Exercise Tutorial: Hip Hinge
Table of Contents
What Is a Hip Hinge
The Hip Hinge is a movement where the hips act as the axis of rotation between the upper and lower body. Your torso will come forwards as you bend at the hips and your feet and legs will remain in a fixed position. The Hip Hinge is used in many exercises and is one of the five key fundamental movement patterns that you can train! Including Hip Hinge movements in your exercise routine will strengthen the lower back and engage the Hamstrings.
How to Do a Hip Hinge
Learning how to perform the Hip Hinge can be difficult for some people. If you can complete a Deadlift using the correct form, you can already do a Hip Hinge! For those who are unfamiliar with this movement, follow the steps below to learn how to do a Hip Hinge.
Begin with your feet planted on the floor about shoulder-width apart. Stand tall.
Initiate the Hip Hinge by pushing your hips back and bending forwards. Your knees can have a slight bend, and your spine should be in a neutral position.
Once the torso reaches about 45 degrees to the floor, squeeze the Glutes and drive the hips forward to return to the standing position. Repeat the movement for the required number of reps and sets.
You have now learned how to do a Hip Hinge!
Hinge Exercise List
There are many exercises that involve the Hip Hinge. Remember that the Hip Hinge is one of the five movement patterns, so it is important to include some variation of the movement in your exercise routine as the motion will translate into your everyday life. A hinge exercise list includes,
Back Hyperextension
Many of these exercises also have additional variations that can be done using barbells, dumbbells etc.
Explosive Hinge Exercise
An example of an explosive hinge exercise is the Kettlebell Swing. The Kettlebell swing will improve muscular strength and power and utilizes the Hip Hinge movement. What makes this exercise explosive is that you can use the Kettlebell Swing in HITT workouts and go even further by customizing the tempo of the exercise for your clients. Another example of an explosive hinge exercise is the Hip Thrust.
Benefits Of Hip Hinge Exercise
There are many benefits to performing Hip Hinge exercises. As previously mentioned, the Hip Hinge is one of the fundamental movement patterns. The Hip Hinge will help us to bend down and pick up objects off of the floor. More specifically, the Hip Hinge will improve balance, reduce back pain, and increase core strength. This will translate into better performance of other exercises and an overall increased quality of life.
What Is a Hip Hinge Movement
The Hip Hinge movement is part of the posterior chain. The posterior chain involves the muscles along the posterior side of the body such as the Erector Spinae, Glutes, Hamstrings, and Calves. The Hip Hinge movement of bending forwards at the hips will increase the strength in the posterior chain, which will help to improve posture and increase balance and mobility.
Hip Hinge Bending
When beginning to perform the Hip Hinge, it is easy to be confused about what areas of the body can have a bend. The knees can have a slight bend in them when performing the Hip Hinge. Other than the knees, the upper body will bend at the hips, using them as an axis of rotation for the torso to move forwards. Your back and neck should not bend when performing the Hip Hinge.
NPR Hip Hinge
The National Public Radio wrote an article about the Hip Hinge and how many people bend over incorrectly. Most people will bend over to pick something up off of the ground and their spines will look like the letter ‘C’. This bending of the spine causes excess pressure on the vertebral disks, which explains why so many people suffer from back pain. If we instead learned the Hip Hinge and remembered this way of movement in our everyday tasks, we could have less back pain and decrease tightness in the hamstrings.
Hip Hinge With Dowel
When learning the Hip Hinge, it can be helpful to use a dowel along the spine. Having someone hold a dowel as you Hip Hinge, or holding the dowel against your back as you hinge can provide a visual assessment of how well you are performing the movement. The dowel should always have three points of contact on the body as it runs vertically on top of the spine, the tailbone, mid-back and the back of the head.
Perform the Hip Hinge with the dowel. If any of these three points of contract break while you are performing the movement. Stop and evaluate what you are doing to cause the loss of contact. The goal is to be able to complete the Hip Hinge while keeping the three points of contact touching the dowel. A personal trainer can be helpful in identifying your mistakes when performing the movement.
Hip Hinge Squat
There is a difference between the Hip Hinge and the Squat. To put it simply, the Hip Hinge is a hip dominant movement while the squat is a knee dominant movement. Hip Hinges are also generally pulling movements while the squat is generally a pushing movement. For example, in the deadlift (a Hip Hinge movement) we are pulling the barbell towards us, and in the back squat, we are pushing the barbell up and down.
What Is a More Technical Exercise Hinge or Squat
Both the Hinge and the Squat are technical exercises that are often performed incorrectly and have caused many people to develop poor movement patterns. The best way to identify if you are performing the Hinge and the Squat correctly is to use a dowel and see if you can maintain the three points of contact. Many trainers will use this method to assess their clients capacities and identify areas of weakness. Both the Hinge and the Squat are important movements in everyday life, so it is crucial that we learn how to perform them both properly in order to reduce the risk of injury and make out exercise routines more effective.
Hip Hinge Deadlift
The Hip Hinge is the source of movement in a deadlift. Regardless of the variation, if you are performing a deadlift, you are also performing a Hip Hinge. This is a great way to increase strength in the posterior chain. Many people struggle with obtaining the correct form during the deadlift, so for beginners it is suggested to perform the Hip Hinge with a dowel first to ensure that you have the proper form before adding a load.
TRX Hip Hinge
The TRX Hip Hinge is an exercise that is performed using a TRX machine. Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart and facing the anchor. Hold the straps in each hand at hip height. Your arms should be fully extended. Hinge forwards at the hips while maintaining proper form and keeping your arms extended in front of you. Return to the starting position by squeezing the glutes and repeat the movement.
Hip Hinge Progression
Many people have ineffective movement patterns that have been deeply ingrained in their mind and bodies from continuously repeating movement patterns that are not being performed correctly. For instance, many people do not bend over to lift things properly, which can result in back pain.
For these individuals, sometimes their muscles can be weak, or they are suffering from so much pain that standing up and performing the Hip Hinge is a difficult task to do. Hip Hinge progressions allow these individuals to learn how to Hip Hinge properly through gradual progressions.
First, they will learn how to move the hips without flexing or extending the spine by assuming a quadruped position and rocking back and forth while on the knees. Once this movement is learned, they will progress to a kneeling hip hinge with a dowel. The dowel will help to identify any weaknesses in the movement and provide coaching for the individual.
Once they have completed the kneeling hip hinge with the dowel, they will progress to the final stage, the standing hip hinge with the dowel. Sometimes transitioning to a standing movement can bring out unwanted habits, so the dowel is there to ensure that they are still exhibiting the proper form.
Proper Hip Hinge
A proper Hip Hinge is performed by following the steps that we have outlined above. If you think that you already can perform a proper Hip Hinge, try performing the Hip Hinge with a Dowel and see if you can keep all three points of contact. You may be surprised to see that you can’t maintain your form throughout the movement which is actually very common! The dowel is a great tool to use for evaluation of your movement patterns, and to make sure that you are performing a proper Hip Hinge.
