The Unseen Power of Your Hips
Have you ever stood up after a long period of sitting and felt like your hips had aged decades in a matter of minutes? Or maybe you’ve caught an unexpected twinge while climbing stairs and wondered when that discomfort crept into your life. If so, you’re far from alone. Our hips are workhorses—quietly supporting nearly every movement we make—until one day they suddenly demand attention. As time goes on and daily habits take their toll, hip weakness can make itself known in subtle and not-so-subtle ways.
Serving as a major bridge between the upper and lower body, the hips are essential to our sense of stability, alignment, and fluid motion. When the muscles surrounding the hip joint are weak or underused, other body parts often step in to compensate—often with painful results. The lower back, knees, and even ankles can all suffer from the fallout of inadequate hip strength.
“There’s a huge connection between hip weakness and all of these other injuries,” says Dr. Lauren Glisic, DPT, CSCS, a physical therapist at Athletic Lab Physical Therapy and Performance Training. “Strengthening the hip joint can help you feel stronger and more stable whether you are walking, running, climbing stairs, or simply moving throughout your daily life.”
What Makes the Hip Joint Special?
The hip is one of only two ball-and-socket joints in the body—the other being the shoulder. But compared to its upper-body counterpart, the hip is far more stable. That’s thanks to its deeper socket, robust ligaments, and powerful surrounding muscles, most notably the glutes.
“It’s very, very hard to dislocate your hip,” Glisic explains. This structural design allows for both strength and flexibility. The hip can move in a wide range of directions—forward and backward, side to side, and through internal and external rotation.
Meredith Witte, MSEP, CSCS, a functional strength coach and yoga instructor, notes that the hip is powered by a variety of muscles. “We have so many muscles that contribute to moving the hip joint,” she says. While the gluteus maximus is the most prominent player, the hip flexors, adductors, and smaller stabilizers such as the piriformis and tensor fasciae latae all play crucial roles in balance and movement.
Why Strengthening the Hips is So Challenging
Modern life is not kind to our hips. The biggest obstacle? Sedentary lifestyles. Whether you’re at a desk, behind the wheel, or lounging at home, prolonged sitting shortens the hip flexors and weakens the glutes, disrupting the natural alignment and functioning of the hip joint.
“Even if you work out regularly, most daily movements don’t challenge the full range of motion the hips are capable of,” says Witte. “If you think about hunter-gatherer societies, they were constantly squatting, kneeling, walking, and getting up from the ground. That variety of movement kept their hips strong and mobile. We just don’t do that today.”
Another issue is poor neuromuscular coordination. Many people don’t know how to properly engage their hip muscles during movement. “It’s not always about strength,” Glisic explains. “For a lot of people, it’s a neuromuscular coordination issue—they don’t know how to fire their hips. They haven’t made that mind-muscle connection.”
Subtle Signs Your Hips Need Attention
Hip weakness doesn’t always manifest as direct hip pain. Instead, it often appears as discomfort in seemingly unrelated areas, like the knees or lower back. Since the hips are central to so many movements, problems in this area often ripple outward.
Certain movement patterns can serve as red flags. “If, when you are squatting, you notice your knees diving in, or when you are running, your foot is crossing the midline, those kinds of things can be indicative of glute weakness,” Glisic notes.
Chronic tightness can also be a clue. “Most people immediately feel like, ‘Well, I need to stretch more,’” Witte says. “But oftentimes, actually building strength in deeper ranges of motion can be the ticket to mitigating some of those achy pain signals.”
How to Start Strengthening Your Hips
The good news? Hip strength can be improved with consistent, targeted exercises—no fancy equipment or elaborate gym routines necessary.
To begin, Glisic recommends exercises that awaken the smaller, stabilizing muscles around the hips. These include:
- Banded clamshells
- Monster walks
- Standing fire hydrants
These moves are particularly effective for activating the glutes, which are often underutilized. Once you’ve built a foundation, you can progress to larger compound exercises that engage the hips along with other muscle groups:
- Split squats
- Deadlifts
- Forward, lateral, and reverse lunges
- Step-ups
- Hip thrusts
Because the hips operate in multiple planes of motion, Witte emphasizes variety in your workouts. “Really play with moving through different angles—mix it up between lateral lunges, curtsy lunges, and reverse lunges,” she advises.
And you don’t have to overcomplicate your routine. “Choose one or two hip-focused moves per session and do three sets of each a couple of times per week,” Witte says. The key is to approach the hips from different directions—maybe step-ups one day and deadlifts another.
Training Tips for Maximum Effectiveness
When it comes to hip training, technique and intensity are more important than volume. Progressive overload—gradually increasing the resistance or difficulty of an exercise—is crucial for building strength.
“The glute max in particular is the largest muscle in the body, so it needs a pretty big stimulus to get stronger,” Witte points out. She recommends performing slow, controlled repetitions and aiming for muscular fatigue by the end of each set. “Muscular failure is the number one thing that contributes to helping build muscle,” she says.
Witte also suggests paying attention to the timing of exercises. Heavier, compound lifts should be done at the beginning of a workout when the body is fresh. Smaller stability exercises, such as banded walks or clamshells, can be saved for the end.
When to Expect to See (and Feel) Results
Results won’t appear overnight, but they will come with consistency. According to Glisic, most people begin to feel noticeable changes within eight to twelve weeks. These improvements go beyond just performance in workouts.
“You will likely feel so much more comfortable in your body,” Witte says. “You’ll find more ease with movement throughout the day, less achiness, and just the strength to be able to do stuff—to climb stairs, to pick up heavy things, to not be held back by how your hips feel.”
Ultimately, strengthening your hips is about investing in your body’s long-term health and mobility. Whether you’re an athlete, a weekend warrior, or someone just trying to move more comfortably, giving your hips the attention they deserve can transform the way you move—and feel—every day.
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