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How To Improve Hip Extension For Better Posture and Performance

hip extension Nov 26, 2024

In my experience, hip extension is a movement that is often limited.

It has significant roles in many aspects of human movement and sports performance:

  • Speed Mechanics
  • Walking/Gait Mechanics
  • Running
  • Posture
  • Force Production

The human body is extremely intelligent and will find a way to express this motion through compensation, despite how inefficient it may be.

In this article I am going to discuss:

  1. Why Hip Extension is Important
  2. Compensations Related To Limited Hip Extension
  3. How to Assess Hip Extension
  4. Strategies To Improve it


Why Is Hip Extension Important?

Hip extension is the ability for the femur (thigh bone) to be able to move behind the body. It is the act of pushing the body forward or laterally.

In walking, this can be easily seen as you start to push the ground behind you, the centre-of-mass begins to go forward and the leg ends up either behind you or directly underneath.

You can also visualize this in a split squat position where the leg behind is in a hip extended position.

The primary muscles involved in hip extension are your glutes and the upper portions of your hamstrings.

Another important muscle to consider is the extension fibres of the adductor magnus which work to extend the hip from a hip flexed position.

Think about coming up from the bottom of the squat.

Not exclusive to the adductors, all of the hip extension muscles need to start from a position of hip flexion and move through extension to gain the optimal leverage to extend the hip.

Another great example of this is a step-up. You begin with one foot on the box with your hip flexed and as you press into the box to stand up, your hip is being extended.

These muscles are often referred to as our propulsive muscles (among others) as they generate a lot of force to propel our body forward.

This is why I talk a lot about how hip extension is related to internal rotation. Internal rotation is related to force acceptance/deceleration and force production/acceleration.

Being able to access these movements are going to allow the pelvis to travel forward and the femur behind to be able to put enough force into the ground to propel us forward.


Compensations Associated With Limited Hip Extension

As described above, hip extension is an essential movement for daily tasks, movements in the weightroom, and sports performance.

But what happens when people have a limitation in this movement?

In my experience, there are a few key areas that I see take over the role of extension when the hip cannot.

 

1. Lumbar Extension

First, and most common, the lumbar spine will extend and the pelvis will dump forward.

Anterior pelvic tilt/orientation is when the pelvis will tilt forward and the lumbar spine extends.

This will push our centre-of-mass and gravity forward towards our toes.

From a postural perspective, because our body is being pushed forward, we are being held in a state of extension, causing muscles like our calves to become the glutes.

This is easily seen in a split squat where the pelvis will dump forward as a substitution instead of the hip.

You’ll also see this happen at the top of a glute bridge where they will try to go further into the position and you see the back arching and ribs flaring.

The problem with this compensation is it may put a lot of load on the lower back. It also reduces the leverage of the core muscles to control movement and transfer force from the foot to the shoulders.

 

 

2. Knee Extension

 Another key area is the knee. If we can’t extend our hip, then we will hyperextend the knee to accomplish the movement.

As I mentioned above, the main hip extending muscles are on the back side of the leg (hamstrings, glutes, adductor).

If I extend my knee, which will also result in a lower back that arches, then I will be using muscles like my quads and hip flexors to pull me forward.

A perfect example of this is in a deadlift where people will finish the movement by extending their knees before their hips come through.

To achieve ideal hip extension, we want the knee to stay slightly bent and the pelvis to move over top of it.

This allows for the relative motion to happen at pelvis, hips, femur, knee and foot while recruiting the right muscles to do so.


How To Assess Hip Extension

I like to use two primary tests to determine the degree of hip extension someone has. The first is a Side Lying HIp Extension or Ober’s Test.

Personally, I prefer to only do this passively, as I can feel when the pelvis wants to begin to dump forward and I have hit the end range.

This Hip Extension is going to give us a lot of information about the position of the pelvis and if there is space in the back of the pelvis to express hip extension.


The other measurement I use is a Straight Leg Raise (SLR). I use this test especially when working with clients online or to allow my clients to self-assess.

The reason why I like this movement is because it’s actually used as a test with those who have sciatica, herniated discs and nerve pain, with different portions of the movement being related to different actions at the hips.

This SLR measurement, although it is hip flexion, because the leg is straight, it gives us information as to what is happening at the back of the pelvis which is the key area when thinking about hip extension.

When looking at this, I am looking at when the bottom leg begins to turn out, lift or the moving leg stops.


 

How To Improve Hip Extension

Now that we discussed what it is, how people compensate, and how to assess it, we can begin to discuss some exercises to improve it.

Hip extension is such an important movement because it tells me where the body is in space, and if it is limited, then it's something I want to improve early.

First, I need to restore the position of the pelvis while starting in a hip flexed position to leverage the extension muscles. Additionally, if I start them in too much extension, they will compensate.

I recommend using the above measurements as a way to guide progress and to move onto the next exercise.

 

1# Hooklying Feet Elevated Low Cable Reach

 This exercise is a great place to start for many people, as it reinforces a few key aspects needed to restore motion at the pelvis.

Firstly, by laying on your back and placing the feet on the block, the pelvis will now automatically roll backwards and reduce tension in the lower part of the pelvis - which is necessary for hip extension).

This position will also put you into more hip flexion to initially lengthen the muscles in the back of the hip, which is key for leveraging the propulsive muscles.

Secondly, the cables will pull your body towards the machine. Your body will automatically resist by shifting the ribcage back into the ground, further reducing tension in the back part of the pelvis and lower ribcage to avoid compensation.

Lastly, because of this position, I am now able to press into the ground, creating a hip extension force (although it doesn’t appear so), which will help improve motion at the pelvis needed for hip extension.


#2: Knee-To-Wall Hinge

 

This hinge variation is my favourite way to teach clients how to hinge and extend the hip without hyperextending the knee and back.

By pushing the foam roller into the wall, we inherently keep the back of the pelvis open and allow the pelvis to move forward and back on the femur.

This allows the propulsive muscles (glutes and hamstrings) to lengthen and contract effectively during the descent and ascent of the movement.

The key thing to keep in mind is to maintain a heavy heel while pressing the knee into the foam roller as you go down and come up!


 

#3 Rear Foot Elevated Split Squat With An Ipsilateral Hold

Now that we have created some space, and introduced a dynamic movement like the hinge, we can now introduce load to reinforce the propulsive aspect of hip extension.

By having the rear leg on the bench, we are inherently shifting the majority of our weight forward onto the front leg. This shifting of our weight is going to require the front leg to produce even more force into the ground.

Holding the weight in the same arm (ipsilateral) puts even more weight on the side I am putting force into the ground with, which then leads to more of a propulsive force needed to overcome the weight.



SUMMARY

Hip extension is important for posture, mobility and performance.

The position of the pelvis is going to allow for certain muscles to be recruited which are key to maximising hip extension mechanics.

Using our assessment measurements, we are able to determine which exercises are needed to restore motion at the hips and pelvis.

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