Learning How To Hip Hinge correctly is one of the most important movements to master. It’s the ability to bend at the hips (not the knees like a squat) and is key for strengthening your posterior chain muscles like glutes and hamstrings. Master this movement first, then grab the best hip hinge exercises to start building strength the right way.
While I am a huge advocate for glute training at home, I really believe in having a strong posterior chain as a whole.
Strengthening the back of the body with a hip hinge helps:
- make daily tasks easier
- reduce back pain
- helps moms pick up kids without injuring themselves
- improves posture
- allows moms to do the things they love (work out, play with kids etc).
And many posterior chain exercises initiate with a hip hinge. This means, if you don't know how to perform this movement, you'll see little benefit to many exercises.
Learning to hip hinge is the biggest bang for your buck when it comes to not injuring yourself while you pick something up.
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What Is A Hip Hinge?
Hip hinging is the act of breaking at the hips while maintaining a good back posture (neutral spine).
You're moving the hip joint through its expected range of motion. So basically, properly bending over and picking things up or swinging something.
Some crucial form points:
- The knees have a slight bend in them
- The upper back needs to remain flat (extended thoracic spine)
- Shoulders are engaged and pulled away from the ears and back on the body
- Neck is neutral
When done correctly, you should feel a stretch in the back of the legs (hamstrings). The reason I love this exercise is that if you don't feel that stretch you're in the wrong position.
This exercise gives you instant feedback. If you don't feel it immediately, your form is off.
When done properly and with a neutral spine, the hip hinge targets almost every single muscle on the back of the body. From your calves to your upper back is key for hip dominant exercises.
3 Beginner Hip Hinge Drills
Below are three progressions to learning and begin using the hip hinge. These drills start out simple and teach the basics (just how to hip hinge) and then scale up to using the hip hinge in a workout.
Until you truly master the technique of hinging from the hips, no external load should be given. Otherwise, you're at more of a risk to injure the back than help it! Learn, practice, and perfect the basics before jumping into anything intense.
- Hanging with a dowel on your back
- Bodyweight hip hinge to a wall
- Loaded Romanian Deadlift
These beginner exercises build on each other so that you can master the hip hinge exercise.
Hip Hinge Exercise #1 Dowel Hip Hinge
This drill teaches proper hip hinge form, not intensity.
Stand tall and place a dowel along your back, keeping three contact points: tailbone, upper back, and head. Maintain these throughout the movement.
- Your tailbone
- Your upper back
- The back of your head.
Push your hips back (not down), keeping a slight bend in your knees. As your torso lowers, keep the dowel in contact, if you lose a point, reset.
Lower until you feel a hamstring stretch, then drive your hips forward to stand.
Placing a dowel on the contact points allows you to really see at what point in the movement your form breaks and work to correct it. Master 8 solid reps without losing contact before moving on.
Hip Hinge Exercise #2 Bodyweight Romanian Deadlift To A Wall
Once you’re comfortable with the hinge, this drill adds a bit more challenge using bodyweight.
Stand a few inches from a wall with your hands on your lower back. Hinge at the hips, pushing your bum back until it taps the wall, then drive through your heels to stand.
You should feel this in your hamstrings—not your lower back. Perform 10 reps.
Progressions:
- Hands by your ears
- Arms crossed over your chest
When you can do 2 solid sets with control, you’re ready to move on.
Hip Hinge Exercise #3 Weighted Romanian Deadlift
The Romanian deadlift is a staple for strengthening the posterior chain.
Hold one or two dumbbells close to your legs. Hinge at the hips, lowering until you feel a stretch in your hamstrings, then drive your hips forward to stand.
Keep your chest proud, shoulder blades engaged, and a slight bend in your knees.
Perform 2–3 sets of 6–10 reps.
Tip: keep the weight close to your body to avoid rounding your back.
3 Mistakes People Make With The Hip Hinge Movement Pattern
There are two main areas in which form breaks down with beginners when learning how to hip hinge.
Unfortunately, these breakdowns can cause the movement to go from beneficial to an injury risk depending on the load.
This is why it is crucial for moms to perfect the movement of moving the hip joint without weight (or kids) until it becomes second nature.
Initiating With A Squat
A hip hinge is a hip movement. Meaning, the first step is to sink the hips backward, not bend the knees.
When beginners are learning, they often allow their bum to move toward the floor (not to move backwards).
