If you’re someone who sits a lot, has dealt with chronic back pain and tension, and you notice you can’t stand or walk for long periods of time, consider looking at your hip extension. Hip extension is the movement that occurs when your legs goes behind your body. This can be a sneaky thing to consider when dealing with many different issues, including back, hip, or knee pain. It is one of the most foundational movements needed for walking, standing, and running. It’s also very important for the athletic population due to the amount of range needed in the hips and because of the amount of force that should be generated from the hip. This post will review why hip extension is important, how a lack of hip extension impacts your daily life, and what you can do to ensure you gain (and maintain) this important movement.
**This is not medical advice. Please consult your medical provider for more information.
What Is Hip Extension (and Why You Need It)
Hip extension is the motion that occurs when you leg goes behind your trunk. When you are walking, one leg travels in front of you while the other trails behind you. The leg in front of you is in hip flexion (the opposite movement) while the leg that is trailing is in hip extension.
Getting down to the nitty gritty, you hip needs roughly 10 degrees of hip extension for normal walking mechanics. It doesn’t sound like much, but it makes a big difference. For running, you will want a little bit more. Closer to 15 degrees. Any time you are walking, going up stairs, or jumping to spike a volleyball, you need hip extension range.
Why Most of Us Struggle With This
Many of us spend hours every day sitting—at a desk for work, in the car and stuck in traffic, or simply sitting on the couch binging Netflix. When we sit, this places are hip in a flexed position. This forward-folded position causes the front of our hips to naturally become tighter. The muscles stiffen up and become accustomed to being in this position over lengths of time. Now this doesn’t happen after one day of sitting for eight hours, nor does it happen after a week of sitting in traffic every day for an hour. This is something that slowly changes over a length of time. Every person is different. For some it can take a couple of weeks before they notice issues. For others, it can be months to years. The longer you find yourself in this flexed position for lengths of time, the more effort it takes to get out of this position.
When the hips are flexed, not only does this impact your hip mobility into extension, but it also can contribute to hip extensor weakness. The main muscle groups involved in hip extension are your glutes and hamstrings with your glutes being the primary hip extensor. If you spend the majority of your time in hip flexion and avoid any range into hip extension, naturally, your muscles become weaker. This brings to light the phrase: “if you don’t use it, you lose it.”
Now imagine you have been sitting for three hours straight and you go to stand up. As you stand, your hip moves from a flexed position to a more neutral position. In an ideal standing posture, the hip shoulder be neutral at zero degrees—neither flexed nor extended. As the muscles adapt to being in a flexed position, can you see how standing can begin to “pull” the muscles located at the front of the hip? You might not feel any pain or pulling initially, but over time, you might start to notice some pain or discomfort. For a lot of people, these symptoms manifest in the low back.
How It Impacts Daily Life
When you body lacks access to full hip extension, it begins to compensate. It does this by creating more of an arch in your low back. Lacking hip extension when you are walking limits how far you are able to step. This is referred to as your stride length. To make up for this, your low back arches as one leg trails behind you. This is it’s way of compensating for the lack of hip extension. Over time, this can lead to overuse of the lumbar extensor muscles which work to extend the low back to make up for the missing hip extension. The same thing can happen when standing for long periods of time, too.
Another way your body can compensate is by affecting your posture so that you tend to stand more hunched forward. This can be seen in individuals who have been lacking hip extension for an extended amount of time (usually years). This tends to be in the older population. With tight hip flexors, standing becomes difficult. You might notice that you stand with your trunk slightly forward, almost like you are still “stuck” in this hip flexed position. You might notice that you can’t even walk without your leg moving behind your body and your steps become much shorter. When your hip flexors are this tight and they pull your trunk forward, this creates a “pulling” sensation to the muscles of your low back. Its like there is this constant low-grade pull to your low back. This can also lead to low back pain.
How Do I Know if I’m Lacking Hip Extension?
You can get an idea on if you are missing some hip extension range by looking at your posture and analyzing how you walk. But you have to confirm what is causing the lack of hip extension. Many times, it is that the hip flexors are tight. And there is an easy way to test this.
