Hip Strengthening Exercises

Written By: Chloe Wilson, BSc(Hons) Physiotherapy
Reviewed by: KPE Medical Review Board

Hip strengthening exercises are one of the best ways to treat hip pain and stop it from coming back.

Weakness in the hip muscles leads to pain and instability, not just in the hip but also the knee and lower back.

It changes the way forces travel through the leg, resulting in more weight, friction and pressure going through certain areas which makes hip and knee problems much more likely. Exercises for hip strengthening help to combat that.

All the hip strengthening exercises here are easy to perform, quick, effective and suitable for most people, whether you are simply looking to improve your strength, are recovering from an injury, have arthritis or almost any hip problem.

Best Hip Strengthening Exercises

Here you will find hip exercises for each of the different groups of muscles, from the hip flexor muscles to the glutes and everything in between.

There are a range of starting positions to choose from, and loads of top tips to get the best results.

If you want more of a challenge with any of these exercises, try wearing an ankle weight (or heavy shoe/boot) or use resistance bands looped around your ankles or anchored to a nearby chair. 

1. Standing Hip Flexion

Hip flexor exercises target the muscles that bend the hip and that are heavily used in running, climbing stairs and kicking.

Standing Hip Flexor Strengthening Exercise: A great way to increase hip flexor strength
  • Stand holding onto a chair or counter top for support

  • Bend one knee and lift your foot up off the floor

  • Hold for 3 seconds and slowly lower

  • Repeat 10-30 times on each leg

Top Tip: Don’t let your hip drop out to the side on your standing leg.

2. Standing Hip Abduction

Standing hip abduction exercises are a great way to strengthen the glutes and tensor fascia latae and help to improve hip control

Hip Abduction Exercises: Improve hip strength, stability and function while decreasing pain
  • Stand holding on to a chair or countertop for support

  • Lift your leg out to the side, keeping your knee straight and your toes pointing forwards

  • Hold for 3 seconds and then slowly lower the leg

  • Repeat 10-30 times on each leg

Top Tip: make sure you don’t tilt over to the side, keep upright

To Work Harder: As you hold the position, pulse the leg out 3-5 times before lowering.

3. Standing Hip Extension

Hip extension exercises are a great way to work the glute max and hamstring muscles, the real powerhouse of the hip muscles.

Hip Extension Exercises: Improve hip strength and reduce pain
  • Standing holding onto a chair or countertop for support

  • Take your weight on one leg and lift the other leg back behind you as far as you can without arching your back

  • Hold for 3-5 seconds and slowly return to the starting position

To Work Harder: Pulse the leg back and few times before returning to the starting position

4. Kneeling Hip Extension

This is more challenging for the hip extensor muscles as you are working harder against gravity

Kneeling Hip Extension Exercise: a perfect exercise for a hip strengthening exercise program
  • Kneel on all fours with your hands under your shoulders and your knees underneath your hips

  • Straighten one leg back behind you and lift your foot and leg up until your leg is straight, level with your body

  • Hold for 3 seconds and slowly lower. Repeat 10-30 times on each leg

  • Then repeat the exercise but this time keeping the knee bent the entire time as shown.

5. Lying Hip 4 Way Exercise

This hip 4 way exercise is a great way to work round all of the muscles around the hip. For each one you want to hold each position for 3 seconds, and repeat 10-30 times.

  • SLR: Lie on your back with one knee bent. Lift your other leg up, keeping the knee straight
  • Hip Abduction: Roll onto one side and bend your bottom knee. Lift your top leg up, keeping the knee straight and the toes pointing forwards throughout
  • Hip Extension: Roll onto your tummy, lying face down. Slowly lift your leg up off the ground, keeping your knee straight
  • Hip Adduction: Roll onto your other side and cross your top leg over your bottom leg so your top foot is planted on the ground in front of your knee. Slowly raise to bottom leg towards the ceiling, keeping the knee straight throughout
4 Way Hip Exercise: A great set of exercises for hip problems

6. Standing 3 Way Hip Exercise

This standing 3 way hip exercise is great as it works on your balance as well as your strength. 

Initially start by holding onto a chair or counter top for balance but as you progress you may be able to let go altogether. Move the leg in each of these directions:

  • Hip Flexion: Bring one leg forwards, keeping the knee straight
  • Hip Abduction: Take your leg out to the side
  • Hip Extension: Take the leg back behind you
Hip 3 Way Exercise: Great exercises for hip strengthening

Repeat the cycle of three movements 10-30 times, with or without a resistance band.

7. Hip Bridging Exercises

Glute bridge exercises are a great way to strengthen not just the glutes but the hamstrings too. 

Bridge Hip Strength Exercise: Simple hip exercises at home to improve strength and function
  • Lie on your back with your knees bent, feet flat on the floor, hip width apart

  • Tighten your abdominal muscles, clench your buttocks and then lift your buttocks off the floor to create a “bridge” without arching your back

  • Hold for 3 seconds and slowly lower. Repeat 10-30 times

Bridge Progressions

There are lots of ways to vary this hip bridging exercises to make them more challenging and bring in other muscles too as you get stronger.

