you need.
- Drop your knees to the left, lowering them as close to the floor as possible.
- Lift them back up and repeat on the other side.
- Continue alternating sides, maintaining 90° angles in your legs.
3. Pigeon pose
Sets: 2 Time: 10-15sec each side
- Start lying face down on the floor, then press up with your hands to lift your torso.
- Bring your left leg forward, positioning a 90° angle so your left shin is parallel to your body. Adjust the angle to suit your flexibility.
- Extend your right leg straight behind you, with the top of your foot flat on the floor.
- Either sit upright or bend your torso over your front leg to deepen the stretch.
- Hold then switch sides.
Want more routines like this one? Try these other hip stretches to undo the damage of sitting or add some hip-strengthening exercises into your routine.
Shop yoga mats
It's a good idea to keep a mat beside your desk when working from home, so you can take it out for quick stretches like these ones. The below picks are all taken from our round-up of the best yoga mats and have a good amount of cushioning and support.
