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With a roster of muscles ranging from the powerful glutes to the small and agile abductors, the hips control practically all your movements. Almost every endurance athlete overworks some hip muscles while underworking others, causing severe imbalances: Runners are infamous for having weak hip adductors—the muscles on the side of the hip that help you step laterally—while cyclists tend to have massive quads and tiny glutes.
“As a result, they’re at greater risk of injury,” says physical therapist Ioonna Félix, clinical supervisor at the Hospital for Special Surgery’s Sports Rehabilitation and Performance Center in New York City. Many times, those injuries manifest themselves in ways that seem entirely separate from your hips, like IT band issues, low-back pain, or plantar fasciitis.
The good news is that a well-rounded strength-training program—like the one Félix provides below—can target every muscle in your hips to build better overall strength. Add this routine to your workout two or three times a week to target every muscle in your hips. For each move, complete three rounds of ten reps. If it’s a single-leg exercise, repeat those reps on each leg.