When it comes to flexibility, hip mobility is essential. That's because your hips are the body's largest ball-and-socket joint, playing a role in almost every movement and activity. Limited hip mobility can restrict your movement, making daily walking, bending, and squatting more difficult. If you struggle with hip mobility, you might notice stiffness or pain in your hips, but also feel discomfort elsewhere. Testing your hip mobility will help you identify any restrictions, so you can get back to moving freely and without pain. In this article, we'll cover how to test hip mobility, how to measure flexibility overall, and explain what to do if you find any limitations.

What is Hip Mobility, and Why Does It Matter?

Hip mobility is the ability of your hip joint to move through its full range of motion, meaning your leg can extend both in front of and behind you. This is crucial because a lack of mobility in your hip joint can cause your hip flexors to shorten, resulting in lower back pain and impacting your posture. It warrants even more concern for runners because stunted hip mobility can undermine your running form by not allowing your leg to stretch far enough behind you when you run.

The Energy Cost of Poor Hip Mobility

Efficient running relies on roughly half the energy coming from muscles actively working and half from tendons storing and releasing elastic energy, with the leg swinging like a pendulum in front of and behind the body. Without good hip mobility, that swing shortens: the leg doesn't travel far enough behind the body, so less of the tendons' stored elastic energy gets used, and running relies more heavily on the muscles instead.

Why Hip Mobility Matters for Runners

Running without full hip mobility causes you to rely on your muscles more than the explosive release of your tendons, which can be even more exhausting. Plus, if you become aware that your stride is not swinging far back enough, but you still lack hip mobility, you may try to compensate by swaying your lower back, which can cause pain. Any way you slice it, limited range of motion simply makes running harder.

If you are working to improve your hip flexibility and are unsure how to track your progress, this guide is for you. Using simple mobility tests, you can monitor your progress over weeks and months to ensure you're working to restore basic range of motion.

Foundations of Hip Mobility

What is the basic range of motion? Imagine a healthy 12-year-old playing in the park with friends. They can easily get up and down from the floor, perform a full squat, and sit comfortably cross-legged. These simple, natural movement patterns are often lost as we age and become sedentary.

Consistency in stretching is the key to increasing hip mobility over time. Unlike strength training, where rest days are crucial, your body adapts best to stretching when done consistently, ideally daily. Frequent, short stretching sessions will consistently outperform irregular monster sessions.

How to Test Hip Mobility: Six Tests to Try

1. Hip Flexion

When you squat deeply, butt to heels, your hip joint moves in flexion toward its maximum range. Deep flexion is necessary for sitting comfortably on the floor, getting up and down from the ground, lifting, lunging, and running. Your glutes and hamstrings are the main muscles that limit and enable this movement, but your quads and adductors also have a role to play.

• Lie on your back on the floor

• Pull your knee into your chest

• Using your fists, measure the distance between your knee and your chest

• Your goal in this test is to have no gap between the two

2. Hip Extension

In a deep lunge with your back knee off the ground, your back leg is in full hip extension. Hip extension is essential for running and walking, especially when fatigued. The key muscles in this movement are your rectus femoris, iliacus, and psoas. Tight core muscles can also limit range of motion here. Your goal in this test is to get the arch of your foot above your knee, so start with the option that enables you to do this best.

• Lie on your belly on the floor

• Extend one leg into the air

• Option one: Flex the knee of your opposite leg and place your foot on top of your other foot, creating an angle with your extended back leg

• Option two: Place your foot on your shin and keep that top leg straight

• Option three: Position the arch of your foot so it cups your knee

• Option four: Place your foot above your knee, top leg straight (with no pain in your lower back)

3. 90/90 Hip Switch Test

Physical therapists often use this 30-second test as a self-assessment tool, and it doubles as an education in your own body, because it tests hip movement in all planes, on both sides.

• Sit on the floor with both of your knees bent to 90 degrees, one leg in front and one to the side

• Without using your hands, rotate to the other side while keeping your butt and heels on the floor

• Once you've flipped sides, go back in the other direction

What Your 90/90 Results Can Tell You

Could you do it without lifting your booty or your heels? If not, you may have tight iliopsoas muscles, also known as the hip flexors. The iliopsoas is a strong hip flexor that becomes even tighter with prolonged sitting, such as at work or on a long drive, which is worth keeping in mind if you sit most of the day.

Tight Hips? Try These Mobility Tips

If you can't quite make it to the other side without lifting your heels or booty, it's time to get into some hip openers. If your hips are tight, it helps to stretch and train them in all planes, not just one; yoga is a practical way to do that. Seeing a physical therapist in person, or even on a video consult, and running through this test in front of them is even better, since a practitioner can assess whether the issue comes from the joint or from tight muscles.

4. The Doorway Hip Mobility Test

This hip mobility test helps you determine whether mobility is something you need to work on. It works by testing whether there is tightness in your hip flexor.

If there's tightness, it indicates that your hip doesn't move around very much, which in turn causes your hip flexor to be in a shortened position, which then makes it harder for you to stretch your leg back. It's a vicious cycle. To see what's going on, all you need is a doorway and potentially a towel or mat to rest your knee on.

• Come kneeling in a doorway, with your mid/upper back against the doorway. Your upper shins should be on the floor, extending to either side of the doorway.

• Come into a half-kneeling pose. Keep one knee bent on the floor, but place the foot of the other leg on the floor in front of you so there is a 90-degree angle at your hips between your torso and quads and a 90-degree angle at your knee between your upper and lower legs. Make sure your upper/mid back is still in contact with the doorway and that there is space between your lower back and the doorway.

• Tilt your pelvis forward so that the space between the wall and your lower back disappears

• Observe how the front of your leg with the knee on the floor feels.

