Hips
Hip stretches for all four sides of the joint
The hip moves in every direction, and most routines stretch one of them. Here is the whole joint, sorted by which side you are actually reaching.
Clinically reviewed by Lee Albert, NMT · 8 August 2026
The hip has four sides, and tight usually means one of them
The hip is a ball and socket, which means it moves in every direction, and the muscles around it are arranged in four groups doing four different jobs. The front, the hip flexors, lift the thigh and are the group a day of sitting holds short. The outside and the deep back, the glutes and the small rotators, steady the pelvis when you stand on one leg. The inside, the adductors, pull the leg toward the midline and are the group nearly every routine forgets. The back, the hamstrings, are usually treated as a separate subject entirely.
So the word tight is not very useful on its own. A hip that objects to the first steps after a long drive is a different problem from a hip that aches after standing at a counter, and they want opposite ends of the joint. The sequence below is sorted that way rather than by difficulty, and you are meant to take the section that matches what you feel rather than all of it.
Which side is yours
A quick way to sort it. If the discomfort is at the front, in the crease where the leg meets the body, and it is worst standing up after sitting, that is the front group. If it is deep in the buttock, or it comes with a line of discomfort down the back of the leg, that is the outside and deep group. If it sits high on the inner thigh or in the groin and shows up when you step wide, that is the inside group.
The back of the hip and the hamstring have their own page, and so do the two most searched deep-hip problems, because both deserve more room than a section here gives them. Links are at the bottom.
Support is not the easier option
Almost every position below has a version done in or against a chair, and those are not lesser versions. A hip stretch works when the pelvis stays where you put it and the joint takes the movement. The moment you are gripping to stay upright, the pelvis tips, the lower back supplies the range instead, and the hip gets less rather than more.
So the chair-supported low lunge often reaches the front of the hip better than the full kneeling one, and the seated figure 4 often reaches the deep buttock better than the floor version. Pick the one where you can breathe and let go, not the one that looks like it should be harder.
The sequence
- 1
Lower body warm up, standing · 3 to 4 minutes
Takes the hips, knees and ankles through their ranges before anything is held. A hip that has moved a little accepts a stretch far better than a cold one.
- 2
Low lunge, hands on a chair (front of the hip) · 30 to 60 seconds each side
The front group, and the most accessible way to reach it. The chair keeps the torso upright, which is the one adjustment that stops the lower back arching to supply range the hip will not give.
- 3
Low lunge, short stance (front of the hip) · 30 to 60 seconds each side
The step up from supported. A shorter step means less demand at the front of the hip and less pull on the lower back, and for many people it is the version to stay with rather than pass through.
- 4
Figure 4, seated (outside and deep) · 60 to 90 seconds each side
The deep rotators and the outside of the hip, reached with no floor work and nothing to get down to. Ankle across the opposite knee, sit tall, and lean forward only until the buttock starts to speak.
- 5
Figure 4 with a strap (outside and deep) · 2 to 3 minutes each side
The floor version, with a strap holding the position so the arms can stop working. Deep rotators do not let go while the rest of you is holding on.
- 6
Pigeon, upright (outside and deep) · 60 to 90 seconds each side
The strongest option for the outside of the hip, with the chest staying up. Folding forward adds load to the lower back, so upright is the version to use when the back is part of the picture.
- 7
Butterfly (inside) · 2 to 3 minutes
The inner thigh, which is the group almost every hip routine skips. Soles together, knees heavy rather than pressed, and let gravity do it over a few minutes rather than pushing.
- 8
Supported inner hip release (inside) · 90 seconds to 3 minutes each side
One side at a time, with the chair carrying the leg so nothing has to be held. Asks no flexibility to get into, which makes it the gentlest inner-hip option here.
- 9
Half happy baby · 4 to 6 minutes
One leg at a time, on your back, reaching the back and inside of the hip at once with the floor supporting your spine. A settled way to finish.
Do not do all nine. Warm up, then take the two or three that match the side you actually feel, and finish with the last one. Around twelve minutes that way. Everything except pigeon and half happy baby has a chair or seated version, and the supported versions often reach the joint better than the floor ones, because a pelvis that is being held still is a pelvis that lets the hip move.