Bridge Exercises For Hip Problems: Some great twists on the classic bridge exercise to improve hip strength, stability and control
  • Heel Bridge: Press just through your heels rather than your whole foot
  • Marching Bridge: Once up in the bridge position, lift one foot off the floor, hold for 3 seconds, lower your foot and then lower your buttocks. Alternate sides.
  • Band Bridge: Hold an elastic band down around your waist as shown and rise up into the bridge position
  • Band March Bridge: Place an elastic band loop around your feet, lifting into the bridge position and then lift one foot up as with the marching bridge
  • Ball Bridge: Start with your feet resting on an exercise ball, and then perform a bridge. This is great for stability as you have to work extra hard to hold the ball steady.
  • Bridge Abductors: Loop a resistance band round your knees and while up in the bridge position, pulse your knees out to the side

8. Clam Strengthening

The clam is an excellent hip opening exercise for glute medius and is one of the best ways to improve hip stability. 

Clam Hip Opening Exercises: One of the best hip strengthening exercises to reduce pain and improve strength and stability
  • Lie on your side with your knees bent and feet together in line with your hips

  • Keeping your feet together, slowly lift up your top knee so you open your hips like a clam shell opening

  • Hold for 3 seconds and slowly lower

Top Tip: Keep your hips pointing forwards, don’t let your pelvis drop backwards as you lift the leg

To Work Harder: a. Start by lifting both feet up so they are level with your top hip and perform the exercise from there
b. Place a resistance band around your knees and perform the exercise

9. Reverse Clam

The reverse clam is a great hip strengthening exercise for the internal rotator muscles (glute med, glute min and tensor fascia latae)

Reverse Clam Exercises For Hip Strength
  • Lie on your side your knees bent and feet together, just like with the Clam exercise

  • Keeping your knees together, lift your top foot up towards the ceiling, without letting your pelvis roll forwards

  • Hold for 3 seconds and slowly lower

To Work Harder: Add a small pulsing movement up and down once you have lifted the foot up, rather than holding the position

10. Sit To Stand

Sit to stand is a great all-rounder hip strengthening exercise working lots of hip muscles at the same time, and is a very functional action.

Sit To Stand: Check out these great exercises for hip problems
  • While sitting in a chair, scoot forwards so you are perched on the front edge of the chair

  • Slowing rise up to standing, using the arms of the chair to help if needed

  • Then reach back for the arms of the chair and slowly lower yourself down to sitting, aiming for a slow controlled movement

Top Tip: if you don’t have a chair with arms, place your hands on your thighs and use them for support when standing up and sitting down

To Work Harder: a. Use only 1 or no hands for support rather than both
b. Keep one foot lifted up off the ground as shown above so you stand up on one leg – this is great for challenging your strength, balance and control

Why Do Hip Strengthening Exercises?

Exercises for hip pain are really important because the hips are the powerhouse of your lower body. They support nearly every movement you make—walking, running, climbing stairs, even standing still. When the hip muscles are weak, it can lead to pain, poor balance, and a higher risk of injury.

Hip strengthening exercises help to:

  • Improve Stability And Balance: keeping you steady on your feet.
  • Prevent Injuries: protecting your hips, knees, and back.
  • Boost Performance: giving you more strength and power in sports and daily activities and ensure you have hip full range of motion
  • Reduce Pain: easing strain on joints and muscles.
  • Support Healthy Aging: helping you stay active and independent for longer.
  • Ensure Correct Biomechanics: in the hips, knees, feet and lower back

Strong hips do not just mean stronger muscles, they mean better movement, fewer injuries, and more confidence in everything you do.

How Much Should You Exercise?

It takes time for muscles to get stronger, it doesn’t happen overnight.

Ideally, you should do hip strengthening exercises at least 5 times a week, preferably daily, and after an injury or if you are very weak, twice a day.

It may take a month or so to notice a significant change in your hip pain so keep going. Then you can add some hip stretching exercises and start adapting some of your exercises for hip pain to make them more challenging (follow the tips above).

Start with a low number of repetitions of each hip exercise, e.g. 10, and work at that level for a few days. If that feels fine, gradually increase the number of reps by 2-5 every few days, aiming to get up to 30-50 reps of each. You may well progress at different speeds for different exercises.

If you add extra challenges to your hip strengthening exercises such as using resistance bands or weights, you may need to reduce the number of repetitions you do initially and gradually build back up.

Don’t try and do too much, too soon. Listen to your body. Not just while doing the exercises for hip problems but be aware of how you feel later – delayed muscle soreness is a common problem!

And always check with your doctor before starting a new hip exercise programme, particularly if you have injured your hip, to ensure these hip strengthening exercises are safe for you to do.

What Else Can Help?

It often helps to combine hip strengthening exercises with stretches and strengthening exercises for other muscles. Choose from the following:

Hip Strengthening Exercises Summary

Hip strengthening exercises help to improve the strength, control and stability of the hip, knee and lower back.

They are a really important part of rehab from any hip injuries or conditions, not only to help reduce pain but to prevent ongoing problems in the lower limb.

The hip muscles need a good combination of strength, flexibility and endurance to ensure you have full hip range of motion, otherwise you may be prone to hip pain and injuries.

Hip strengthening exercise programs should target each of the muscle groups around the hip and should feel challenging but achievable. It often takes around 4 weeks of doing exercises for hip pain before you notice much of an improvement so it is important to keep going.

Consistency is the key – try and have a set time of day you do your exercises and gradually increase the number of repetitions or add in resistance bands, weights or adapt the exercises for hip pain to make them more challenging as your strength increases.

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Last Updated: September 24th, 2025
Next Review Due: September 24th, 2027