The hips play a large role in the transfer of force from the lower to upper body and are critical for pelvic stability and overall comfort. If you want to lift heavy, run without pain, and live a full and active life, understanding how to properly strengthen your hips is key. There are eight movements you need to include in your workout programming to support stronger hips and improve your overall movement capability.
Many workout programs include a plethora of squats, deadlifts, and movements focused on the sagittal (front-to-back) plane that emphasize hip extension. While these are valuable, there are seven other movement patterns that need to be included to fully support hip function. This is something we emphasize heavily in our MamasteFit fitness programs because of how beneficial it is for improving comfort during pregnancy, postpartum recovery, and long-term movement health.
To build strong, functional hips, you need to train:
- hip extension
- hip flexion
- hip abduction
- hip adduction
- hip internal rotation
- hip external rotation
And two additional movements that are often overlooked:
- pelvic internal rotation
- pelvic external rotation
You can follow along with a full workout where we break down exercises for each of these movement patterns here:
In this blog, we will break down each of these movement patterns, why they are important, how to identify if you need to focus on them more, and exercises you can use to strengthen each one.
Understanding the Planes of Motion
There are three primary movement directions that should be included in your workouts. Each of the eight movements falls into one of these categories:
The sagittal plane involves front-to-back movement and includes hip extension and hip flexion.
The frontal plane involves side-to-side movement and includes hip abduction and hip adduction.
The transverse plane involves rotational movement and includes both hip and pelvic internal and external rotation.
We intentionally program all three planes of motion into our prenatal and postpartum fitness programs. This allows for more well-rounded strength, better movement variability, and improved carryover into real-life activities such as walking, running, lifting, and caring for your kids. Rather than relying on repetitive movement patterns, our programs are designed to improve how your body moves as a whole, which ultimately supports both performance and longevity.
The 8 Essential Hip Movements
When we look at hip function, we can break it down into six traditional movements—plus two additional pelvic movements that are often overlooked (but incredibly important, especially during pregnancy and postpartum).
1. Hip Extension
Hip extension is the most commonly trained hip movement and involves moving the leg backward. The primary muscles involved include the glute max, hamstrings, and portions of the adductor magnus.
This movement pattern includes exercises such as squats, deadlifts, lunges, and bridges. These are your primary strength-building lifts and are essential for generating power. Hip extension plays a major role in running and jumping, as it helps propel your body forward and upward.
However, hip extension does not exist in isolation. If it is the only movement pattern you are training, you will likely limit your ability to lift heavier, run more efficiently, and move without discomfort. The other movement patterns support the quality, control, and efficiency of hip extension.
This is exactly how we approach strength training inside our MamasteFit programs. We don’t just focus on lifting heavier with squats and deadlifts—we teach you how to build strength that actually transfers to how your body moves. By pairing hip extension work with the other movement patterns your hips need, you will feel stronger, more stable, and more supported in your workouts, running, and daily life. If you have ever felt strong but still dealing with discomfort, this is likely the missing piece.
2. Hip Flexion
Hip flexion is the opposite of hip extension and involves bringing your knee toward your chest. The primary muscles involved include the iliopsoas, rectus femoris, sartorius, and tensor fascia latae.
Hip flexion is essential for walking and running mechanics, as well as for coordinating with your core. It helps balance out the demands of hip extension and allows for smoother, more efficient movement patterns.
If hip flexion is weak or poorly controlled, you may notice compensations such as overuse of your low back, gripping in the front of your hips, or inefficient stride mechanics.
Exercises that strengthen hip flexion include standing marches, which can be progressed with added weight for core engagement or a resistance band around the feet for increased challenge.
3. Hip Abduction
Hip abduction occurs in the frontal plane and involves moving your leg away from midline. The primary muscles involved are the glute med, glute min, and tensor fascia latae.
Hip abduction plays a critical role in single-leg stability. When you are standing on one leg, such as during walking, running, or climbing stairs, your abductors work to keep your pelvis level and aligned.
It is also involved in the non-stance, or swing phase, of your stride as your leg prepares for the next step.
Exercises that strengthen hip abduction include lateral band walks and fire hydrants. Single-leg exercises such as step-ups and lunges also challenge hip abduction, particularly in the non-stance leg, as it works to maintain alignment relative to the stance leg.
