Hip Flexor Focused Warm Up

Hip Flexor Focused Warm Up

It’s always important to warm up your muscles before you do any serious stretching . The hip flexor focused warm up below is great to do before any kind of leg flexibility work, especially things like front splits where tight hip flexors can really limit your range of motion. These 12 exercises can all be done together, or you can pick a couple and throw them into your current warm up routine just for a little extra hip flexion practice.

Scroll all the way to the end if you want to jump straight to the follow-along video!

Exercises to Warm Up Hip Flexors

1. Jogging in Place

• Start getting that blood pumping with some comfortable jogging in place. Doesn’t have to be anything crazy strenuous - just start to MOVE :)

• Regular jogging: Keep a “casual”/easy jog going for 20-30 seconds.

• High knees: Then keep jogging but lift your knees as high as you can for another 20-30 seconds.

• Butt kicks: Then knees can stay low, and try and kick your butt for 20-30 seconds.

By now your knees and hips should be waking up and getting more used to movement and we can move on to slightly more muscle-y warm ups.

2. Back Lunge

• Start standing with your feet hip width apart

• Take one big step back with your right leg, planting the ball of your foot on the floor (keep that heel lifted), bending both knees as you lower your right knee toward the floor (you don’t need to drop it all the way to the floor if that’s uncomfortable).

  • Try and keep the left (front) knee stacked over your ankle as you step back (avoid letting it drift forwards past your toes), and try and keep your tailbone tucked (avoid arching your low back)

  • You should feel a bit of a stretch in your right hip flexors as you lunge back (if you don’t, think about tucking your tailbone), in addition to quads & glutes engaging

  • The ultimate goal is to have both knees bending at a 90 degree angle (but it may take a little strength and flexibility work to get there, so don’t worry if you’re not there yet!)

• Step your right foot back to the front back to start.

• Repeat for a total of 10 back lunges with your right leg stepping back, then 10 with the left leg.

3. Back Lunge + Knee Lift

• Start by stepping your right foot back into your regular back lunge (see above)

• This time instead of stepping your right foot forwards to meet the left, step forwards but lift your knee up towards your chest. You can touch your right foot to the floor next to your left foot first if you need to for balance, but doing the whole movement without letting the foot touch the floor in between will be a good challenge.

• Either step the right foot back down next to the left, or step it straight back into your back lunge to repeat the lunge-then-knee-lift.

• Do 10 reps on each leg.

4. Back Lunge + Straight Leg Kick

Same as the lunge + knee kick, only this time you try to kick a straight leg forwards, instead of lifting a bent knee. Even if you can’t kick very high, this is still a helpful variation!

5. Leg Extensions: Front

• Start standing with legs straight and feet hip width apart

• Shift your weight to your left foot, so you can lift your right leg in front of your body. Keep both legs straight as you try and lift that right leg.

  • The left (bottom) knee will want to bend to help you kick higher - but don’t let it! Even if you’re only kicking/lifting your right leg a foot off of the ground, you’re still getting the hip flexor and quad engagement we want from this exercise

  • Try and keep your hips level as you lift up that right leg (don’t let the right hip lift up higher than the left)

  • Lift your leg with control, try to avoid kicking too aggressively/using momentum

• Repeat for 10 controlled leg lifts on the right leg. On the 10th lift, keep the leg lifted, and pulse it at the highest height you can for 10 seconds. Then shake the right leg out, and repeat 10 leg lifts, followed by 10 pulses on the left leg.

6. Leg Extensions: Side

• Start standing with legs straight and feet hip width apart (feet can be slightly turned out if that’s more comfortable)

• Open your right leg out to the side, then lift the right leg up (thigh and knee rotated up towards the ceiling) as high as you can while keeping your hips level and both legs straight.

  • You may find you’re lifting the leg lower kicking out to the side than when you’d been kicking to the front in the last exercise - don’t worry, that’s common!

