If yourhips are perpetually tight, welcome to the club.
If youre ready to do something to fix it?
What causes tight hips?
Meiko Arquillos
This can be due to an increased amount of sitting.
Sitting in and of itself isnt necessarily bad, she adds.
How do tight hips impact the glutes?
Katie Thompson
Your glutes are an opposing muscle group to the hip flexorsbasically, they work directly opposite them.
So when your hip flexors are shortened, your glutes are lengthened.
We need strong glutes to move well.
Kelsey McClellan
Tight hips and weak glutes can make it hard to execute exercises with proper form.
How can butt exercises fix tight hips?
Of course,hip stretchescan help ease hip flexor tightness, but theyre only one part of the solution.
Katie Thompson
Strong glutes are key to happy hips.
Overall, everything works better when you show your glutes some love.
You’ll also feel a nice stretch in the front of your hips.
Katie Thompson
Single-leg deadlift
Thesingle-leg deadliftstrengthens the entire back of the body, targeting the glutes and hamstrings.
As a unilateral exercise, it also adds an extra core-stability challenge.
Step-up
This step-up is a compound movement that helps strengthen both the quads and glutes.
Katie Thompson
To make this more challenging, loop a resistance band around both legs just above the knees.
Donkey kick
The donkey kick targets the largest muscle in the butt, the gluteus maximus.
To make this move harder, loop a resistance band above both knees.
Meiko Arquillos
Hamstring curl
Hamstring curls stretch the front of the hips and quads while strengthening the hamstring muscles.
The glutes also work hard as stabilizing muscles to keep the hips in place throughout the movement.
Hip thrust
The hip thrust is one of the best glute exercises you could do.
Katie Thompson
Deadlift
The deadlift is a hip-hinging movement that targets your hamstrings and glutes.
It also engages your back and core stabilizer muscles.
Side-lying leg lift
This leg lift targets the outer hips and glutes, specifically the gluteus medius.
Katie Thompson
If you’re a beginner, try this without a band first.
Meiko Arquillos