Squatting: Hip Mobility

Hip mobility is equally as important as ankle mobility for squatting, if not more. But, the ankle limitations could be causing the hip problem, but that’s a whole other rabbit hole to go down in. 

In the descending portion of your squat, your hips hinge, knees flex, and your ankles dorsiflex. At the hip specifically, the femoral head glides posteriorly (back), allowing your pelvis and torso to come down into the squat. When your hip joint and/or muscles in the surrounding area are tight or not firing correctly, this can affect the posterior glide of the femoral head (we’ll call it the hip), causing that pinching pain in the front of the hip during the squat. This is where you’ll commonly see a hip shift, and shying away from getting to parallel or below.

To test this, try squatting and then lye on your back and pull your knee to your chest, assessing for any tightness or pinching. Also check your hip internal and external rotation, seeing if one feels tighter than the other.

Knee to Chest Test: Lye on your back, pull knee to your chest, pull the calf to your thigh. Feel for any tightness, pinching, or discomfort in the hip or knee.

Hip Internal Rotation Test: Hold knee directly over hip, rotate foot out to the right, aiming for 45 degrees.

Hip External Rotation Test: Hold knee above hip, rotate foot in to the left, aiming for 45 degrees.

If you’re having a difficult time pulling the knee to your chest because of anterior hip pain, then try these banded hip mobilizations and shin boxes AKA hip 90/90.

Perform these mobility drills for 10 repetitions and 5-10 second holds prior to your activity. Avoid holding longer stretches because this can fatigue the muscles and reduce strength in your squat. It is important to remember to test first, mobilize, then re-test to see if the exercise helped or if you need to hit a few areas more.