First, lie on your back on an elevated surface. A massage table will work best, but you can use the edge of your bed too. Start by scooting the right side of your body all the way to the edge of the table or bed. Bent your left knee. Then let your right leg extend off the edge of the table/bed. Do not allow your low back to arch off of the table/bed. Keep your ribs from flaring and elevating towards the ceiling. Now pay attention to what you feel:
- You should not feel any pain or discomfort in your low back. If you do, then you’re either arching your back or the act of testing your hip extension range is recreating pain in your low back. This will need to be addressed with the exercises listed below.
- You may feel a stretch in the front of the hip or quad. This doesn’t necessarily mean that your hip flexors are tight, you’re just feeling the stretch. Either way, it would be a good stretching exercise to incorporate.
- If your right thigh is either level with the bed/table or slightly higher than it (as in your thigh isn’t even close to touching the surface), then you have tight hip flexors!
See the video to the right to replicate testing your own hip flexor length! Remember to check both sides.
3 PT‑Approved Exercises to Improve Hip Extension
These first two exercises work on improving your hip extension range. You have to have the range first in order to then strengthen in that range. The final exercise actually works to strengthen your hip extensors.
1/2 Kneeling Hip Flexor Stretch
Place a pad or pillow down for your knee. Place your left knee on the pad and your right foot down on the ground in front of you. you will be stretching your left hip flexors.
Move into a posterior pelvic tilt (tuck your butt like a scared dog tucks its tail).
Without losing your pelvic tilt, shift your weight forward by bending into your right knee. You should feel a stretch in the front of your left hip.
Hold this position up to 30 seconds and repeat. Switch legs and stretch the other side.
Standing Hip Flexor Stretch
Place your right leg up on an elevated surface. You will be stretching the left hip flexors.
Move into a posterior pelvic tilt (tuck your butt like a scared dog tucks its tail). Make sure your left toes are facing forward.
Keeping your left heel down, shift your weight forward. You can do this by bending your right knee and inching it forward. You shoulder feel a stretch in the front of your left hip.
Hold this position for up to 30 seconds and repeat 2-3 times. Switch legs and repeat on the other side.
Prone Hip Extension
Lie on your stomach. If you have back pain or feel this exercise in your back, try placing a pillow under your pelvis for comfort. Use 2-3 pillows if your pain is pretty significant or you can’t get the pain to go away with only 1 pillow.
Keep your legs straight. Start with lifting your right leg up towards the ceiling while keeping your knee straight. Think about pulling from your glute, not your low back. This exercise should not cause pain nor should you feel muscles working in your low back.
The motion of lifting your leg up towards the ceiling should be a small motion. Naturally, we only have a small amount of hip extension range. The goal isn’t to lift your leg as high as you can where you are arching your low back. You want to isolate the glutes to work and limit any compensations.
Perform 3 sets of 10-12 reps on each side.
How to Build Consistency
Achieving both hip range and strength takes time and consistency. But building strength and mobility doesn’t have to mean rigid routines or intense programming. Here are a few easy ways to help you stay consistent:
- Stack the exercises above with the gym or home workouts you already do (i.e. add them to the beginning or end of your workout)
- Start small. Doing just a minute of stretching is better than nothing. A minute every day builds the “consistency muscle.”
- Focus on form, not fatigue. We aren’t going to for breaking records here. Your form is more important as we are trying to achieve a very specific goal.
Conclusion + Next Steps
If you’ve ever felt stuck with a particular movement, have dealt with back pain, or if glute activation has been something you have struggled with, then hip extension might be the key you didn’t know you were missing. The great thing is that regaining this fundamental movement doesn’t require fancy equipment or difficult workouts. It just takes a little awareness, a few intentional minutes, and support from someone who gets it.
Looking for more support like this? Join my weekly newsletter, The Wholistic Journal, where I share more behind-the-scenes tools and stories for healing from the inside out.
Other Related Articles for the Hips
- Tight Hip Flexors and How to Treat Them
- Unlocking the Secrets to Strong Hip Flexors
- Do I Need to Fix My Anterior Pelvic Tilt?
- Chronic Hamstring Stiffness? Here’s What You Need to Know
- The Science Behind Why Glute Activation is Important
- The Hip Hinge: Why it is Important for Daily Life
TL;DR
Hip extension is the movement of your leg behind your body—a foundational piece of healthy posture, walking mechanics, and athletic power. Most people (especially those who sit a lot or experience chronic back or hip tension) struggle with limited hip extension. In this post, you’ll learn what hip extension is, why it matters, and three beginner-friendly PT strategies to improve it—no gym, no fancy equipment, and no burnout required.