  • Make sure you’re knee is pointing up towards the ceiling as you do these leg lifts (instead of pointing forwards)

  • Try and keep the right hip level with the left as you kick, even if that means your kicks are pretty low

• Repeat for 10 controlled kicks/lifts on the right leg. On the 10th lift, keep your leg lifted at the top of your kick, and pulse it up towards the ceiling for 10 seconds.

• Repeat for 10 kicks (and 10 seconds of pulsing) on the left leg.

7. Leg Extensions: Back

• Start standing with legs straight and feet hip width apart

• Extend/reach your right leg behind you, resting your toes on the floor

• Keep both legs straight as you try to lift your right heel up towards the ceiling

  • Keep your torso lifted (avoid leaning forwards), and your hips neutral (avoid tilting them forwards) - the only movement should be coming from your right hip

  • This may be a very small kick! Just 2-12 inches from the floor

  • It should feel very squeeze-y in your right glutes, and you may even feel the stretch in your right hip flexors as you kick

• Repeat for 10 controlled kicks on the right leg, then hold the last kick at the top (heel lifted as high as you can) for 10 seconds

• Repeat on the left leg

8. Leg Swings: Front

• Start standing next to a wall (or a chair, pole, etc) with your hand reaching out to the wall for support

• Swing your right leg forwards and back, as relaxed as you can let it be. You can start with small swings, and start to make them bigger as you get more comfortable

  • Don’t worry about keeping your legs straight or hips square/level

  • You may want to slightly flex your foot so you don’t accidentally kick your toes into the floor

  • The goal is to keep it loose and relaxed! Just swing your leg through a comfortable range of motion in your hip socket

• Do 10 relaxed/loose leg swings on the right leg, then 10 on the left.

9. Leg Swings: Side

Same as above, but this time swing your leg across the front of your body. You’ll want to start with your hips facing the wall (or chair) and swing your leg from left to right, as high as is comfortable, letting the knee bend so your quads are relaxed. Let your hips move if they want to, they don’t have to stay totally level.

Do 10 swings on both legs.

10. Hip Circles

• Start standing with feet hip width apart, or a smidge wider

• Do some nice slow and controlled circles with your hips. If you think about keeping your tailbone slightly tucked, you’ll feel a bit more of a stretch in your hip flexors as you’re circling your hips to the front

• Do 5-10 hip circles in one direction, then switch sides

11. Glute Bridges

• Start lying on your back, with knees bent and feet planted about hip-width apart near your butt

• Engage your core and tuck your tailbone (towards the ceiling) to prep

• Then press into your feet and press your hips up towards the ceiling (keeping abs engaged, and that tailbone tucked). You should feel your glutes engaged (doing the pushing!) and your hip flexors getting a bit of a stretch

• Slowly lower hips/butt back to the ground, then repeat for a total of 10 reps

12. Lying Down Leg Extensions

• Start lying on your back like you are going to do a glute bridge (see above), then extend our right leg out long. So your left knee should be bent, and your right leg straight (bonus points if you point your toes)

• Kick/lift (with control!) your right leg as high as you can, then slowly lower it back towards the ground

  • If you have tight hamstrings, this is going to feel hard. Feel free to bend your right leg a bit if that helps. For the purpose of this warm up we’re more interested in engaging our hip flexors to lift your leg, less interested in stretching that hamstring

  • If you have comfortably hamstrings, challenge yourself to keep the right leg totally straight the whole time (which’ll be a little extra work for your quads)

• Repeat for 10 controlled leg lifts on the right leg, shake it out, then switch to the left.

Make it harder: Do your leg lifts in a glute bridge! Start in your glute bridge (hips lifted up), then extend your right leg up towards the ceiling (don’t let your hips drop - make those glutes keep working!). Lower the right heel to the floor, then lift the leg back up to kick towards your face. Repeat 10 times on one leg, then switch legs.

Full Follow-Along Hip Flexor Warm-Up Routine

Phew! After this serious your hip flexors should be plenty warm to take on some deeper flexibility work. If you’re not used to doing so much hip work in your warm up, you may pleasantly surprised that lunges and splits already feel a bit more comfortable just from having a thorough job!