What the research says
There is no guideline that prescribes hip stretches, and it is worth being plain about that rather than dressing up a general recommendation as a specific one. What can be sourced is the dose, what stretching does, and what published guidance says where the hip joint itself is the problem.
On dose, the American College of Sports Medicine's position stand recommends flexibility exercises for each of the major muscle and tendon groups, totalling around sixty seconds per exercise, on two or more days a week. On mechanism, a 2025 systematic review with meta-analysis pooling sixty-five studies found that neither a single session nor a course of static stretching significantly changed fascicle length: the muscle was not made structurally longer. Range of motion improved anyway, and the improvement tracked reduced overall stiffness and an increased tolerance to passive tension. Stretching changes what your body will allow before it protests, which is a real change and not the one most stretching advice describes.
Where the hip joint itself is arthritic, NICE recommends therapeutic exercise tailored to the person for all people with osteoarthritis, giving local muscle strengthening and general aerobic fitness as its examples, and it asks clinicians to say plainly that joint pain may increase when exercise starts while regular consistent exercise remains beneficial for the joints. That is the sourced reason this page does not treat stretching as the whole answer for a sore hip, and why the strengthening pages are linked rather than buried.
Sources
- 1American College of Sports Medicine position stand, quantity and quality of exercise for apparently healthy adults (Garber et al., Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, 2011)
Adults should do a series of flexibility exercises for each of the major muscle and tendon groups, totalling 60 seconds per exercise, on two or more days a week.
- 2Mechanisms underlying range of motion improvements following acute and chronic static stretching, systematic review with meta-analysis (Sports Medicine, 2025)
Neither acute nor chronic static stretching significantly changed fascicle length; range of motion gains were associated with reduced overall stiffness and increased tolerance to passive tension.
- 3NICE NG226, osteoarthritis in over 16s (2022), recommendations 1.3.1 and 1.3.3
Offer therapeutic exercise tailored to the person for all people with osteoarthritis, and advise that joint pain may increase when starting it while regular consistent exercise remains beneficial for the joints.
Common questions
What is the best hip stretch?
It depends which side of the hip is tight, which is why this page is sorted that way. Front of the hip after sitting: the supported low lunge. Deep in the buttock: the seated figure 4. Inner thigh or groin: butterfly. A single best stretch would have to assume everyone is tight in the same place, and they are not.
Why do my hips feel tight even though I stretch them?
Two common reasons. The first is that the stretching is reaching one side of the joint, usually the front or the back, and the tightness is somewhere else. The second is that tightness is a sensation rather than a measurement: the best current evidence found stretching does not make muscle fibres structurally longer, it changes stiffness and how much tension you tolerate, and stillness gets reported back as tightness whatever the tissue is doing.
How long should I hold a hip stretch?
The general flexibility guidance is about sixty seconds in total per muscle group, on two or more days a week, and the deep hip positions here are held longer because the deep rotators do not release quickly. If you are gripping or holding your breath, the position is too strong and a supported version will do more.
Should I stretch a hip that hurts?
Gently, and with the range reduced rather than the movement dropped. Where the hip joint itself is arthritic, guidance says joint pain may increase when exercise starts and that consistent exercise still benefits the joint. What comes out is anything sharp, a pinch at the front of the hip crease, or anything that leaves the hip worse for the rest of the day.
Can I do these sitting in a chair?
Most of them. The low lunge has a chair-supported version, the figure 4 has a seated one, and the supported inner-hip release uses a chair to carry the leg. Only pigeon and half happy baby need the floor.
Is stretching enough, or do I need strengthening too?
Both. A hip that will not open at the front is often a hip that is not being extended under load, and the outside of the hip is a strength job before it is a flexibility one. The knee strengthening and balance pages carry that half.
This page is general movement information, not medical advice, and it is not a diagnosis. Stop and get the hip assessed if there is a sharp pinch at the front of the hip crease, clicking with pain, the hip giving way, pain that wakes you at night, or pain that followed a fall. Get clearance first if you have had a hip replacement or hip surgery, because some of these positions are restricted afterwards.
Also called hip stretches, hip stretches for tight hips, hip flexibility exercises, hip mobility stretches, stretches for hip pain, hip stretches for seniors. Movements are drawn from the clinically authored Vinys library. This page is general movement information, not medical advice, and it is not a diagnosis. How the method works.