Mobility Is a Feeling, Not Just a Test

Many people find one side clearly tighter than the other, often the side with an old injury history, which is exactly why comparing sides matters more than judging yourself against some universal standard. Mobility isn't strictly black or white either: a side can feel a little tight without being nearly as restricted as a genuinely stiff one. Noting how each side feels and comparing it over time, rather than relying on memory alone, makes it easier to tell whether the work you're doing is actually helping.

What Your Results Mean

If your hip flexor muscle doesn't seem to be tight, dynamic stretching before runs or other activities is sufficient to maintain mobility in that joint. It's still worth working on strength and control around the joint to maintain hip mobility, so keep dynamic stretches like leg swings or body strength exercises like one-leg standing poses in your lineup.

If your hip flexor does feel tight, don't despair; it's simply a sign that your hip mobility needs some work.

5. Lateral Rotation

When you see someone sitting in the elusive lotus pose and wonder how they do that, you are witnessing hips that are very open in the lateral rotation range of motion. Opening your hips to the side allows for comfort in most seated positions and is crucial for getting up and down from the ground.

Your adductors are the area of focus, but your hamstrings also play a role. In some people, tight ankles or quads can make this range of motion challenging.

• Sit in a butterfly position on the floor

• Place your thumbs inside your feet as if you were opening a book

• Gently pull your feet in close towards your pelvis

• Gently press your knees down

• Measure how many fists distance your knees are off the floor

6. Medial Rotation

Imagine a slalom skier racing down the mountain. One hip rotates out, laterally, and the other rotates inwards, medially. Now imagine a football player running, stopping, and then pivoting quickly. Again, you'll see that the pivoting hip rotates medially.

This hip movement is often ignored, but it's crucial when you least expect it, such as turning quickly, slipping off a stair, or promptly turning while in motion. Your glutes and deep six lateral rotators are the area of focus here, though tight ankles can also confuse things.

• Sit on the floor, legs extended in front of you, hip-width apart

• Bend one leg and slide your foot out to the side in line with your opposite knee

• Keep your foot and both knees in one line and medially rotate your knee towards the ground, try to keep it as flat as possible with no pain

• Your hip will roll up, but your shoulder stays over your hips

• If you feel any pain in your back or knee, back off to where you feel no pain

• Measure how many fists distance you are from the floor

Best Exercises to Improve Your Hip Mobility

Hip Rotation with Feet Elevated on Wall

The hip rotation with feet elevated on a wall improves hip mobility and stability by targeting the hips' external rotators.

• Begin by lying on your back with your feet on the wall and your hips and knees bent to 90 degrees. Place a foam roller or pillow between your knees

• Engage your core and glutes and lift your hips 1-2 inches from the surface

• Slowly rotate one leg out to the side and then return to the starting position

• Repeat with the opposite foot, keeping your hips elevated throughout the motion

• Perform 10-15 repetitions for 2-3 sets

90-90 Hip Lift

The 90-90 hip lift targets the hip rotators and encourages proper movement patterns for improved mobility.

• Begin in the test position described above.

• Lean forward and place both hands on the ground.

• Lift your back leg from the surface, rotating at the hip.

• If you are unable to perform this movement actively, you can use one hand to assist and attempt to hold at the top.

• Perform 10-15 repetitions for 2-3 sets on both sides.

Pigeon Stretch

The pigeon stretch effectively targets the hip rotators and relieves tightness in the hips.

• Start on your hands and knees.

• Lift up one leg and bring it into a figure-four position.

• Lean forward, resting your elbows on the ground.

• Next, sink into the stretch as tolerated.

• Hold for 20-30 seconds and complete 3-5 times per side.

Standing Hip Openers

This exercise promotes active hip mobility and can be a warm-up for sports and activities.

• Start standing with good posture and a foam roller or similar object next to you.

• Slowly and controlled, lift your leg off the ground to a 90-90 position.

• Bring your hip out to the side, clearing the foam roller.

• Continue the motion, extending your hip past the foam roller and returning to the starting position.

• Repeat the movement in the opposite direction.

• Perform 2-3 sets of 10-15 repetitions per side.

Kneeling Hip Flexor Stretch

A kneeling hip flexor stretch held for three minutes a day is a simple, effective way to work on hip extension.

• Kneel on a pad or pillow, making sure to keep the thigh of the leg you are kneeling on vertical.

• Tuck your pelvis under. Hold this position for 3 minutes.

• To increase the stretch, position the foot of your kneeling leg out to the side a few inches (this will rotate your thigh inward) before moving into a posterior pelvic tilt.

Supine Twists

Supine twists target the piriformis and glute muscles. Relieving tightness in these areas can also help your hips release.

Stretch Your Hamstrings

Do stretches for the hamstrings, since tight hamstrings contribute to hip stiffness and pain. A beginner's yoga class is also worth attending: it works both sides of the body evenly and builds better body awareness along the way, and a regular mobility routine on top of that can offer surprisingly effective results.

Three minutes of daily stretching can show results in about 10 weeks. If that sounds like a lot, keep the faith: the body adapts reliably to that kind of consistency.

Test and Improve Your Hip Mobility with pliability | 7 Days Free

Testing is only useful if you know what to do with the results, and that is where pliability comes in. The mobility assessment opens with a body scan that pinpoints exactly which ranges, like hip flexion, extension, or rotation, are holding you back. Daily Sessions give you a fresh guided routine to work on what the scan finds, Paths let you focus on your hips specifically for weeks at a time, and Build Your Program shapes a plan around your own goals and schedule. Try pliability free for 7 days on iPhone, iPad, Android, or the web, and turn today's test results into steady, trackable progress.