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In my time as a fitness writer, tight hips have been the most common complaint I’ve faced from readers. So I recruited a flexibility expert to explain why this might be the case, and what people could do to combat it.
“I believe a lot of it comes from sitting,” Cody Mooney, director of stretching app Pliability tells me.” Any time we do something for a long period of time there will be impacts, and these can be positive or negative.”
Sitting at a desk, day after day, can reinforce “poor posture patterns” and hold your hip flexors in a shortened position, leading to tightness, Mooney says. This tightness can make it harder to access certain positions, particularly during sports and strength training exercises like squats. “Compensation happens, and usually when compensation happens you get injuries,” he adds.
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Stretching can help elongate your muscles to combat the effects of sitting at a desk all day, according to flexibility expert Cody Mooney (Pliability)
One way to counteract this is to strengthen the key muscles in and around the hips. Another is to stretch them. Consistent stretching does the opposite of sitting down all day, Mooney explains, elongating the muscles and “allowing your body to move as it should”.
If you want to give it a go and fight tight hips, Mooney says the three moves below are the best place to start.
How to do Cody Mooney’s stretching routine for tight hips
Couch stretch
Saddle
Twisted lizard
Hold the stretches above for two minutes each. For the couch stretch and twisted lizard, hold them for two minutes on each leg.
“Allow yourself to be passive, don’t push yourself into discomfort where you don’t breathe, you’re sweating, you’re tense [or] it hurts,” Mooney advises.
He says you can do these stretches daily. Over time, he also recommends increasing the amount of time you spend in each position, gradually climbing up to five minutes.
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“I think if someone spent five minutes a day in couch stretch, then saddle, then sat in pigeon for three or four minutes a day, that consistency would provide massive benefits,” he adds.
Read more: 14 best exercise bikes for hitting your fitness goals at home
The couch stretch
How to do it
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Pliability’s Cody Mooney demonstrating the couch stretch (The Independent)
Kneel in front of a wall or another sturdy vertical surface.
Place your right knee on the ground, near where the wall meets the floor, and extend your right shin upwards so it runs along the wall. The distance between your knee and the wall will depend on your flexibility level.
Step your left foot forward into a lunge, so your left knee is forming a rough right angle, then lift your chest and gently push your hips forward.
Hold this position for two minutes, then repeat on the other side of your body.
Benefits
“This is a wonderful stretch which targets the front of the leg and the hip flexor area,” says Mooney. “If you learn to loosen this area, it will benefit you in many ways.
“With pain, we often have to look up or downstream for the cause. People develop patella tendonitis [knee pain] if they have a lot of tightness in their quads, the muscles on the front of the thigh, as well as lower back pain.”
“Doing the couch stretch – loosening up the quads, hip flexors and piriformis [a muscle running from the lower spine to the top of the thighs] – will really help you loosen up the hips, and [ease] the nagging lower back that many people have.”
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The saddle
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How to do it
Pliability’s Cody Mooney demonstrating the saddle stretch (Pliability)
Start in a kneeling position, with your shins flat on the floor and your bum on your feet.
Keeping your spine long, lean back as far as you are comfortably able, supporting your body with your hands.
Hold this position for two minutes.
Benefits
“Saddle really hits the quads and hip flexors, which tighten up in that sitting position,” Mooney explains.
The hip flexors are in high demand in daily life too. These muscles’ primary function is bringing the knee towards the chest, meaning they play a role in walking, running, squatting and even standing.
“So much of that is hip flexor, so really you’re creating a tight muscle, leaving it tight, then never doing anything to counter that,” Mooney adds, prescribing the saddle stretch as a first step for remedying this.
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Read more: 14 best gym shorts for men, tried and tested by a fitness writer
The pigeon pose
How to do it
Pliability’s Cody Mooney demonstrating the pigeon pose (Pliability)
Start by sitting on the floor with your feet planted on the ground.
Move your right leg so your thigh is straight out in front of you and your shin is lying perpendicular to your torso.