How to fix it: practice by performing your hip hinge about 3 inches away from a wall. As you start to hinge, sink backward and tap your bum to the wall. This gives immediate feedback to help you correct the movement pattern.
Rounded Back
When learning how to hip hinge you need to keep the upper and lower back very flat. As a neutral spine, and the back muscles engaged.
Many moms naturally allow their back to come into flexion (rounding) and thus end up looking like a ragdoll (see image below). This puts unnecessary pressure on the low back- which is exactly what we're trying to avoid.
How to fix it: to fix this, practice the dowel drill. If the dowel loses contact with any of the three points, you've rounded your back.
Letting Arms Drift Forward
Once you master the movement, you will most likely move on to using some sort of weight or resistance.
However, if your arms are straight down from your shoulders, this places the weight too far forward and can hurt your back.
How to fix it: when you're learning and practicing, keep the palms against your thighs. this helps you keep the weight shifted backwards and engage the back of the body muscles.
Best Hip Hinge Exercises
As a crucial exercise to prevent low back pain the basic hip hinge is an important tool in your workout arsenal. It is also the base for many other exercises that target the posterior chain.
These hip hinge exercises all strengthen the back of the body and utilize the hip hinge movement to do so.
- Cable pull through
- Standing band hip thrust
- Glute bridges or Bench glute bridge
- Good mornings
- Band deadlifts
- Supported single leg Romanian deadlift
- Kettlebell swing
More Fitness Tips
Ready to turn these basics into real strength? My 6 Weeks to STRONG program gives you simple, structured workouts you can follow at home—so you keep progressing without the guesswork.
Hip Hinge FAQs
Learning to hip hinge allows you to strengthen the core muscles and the muscles of the back of the body. These muscles need to work together to help improve posture and perform daily tasks. Thus, the hip hinge helps you get stronger, reduce injury risk, and improve your day to day tasks.
The hip hinge primarily works the muscles of the posterior chain, or the "back of the body". These muscles include the glutes, hamstrings, low back, and more. Strengthening these muscles helps reduce your risk of injury.
If your back is hurting in a hip hinge it's most likely because you're not in the proper position. If you've rounded the upper or lower back, or if you've shifted the weight too far forward, it will cause discomfort in the muscles of the low back. To correct this, practice the movement with a dowel until you nail down the pattern.
angela @ happy fit mama says
Hinging at the hips is so hard for a lot of people to get! Great tips!
fitasamamabear says
Most people definitely struggle.. but you really do need it to protect the back!
Belinda says
Great tips! I'll give this a go
fitasamamabear says
God luck!
Mel says
I'm going to have to give this a try at the gym! My back definitely needs strengthening and this could be just the ticket! Thanks for sharing
fitasamamabear says
This is definitely a good start! Master the movement and then work up to strengthening it 🙂
elizabeth says
These are some of my favorite exercises for lower body! It's so important to have a strong lower body. Awesome for sharing!
xo elizabeth |
fitasamamabear says
Wahoo! Glad you love the exercises. I LOVE training posterior chain period but especially low body- so important!
Divya: Gone With A Whim says
This is so helpful. My family has a history of weak backs and my job involves me sitting in front of the computer 24/7 so these exercies will definitely help me out a lot. Thanks so much!
fitasamamabear says
Glad you can make use of them!
Janette says
Great article, It's definitely super important for us to maintain strong backs. I am a big fan of anything that keeps a mum bold beautiful and blissful and this certainly hit home for me 🙂 Glad I found your post.
fitasamamabear says
Thanks for the kind words- yes it is important to keep up strong backs.. little ones get heavy! Thanks for dropping by 🙂
Angie says
Great job with the step by step pictures. That is always really helpful . 🙂
fitasamamabear says
Thanks! I'm a visual learner so I try to throw them in 🙂
Deena | Divine Art of Homemaking says
Great post, I am going to try these in my workout tomorrow. I definitely need to strengthen my lower back after five kids.
fitasamamabear says
Let me know how it goes! And if you need more tips just shout... FIVE?! You. Are. A. Rockstar
Cassie says
I so need to work on this. But ow! Not sure if I have the discipline to follow through. :-/
fitasamamabear says
It seems like such an odd movement at first but makes a huge difference when you master it! Remember to not lock out the knees- thee should be NO pain in the low back when learning- you should feel it in the hamstrings/glutes more 🙂
Pooja Sharma says
That was very informative. Love your site.
fitasamamabear says
Thanks!