by Molly Rausch, MS ATC, CPT, CES
Hello everyone! This week’s “Fitness Tip of the Week” is the final part of our two part series on the hips. Last week, we talked about the importance of hip mobility and tips for improving it. This week covers why hip stability is so important.
As much as I stressed the importance of hip mobility, hip stability is just as important. Mobility and stability really go hand-in-hand when it comes to moving in a functional matter. You can’t move well through an entire range-of-motion if you don’t have the strength to do so. The more mobility you have, the more stability you need. As a recap from last week, what happens at your hips translates to the rest of the body. Weakness or lack of stability can effect the same body regions low mobility does. Weak hips can lead to issues up and down the kinetic chain. The hips are the base of your core. Without stability in your hips, the core becomes weaker and that leads to issues with your back. Poor stability at your hips also leads to poor control at the knees. If you find it hard to keep your knees from collapsing together when you squat or lunge, it could be because your hips aren’t able to stabilize your lower extremities through that movement.
Tips to Strengthen the Hips:
Keeping up with hip stability is critical, especially for those who spend a majority of their days sitting or with generally tight hips. Where you have tight muscles, you will cause other muscles to weaken. It’s a chain reaction with the human body. Keeping the balance is the best way to help keep you working toward your fitness goals as efficiently as possible. To help get you started, below are a few exercises to help improve hip stability. These exercises should be done AFTER you do the exercises to help improve mobility. Stretch everything out, then get it moving. With any stabilization strengthening, more repetitions is the way to go. Ideally, do between 15-20 reps of these exercises.
Band Walks | Clams |
Deadlifts | Banded Marches |
4-way Hip  | Bridges |
If you have any questions on this topic, please feel free to contact me at mrausch@healthworksfitness.com or comment below!
Molly’s Fitness Tip of the Week 