4. Hip Adduction
Hip adduction is the counterpart to abduction and involves bringing your leg toward midline. The primary muscles involved are the adductor group, including adductor longus, brevis, magnus, and gracilis.
The adductors play a significant role in pelvic stability, particularly during the stance phase of movement. When you are standing on one leg, the adductors help guide the pelvis into internal rotation, which contributes to stability and efficient force transfer.
This muscle group is often overlooked, as many programs emphasize hip abduction and extension without adequately training adduction. This becomes especially important during pregnancy, when postural changes can lengthen and weaken the adductors.
If you are experiencing pelvic pain or pelvic floor symptoms, strengthening the adductors may be an important component of your program.
Exercises include standing banded adduction, adding resistance bands to lunges or staggered stance deadlifts, and more advanced options such as the adductor side plank or Copenhagen plank.
5. Hip External Rotation
Hip external rotation occurs in the transverse plane and involves rotating the leg outward, where the knee moves away from midline and the ankle moves inward.
The difference between hip rotation and pelvic rotation comes down to the anchor point. In hip rotation, the pelvis is the anchor and the femur moves. This typically occurs in an open-chain position, meaning the foot is not on the ground, such as during the swing phase of your stride.
The primary muscles involved in external rotation include the deep hip rotators and the glute max.
External rotation is commonly included in workout programs and is often very glute-focused. Exercises that combine external rotation with abduction can be particularly effective, such as standing abduction movements with added rotation.
6. Hip Internal Rotation
Hip internal rotation is the opposite of external rotation and involves the knee moving inward and the ankle moving outward.
Similar to external rotation, this occurs in an open-chain position where the leg is moving on the pelvis. The muscles involved include portions of the glute med and min, the tensor fascia latae, and the adductors.
Hip internal rotation has gained more attention recently and is often promoted as a solution for pain or mobility restrictions. While improving hip internal rotation can be very beneficial, it is only part of the picture.
Hip internal and external rotation work together during the swing phase of your stride. However, for full function, this must be paired with pelvic rotation during the stance phase.
Exercises for hip internal rotation often include seated or supine drills where a ball is squeezed between the thighs and the ankles move outward, sometimes with a band around the feet for added resistance.
7. Pelvic External Rotation
Pelvic rotation introduces a different concept. Instead of the pelvis being the anchor, the femur is fixed, and the pelvis moves on top of the leg. This occurs in a closed-chain position, meaning the foot is on the ground.
Pelvic external rotation involves the pelvis rotating outward on a fixed femur. This movement plays a role in the later portion of the stance phase, helping transition into hip extension and forward movement.
It also influences the pelvic floor, contributing to contraction of the posterior pelvic floor and lengthening of the anterior portion.
Exercises such as hip airplanes, split squats, and lunges where you find a more open hip position at the top of the movement can help train pelvic external rotation.
8. Pelvic Internal Rotation
Pelvic internal rotation is one of the most important and commonly missing movements in training.
This occurs during the stance phase, when your foot is on the ground and your pelvis rotates inward over a fixed femur. It plays a major role in pelvic stability, efficient load transfer, and coordination with the pelvic floor.
Pelvic internal rotation lengthens the posterior pelvic floor and shortens the anterior portion. Improving this movement can help reduce hip pain, tailbone discomfort, and feelings of instability, and it is also important for preparing the body for birth.
When training pelvic internal rotation, the key is maintaining a fixed femur. Your knee should stay aligned over your ankle, and you should maintain pressure through your big toe to keep the leg stable. The pelvis then rotates on top of that stable base.
Exercises that train this include hip shifts, hip airplanes, and split squat variations where you find a more closed hip position at the bottom of the movement, bringing your torso closer toward your thigh.
Conclusion
When you train all eight of these movement patterns, you are not just strengthening your hips in isolation. You are improving how your entire body moves, stabilizes, and produces force.
This leads to better performance in lifting and running, improved pelvic stability, and greater comfort during pregnancy, postpartum, and everyday life.
If your current workouts are heavily focused on squats and deadlifts, expanding your program to include all three planes of motion and both hip and pelvic rotation can make a significant difference in how you feel and perform.
If you are unsure how to incorporate these movements, follow along with our workout above or explore our prenatal and postpartum fitness programs, where we guide you through this approach in a structured and progressive way.