Hip Mobility and Strength for Athletes

I often come across athletes that have limited hip mobility and strength. This can cause tightness, stiffness, or injury in the IT band, hip flexors, or knees. Sometimes after an injury an athlete will need hip strengthening having been off their feet for several weeks. I felt like I needed hip strength after being on crutches for 6 weeks after my own foot surgery.

I had a physical therapist once tell me that tight hip flexors are the root of all evil when it comes to lower extremity injuries. Most people don't know this, but the hip flexors actually attach to the lower back. As triathletes, we are constantly bent over in the aero position on the time trial bike with hips flexed for up to 5 or 6 hours.

Then we suddenly ask our bodies to become vertical and run for another 4 hours or longer. Going from completely flexed to extended under that kind of intensity can put a lot of stress on the hips. Most athletes don't do a lot of stretching either which is really necessary with the strain we put on our bodies.

So I did a little research and put together this video with some of my best hip mobility and strengthening exercises. I used a red band for a lot of the moves to provide adequate resistance. You can get these bands by clicking HERE.

I hope you find these moves useful to incorporate into your own strength workouts. I am always open to your comments or suggestions, and if you are looking to take your race to the next level then message me at marinewifemultisport@gmail.com