hip mobility warmup exercises

by Monica

A great way to burn more fat and boost fitness results is to start all your workouts with mobility warmup exercises that boost performance.

The hip mobility exercises and workout below is perfect before any workout that includes squats, lunges, burpees, hip extensions, leaps, jumps, kicks, or swings. It's also a good warmup for any workout that includes a lot of core work because the more relaxed your hip flexors are the harder your abs will work.

You can also do this workout before cardio, before yoga, on recovery days or in combination with upper body mobility exercises before full body workouts. This is also a great routine to do if you're tight and stiff from too much desk work.



Perform 8-10 reps on each side of all the exercises below. You can perform just one circuit or do two circuits if you're feeling tight and need some extra mobility work.

lateral legs swings - try to keep your hips level, knees soft, but legs straight as you swing the leg from side to side and use a wall or chair for support making sure to keep arms and shoulders relaxed.

hip circles - rotate from both front to back and back to front making sure to focus on opening the hips by rotating from the hip joint not from the knee. If you can't get your knee up very high don't force it, work within your range of motion.

horizontal leg swings - place one hand on the wall and swing the leg front to back gently, keeping both knees soft but legs straight. Work the length of this exercise and not the height and avoid arching the low back or swinging the upper body back and forth. Look straight ahead and keep shoulders back.

multi-directional downdog to updog - this is a fun mobility exercise that loosens the hips, abs, and lats but you need good core strength to keep weight off the shoulders. Start on hands and knees with hands slightly forward from shoulders and press into downdog.

Pivot the heels to one side and sit into the heels aiming the hip down towards the floor then back to downdog and pivot to the other side sit into the heels aiming the other hip down towards the floor. Slowly return to hands and knees and shift the weight forward.

Repeat and try to shift the weight further forward each rep so you eventually end up all the way in updog. Your body is usually ready for full updog about 5 reps into the exercise.