The Hips Don’t Lie: Unlocking the Hidden Potential of Your Glutes

Shakira was onto something in 2005! Put simply, achieving peak athletic performance is all about having and maintaining balance. While having a good, fit body is important for performance for your young athlete, sometimes factors can accidentally get pushed a little back but may just be the factors that can help improve performance. A key element that often goes overlooked but can have a profound impact is flexibility in the hips. Much like how an orchestra conductor relies on each musician involved to create harmonious music, the glutes depend on the flexibility in the hips to create smooth, efficient, powerful movements.  

The Hip-Glute Connection 

Imagine for a moment, that the body is an orchestral event. The skeleton being the stage, musicians are the muscles, and the hips are the conductor. Just as an experienced conductor will guide the orchestra’s performance, your athlete’s hips will dictate their movements while out on the track.  

If the conductor (Hips) is very rigid with their movements, the musicians (glutes), it would be challenging for the musicians (muscles) to create a flowing, harmonious song (movement). Regardless of skill, won’t perform to their full potential. So much like an orchestra that will struggle to play a beautiful symphony, the glutes won’t reach their full potential if the hips are stiff.  

In youth athletics, the importance of hip mobility cannot be stressed enough, especially in Australia where sport is such an integrated way of life. Whether your athlete is passionate about swimming, footy, tennis, or athletics, their hip mobility is a critical component in their sporting journey. 

There are a multitude of factors that set top class athletes apart when it comes to running. One such factor is their hip mobility. Top athletes typically exhibit the ability to extend their hips further behind themselves and more effectively propel themselves as they run.

This is done without compensatory movements such as twisting their upper body or turning, which can waste energy, and what allows such graceful movements. 

Why is Hip Mobility so Important when Running? 

The faster you run, the more essential it becomes to ensure all components of your running technique are up to par. If the hips are unable to get to an adequate range, the glutes are unable to activate properly to assist in running. Once this happens, the body is a little too clever and ‘solves’ the problem by facilitating the action of running elsewhere .

You could have good cardiovascular fitness and may just be up to the challenge of running at a breakneck pace, but if you have stiff hips, you will be forced to “cheat”. By cheating, I mean finding the movement elsewhere, also known as a “compensatory movement”. Typical compensatory movements in running involve the twisting of the pelvis, rotation of the upper body and overdriving the muscles involved in running such as the hamstrings, quads, or hip flexors. 

These compensatory movements can lead to injury such as muscular tendinopathies. This can lead to an impaired performance by the athlete and can even put them at risk of injury.  

It could almost be drawn as the equivalent of one of the musicians in the orchestra trying to conduct and play the piece at the same time. It just won’t work out for them! 

Making a Change 

Hips don’t stiffen up overnight, nor do they loosen up in a flash either. Trying to attempt the hips into extreme positions by aggressively stretching can make things worse. A musician won’t magically learn a piece in a single take, so your athlete will not miraculously get rid of their stiff hip within a single exercise session. Gradual and consistent effort is important! 

Regular mobility exercises with and eccentric strength component are critical. We have a series of videos across our social platforms showing some awesome hip mobility exercises that can assist hip flexibility! 

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