Reach your left leg behind you so your left foot is flat against the floor, then place your hands on the ground for support and lean over your right knee.
Hold this position for two minutes, then repeat on the other side.
Benefits
Given how frequently the hip flexor muscles are used on a daily basis, it pays to have them working smoothly. But, as Mooney says, “no lunch is free”, so you need to dedicate some time and effort to keeping them in good nick.
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“I think the pigeon pose is great because it really hits the hip, glute and lower back area,” says Mooney. “When you can learn to release that, it can help people in multiple different ways.”
It can ease lower back and hip pain, Mooney says, as well as improving freedom of movement around the joint.
“By stretching, or elongating muscle groups [around the hips] and allowing joints to function properly, you might not take away all of the negatives of sitting at a desk for eight hours every day, but you’re at least being proactive in an approach to counter some of them and allowing your body to get back to its natural, proper position,” Mooney says.
Read more: A leading strength coach shares his three ‘essential’ kettlebell exercises for ‘fitness and longevity’
Ever feel like beginner-friendly workouts are anything but?
That’s how BODi Super Trainer Lacee Green felt, so she devised a three-week, entry-level program designed for genuine newcomers to exercise—or those just getting back into it.
“My beginner-only plan is for every body and everybody,” Green tells Fit&Well.
Green’s program combines low-impact cardio, strength, core and mobility workouts for a total of five sessions a week and 30 minutes a day.
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One of the routines she loves—that she says will provide a flavor of the plan—is a total-body cardio workout inspired by seven different sports.
“There is no repetition, it’s all bodyweight and super fun,” she says. “We do basketball, we do pickleball, we do soccer, and it’s really going to get your heart rate up.”
It will all count toward the CDC’s recommended 75 minutes of vigorous-intensity aerobic activity per week, while incorporating resistance training elements to strengthen your bones and muscles, she explains.
Start your week with achievable workout ideas, health tips and wellbeing advice in your inbox.
And Green has provided the full 10-minute routine below for you to try.
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10-minute cardio workout for beginners
Press play on the video above and Green will guide you through the workout, or keep reading to see what’s in store.
Green’s 10-minute beginner-only cardio workout is inspired by seven different sports that she says will help channel your inner athlete.
Each sport links to an exercise during the routine. Follow the short warm-up, then perform each move for 40 seconds and rest for 20 seconds, for one round per sport.
In the video, another trainer demonstrates variations of each exercise so you can make it slightly more challenging as desired. The workout concludes with a short cool-down.
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Here’s a brief breakdown of each exercise.
1. Basketball catch and shoot
Step to your side, then reach up into full extension as if shooting a three-pointer. Repeat by shuffling from side to side.
2. Quick football feet
Lower into a quarter squat with your feet wide apart and alternate quick stepping onto either foot. On Green’s cues, switch the direction you face from center to left and right.
3. Skater side-step
Step side to side as if skating, hitting an imaginary hockey stick across your body.
4. Soccer kick-up
Keeping light on your feet, hop from side to side as if juggling a football with your feet.
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5. Pickleball shuffle
Lower into a half squat with your hands together in front of you. Keeping low, step or jump forward, then shuffle back to the start position.
6. Boxing jab cross
Stand side on with slightly bent knees and your guard up. Alternate throwing jabs with your left and right, switching your stance after 20 seconds.
7. Baseball squat to high plank
With your feet wide apart, lower into a deep squat with your hands up like a catcher. Place your hands on the floor and step back into a high plank, then back to the low squat.
About our expert
About our expert
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Lacee Green
Lacee Green is a BODi Super Trainer, certified personal trainer (CPT) and coach with more than 10 years of experience. She hosts a number of BODi on-demand fitness programs that are designed to challenge and motivate you while also providing a supportive and inclusive environment.
People with high cardiorespiratory fitness were 36% less likely to experience depression and 39% less likely to develop dementia than those with low cardiorespiratory fitness. Even small improvements in fitness were linked to a lower risk. Experts believe that exercise’s ability to boost blood flow to the brain, reduce bodywide inflammation, and improve stress regulation may explain the connection.
