6 Best Hip Abductor Exercises for Beginners

Hip abductor exercises are basically ones where your leg moves away from your bod - to the right, left, forward or backward. This movement is known as hip abduction.

Jumping sideways, getting out of a car, walking and running are examples of hip abduction movements. These are functional movements that play an important role in our daily life.

It's important to exercise the muscles that are responsible for these movements. Absence of exercise can lead to muscles losing their functionality, leading to loss of hip mobility with age.

Hip Abductor Exercises for Beginners

Check out these six hip abductor exercises for beginners that can improve your mobility and strengthen your hips:

1) Side Leg Raise

This exercise works out your hip abductors. Make sure to fully squeeze your glutes so that you achieve the full benefits of the exercise. You can make it even harder by using ankle weights or a small mini band wrapped around your ankles.

Here's how you do this exercise:

Lie down on your left or right side with your legs straight; you may hold your upper body with one elbow.
Simply raise your top leg as high as you can, and slowly lower it down to where it was before.
Make sure your hips are not used for lifting.
You should get a burn in your glutes and subsequently in your hip flexors, much like you do with the fire hydrants.
After about ten reps, switch to the other side.
Perform a few sets on both legs.

2) Fire Hydrant

Also known as quadruped hip extensions, the fire hydrant works out your glutes, opens up your hips and lowers risk of injury. The exercise can be made more difficult with the addition of a resistance band.

Here's how you do this exercise:

Kneel down on both of your knees on a yoga mat, and support your upper body by leaning forward while keeping both of your palms flat on the ground.
Maintain a 90-degree bend in your knees. To fully apply pressure to your hip abductor, raise your left leg out to the side without changing the angle at which your knee is bent.
A conventional push-up requires your elbows to bend, so be sure they're locked and not bent.
Once you've raised your left leg as high as you can, carefully take yourself back to the starting position.
Perform ten repetitions, and switch to the other side.

3) Clamshell

An excellent exercise for your leg day warm-up or cool-down routine, the Clamshell is wonderful for activating the inner thighs.

Here's how you do this exercise:

Lie down on your side to start the exercise.
Place your upper arm on top of your top leg. Keep your heels in line with your butt, and bend your knees to about a 45-degree angle.
Slowly raise your knee while using your glutes as a driving force.
As your knee raises, make sure your hips don't budge.
After a few reps, your gluteus medius should start to feel it.
Repeat for about a minute.
Instead of spending a lot of time on one side, add more sets towards the end if you think you can do more without hurting yourself.
Switch to the other leg.

4) Curtsy Lunge With Kick

This move will seriously challenge your ability to stabilise yourself during movement. Its a great exercise for your glutes and hip abductors.

Here's how you do this exercise:

Place your feet shoulder-width apart as you stand. With your hands facing inward and elbows bent, hold a dumbbell in each hand, and place them on top of your shoulders.
Step back with your right foot diagonally, bending your right knee almost to the floor. You should bend your front knee to roughly 90 degrees.
To stand back up, straighten your left leg, and push it through your left heel. Kick your right leg out to the right side as you stand back up to complete one rep.
Perform 8–12 reps, and repeat on the opposite side.

5) Glute Bridge March

The Glute bridge march works out your glutes, abs, hamstrings and lower back muscles. This pose is great to improve your hip abduction movements.

Here's how you do this exercise:

Lie face up on the floor, with your knees bent and feet hip-width apart so that your lower back presses against the floor.
Lift your hips while maintaining this engaged stance, squeezing your glutes at the top, and pause.
Raise your right foot off the ground while raising your right knee toward your chest. Stop when your hip is around 90 degrees from the floor.
Put your foot back down, and lift your left foot off the ground to do the opposite on the other side.
As you march forward, alternate your feet while keeping your hips raised.
Perform 8–12 repetitions on each side.

6) Banded Jumping Jack

You're working in the frontal plane when you jump your feet out, which smokes your hip abductors. Use a light resistance band for jumping jacks so that you can retain the full range of motion.

Here's how you do this exercise:

Wrap a mini resistance band around your ankles.
Stand in a quarter-squat (a shallow squat) stance, with your feet hip-width apart and hands at your chest.
Jump your feet out and in for one rep, keeping your knees bent and landing softly each time.
Perform 15-20 reps.

Takeaway

Include the aforementioned hip abductor exercises in your routine for greater hip mobility.

Edited by Bhargav