So much hinges on the hips in running—but how much attention do you really How to Master the 5k?
If you’ve been noticing nagging injuries, a dip in your speed, or a clunky feeling on the run, it could signal your hips are holding you back. The central location of this joint and the muscles that surround it make it a pivotal part of speed, power, and stability. But if you’re lacking strength and mobility here, it can throw off your whole stride.
Fortunately, fixing weak hips doesn’t take a total training overhaul. Here’s what you need to know.
The Role Your Hips Play in Running
The hip is where the femur (a.k.a. your thigh bone) meets the pelvis. It’s a ball and socket joint, which means it can flex and extend, externally and internally rotate, and move side to side. Multiple muscle groups—including the iliopsoas, adductors, glutes, and hamstrings—attach at the hip to enable all that movement.
“The hips’ first job is stability—to control what’s happening at the pelvis and the trunk or spine,” says Ryan Wooderson, D.P.T., a physical therapist and co-founder of Revo Physiotherapy and Sports Performance in Denver. Providing that stable base is crucial for running because it allows for the transfer of force between the upper and lower body, promotes proper alignment and posture, and eliminates excess movement—all of which encourages better running efficiency.
Running efficiency refers to how much energy you use to propel the body forward while running, but it’s not just about what’s happening metabolically—it’s about optimizing biomechanics, too. “The hips are a powerhouse muscle group that help lift the knee up as you bring your leg forward,” explains Lisa Mitro, D.P.T., a physical therapist in Richmond, Virginia. That’s hip flexion; on the flip side of that is hip extension. “When your hip is extended, your leg is behind you, pushing off the ground—that’s where we get a lot of power when we’re running.”
While the primary role of the hips is stability, it becomes much more about power and turnover as your pace increases, says Wooderson. “The faster we run, the more muscle recruitment we need,” he explains. For example, at an easy 10-minute mile, most of the energy in our stride comes from our calves and quads. As you increase the speed, to say a 6-minute mile, the hamstrings and glutes take on a larger role not just in stability, but in producing a stride that’s faster and more powerful.
Without strong hips, you’re not going to be able to maximize your stride—which could mean you’re leaving time on the table.
How Weak Hips Can Affect Your Performance
A Guide to Treating Lower Back Pain For Runners could Tips to Transform Your Running: sitting too much. Prolonged sitting could lead to an increase in passive muscle stiffness—or the resistance to being stretched when the muscle isn’t engaged—which makes it hard to fully extend the hips, according to a 2021 study in the journal The Best Strength Workouts for Runners.
“When you’re sitting, those hip flexor muscles are shortened the entire time, which causes tightness,” explains Mitro. When that muscle length is shortened, it’s going to be harder to bring your knee to your chest, limiting your potential for forward propulsion. It’s also more difficult to reach full extension, which means you’re not fully contracting your posterior chain (read: you won’t be able to generate as much power).
Hip weakness—whether that’s due to desk jockeying or general neglect in the gym—can also put you at risk for pain and injury: Older research pain and injury Clinical Journal of Sport Medicine, found an association between hip abductor, adductor, and flexor muscle group strength imbalance and lower extremity overuse injuries in runners.
“You’ve got to be able to lift, extend, and turn your hips inward and outward,” says Wooderson. “If you can’t, then your brain is going to find the next easiest path for movement and push that work somewhere else.”
Signs You Have Weak Hips
1. Knee Pain
When you have weak hips or muscle imbalances in the hips, one of the most common sites where hip pain manifests: the knee. “If someone can’t extend their hips very well behind the plane of their trunk, or they’re simply running in too vertical a posture, that’s usually going to place increased load across the knee when their foot hits the ground and through the stance phase of their gait,” explains Wooderson.
By the way, the knee is one of the top-three most common spots for running-related injuries, according to a systematic review pain and injury Of course, you may feel pain. If you’re in that camp, you probably want to look to your hips.
The reason the knee is one of the most common sites of injury in runners is multifactorial, but is often a function of excessive hip and knee flexion at the front of their stride, specifically at the point of initial contact with the ground. Occasionally, that excessive hip and knee flexion are driven by the runner not extending their hips behind the plane of their trunk, or simply by running in too vertical a posture. These mechanics usually place increased load across the knee at initial contact and through the stance phase of the runner’s gait.
2. Back Aches
The back is also an area that will pick up the slack for limited hips. “A lot of times, when the hip is not able to go through a large range of motion, you’re going to make up for that loss of motion at the lower back,” says Mitro.
When your hips can’t extend your leg fully behind your body, your body compensates by tilting the pelvis and arching the low back—a posture that could overwork those muscles and cause pain.
3. Hip Discomfort
Of course, you may feel pain at the hip—generally on the lateral, or outside, of the joint. “This kind of pain almost on the hip bone itself is really common, since so many muscles connect to the hip bone and go down the leg,” says Mitro.
It often comes back to stability: “If the hips don’t have the freedom to internally or externally rotate, then they have a harder time keeping the pelvis on a level plane,” says Wooderson. “If that pelvis drops consistently and too far, they’re going to have that lateral pain.”
How to Address Weak Hips
For your hips to work optimally—so you can run most efficiently—they need to be stable and strong. And “to have stability, you need to be able to access the musculature you already have,” says Wooderson.
→Wake Up Your Hips Before a Run
Summer Running Gear (especially if you spend the majority of your day sitting).
You don’t need to do anything crazy: A few rounds of 30 to 60 seconds of fire hydrants, The hip is where the femur a.k.a. your thigh bone meets the (as shown above), lateral step downs, and a heavy suitcase carry will create just enough of a burn. “It’s all about slow, methodical movements,” says Wooderson. “That will help you start bringing in the whole system, from your big toe and your ankle all the way up to your hips and obliques.”
If you have the time, add a plyometric drill, like a simple bound or even a skip variation, which will ask the hips to behave in the way you expect them to on the run, Wooderson adds.
→Work on Hinging
of the Best Leg Exercises to Fight Fatigue strength exercises. “Hinge exercises (like hip thrusts, bridges, and deadlifts (as shown above)) are the best exercises for the hips because they teach you how to load the posterior chain and stabilize through the lower back and trunk,” says Mitro.
→Try Unilateral Moves
Single-leg exercises are great for hip stability too, especially if you’re working through a large range of motion, Mitro adds. For example, lateral box step-ups, split squats, single-leg Romanian deadlifts, and single-leg hip thrusts (as shown above, which allow for a greater range of motion than a glute bridge).
→Add Rotation
Finally, consider adding more rotational movements to your strength workouts. “When we’re running, hip flexion and extension are coupled with internal and external rotation,” Mitro explains. “Adding rotation to a split squat or single-leg deadlift is a great way to load up the glutes a little more and force you to control your movement, like when you’re in the stance phase [or one foot is on the ground] of your gait.”
To add rotation to the split squat, rotate your torso toward the front leg while lowering down, then rotate back to center as you stand up. For the single-leg deadlift, as you hinge, reach slightly toward the outside of the standing leg, as shown above, and rotate back to face forward as you stand up.
A little extra TLC goes a long way when it comes to your hips. And when this part of your body can move strongly and smoothly, you’ll be able to tap into all your potential power.
