Do you like to walk hike or run? How about snowshoe? Controlling your hip and pelvis position is important to be strong and avoid injury. Try our simple hip strengh exercise at home, to improve your strength and stability and run or walk with more ease.

Hi this is Dana Ranahan from Body Works Physiotherapy in North Vancouver and I want to show you an exercise to work on strengthening your hips. This is really important for all you people out there that like to hike, walk or run.

When we stand on one leg, we want to work on the ability to maintain our pelvis neutral. This prevents any twist or shifting through our hips, which usually leads to trouble with the knee or the back.

Come against the wall and keep your hip and shoulder against the wall.
This left leg is the one we’re going to work to strengthen first.
Keep a good line through your hip, knee and foot, so that the knee is not turning in, and hips are level so there’s no hike or drop.
In this position, I’m going to get you to push your knee into the wall
We’re going to work this opposite glute muscle and work to stabilize the pelvis neutral.
So pelvis square, shoulder and hip against the wall, pushing the right knee into the wall
Maintain a hold, engaging this muscle to work on stability.

This is a really important exercise to help stabilize your stance position. Usually we hold this for 20-30 seconds, or until you hit fatigue, and then repeat it. Endurance is what we want here. The ability to hold for longer. So give that a try. It should help you run and walk a little stronger without pain.