While many swear by them, most people see burpees as a form of punishment – usually dished out drill sergeant-style by overzealous bootcamp PTs. Often the final blow in an already brutal workout, burpees are designed to test cardiovascular fitness, muscular endurance and mental grit. Love them or loathe them, they deliver every time.
For Max Edwards – aka Busy Dad Training on YouTube – they became a simple but highly effective way to stay fit and lean during lockdown. Once a committed powerlifter, spending upwards of 80 minutes a day in the gym, he was forced to overhaul his approach due to fatherhood, lockdown and a schedule that no longer allowed for long, structured lifting sessions.
‘Even though I was putting in hours and hours into the gym and even though my physique was pretty good, I wasn’t becoming truly excellent at any physical discipline,’ he explained in a YouTube video.
‘I loved the intentionality of training,’ says Edwards. ‘The fact that every session has a point, every rep in every set is helping you get towards a training goal, and I loved that there was a clear way of gauging progression – feeling like I was developing competence and moving towards mastery.’
Why He Walked Away From Powerlifting
Despite that structure, Edwards began to question whether powerlifting was sustainable long-term.
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‘My sessions were very taxing on my central nervous system. I was exhausted between sessions. It felt as if I needed at least nine hours of sleep each night just to function.’
He also noted that his appetite was consistently high.
But the biggest drawback was time.
‘I could not justify taking 80 minutes a day away from my family for what felt like a self-centred pursuit,’ he says.
A Simpler Approach That Stuck
‘Over the course of that year I fixed my relationship with alcohol and I developed, for the first time in my adult life, a relationship with physical training,’ says Edwards.
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With limited time and no access to equipment, he turned to burpees. Just two variations, four times a week, with each session lasting 20 minutes.
‘My approach in each workout was very simple. On a six-count training day I would do as many six-counts as I possibly could within 20 minutes. On a Navy Seal training day I would do as many Navy Seal burpees as I could within 20 minutes – then in the next workout I would simply try to beat the number I had managed previously.’
This style of training is known as AMRAP – as many reps (or rounds) as possible.
The Results
Edwards initially saw the routine as nothing more than a six-month stopgap to stay in shape. But that quickly changed.
‘I remember catching sight of myself in the mirror one morning and I was utterly baffled by the man I saw looking back at me.’
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He found himself in the best shape of his life. His energy levels improved, his resting heart rate dropped and his physique changed in ways that powerlifting hadn’t quite delivered.
‘It has been five years since I have set foot in a gym,’ he says. ‘That six-month training practice has become the defining training practice of my life – and for five years I have trained for no more than 80 minutes per week.’
The Burpee Workouts
1/ 6-Count Burpees
20-minute AMRAP, twice a week
How to do them:
Start standing, feet shoulder-width apart
Crouch down and place your hands on the floor (count 1)
Jump your feet back into a high plank (count 2)
Lower into the bottom of a push-up (count 3)
Push back up to plank (count 4)
Jump your feet forward to your hands (count 5)
Stand up straight (count 6)
20-minute AMRAP, twice a week
How to do them:
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Start standing, feet shoulder-width apart
Crouch down and place your hands on the floor
Jump your feet back into a high plank
Perform a push-up (chest to floor)
At the top, bring your right knee to your right elbow, then return
Perform another push-up
Bring your left knee to your left elbow, then return
Perform a third push-up
Jump your feet forward
Stand or jump to finish
Kate is a fitness writer for Men’s Health UK where she contributes regular workouts, training tips and nutrition guides. She has a post graduate diploma in Sports Performance Nutrition and before joining Men’s Health she was a nutritionist, fitness writer and personal trainer with over 5k hours coaching on the gym floor. Kate has a keen interest in volunteering for animal shelters and when she isn’t lifting weights in her garden, she can be found walking her rescue dog.
