What is Hip Abduction

Hip abduction refers to the movement of your leg away from the center line of your body, which occurs laterally (side-to-side). When you abduct your hips, most of the movement comes from your gluteus medius, gluteus minimus, and tensor fasciae latae muscles, which sit on the outer sides of your hips. A healthy capacity for abduction keeps your pelvis stable as you walk, run, or stand on one leg. You also need it for your balance and overall posture. We see this type of movement in exercises like side leg raises or lateral band walks, which also work the muscles involved in hip abduction.

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How-to Do Hip Abduction

Stand up straight with your hands on your hips or extended down to your sides.
Raise one leg out to the side. Squeeze your glute and hold.
Slowly return to the starting position.

Muscle Worked

Primary Muscle Groups

Adductors

The adductors are the muscles on the insides of your thighs that move your legs toward the midline of your body

Glutes

The glutes help you extend your thighs from the hips and drive you forward.

Secondary Muscle Groups

Obliques

The obliques help you twist your trunk and support your core and spine.

Pro Tips

Move Slowly- Although this exercise looks simple, it can be highly effective if you’re doing it with control. Don’t rush your reps. Try to be slow and deliberate with your movement so you’re getting the most muscular engagement in your glutes and outer thighs. The gluteus medius is a muscle that most exercises don’t target so really take the time to feel this muscle working, especially if you’re not doing weighted abduction.
Try Ankle Weights- If you’ve got them on hand, using a set of ankle weights for your hip abduction exercises is a great way to make sure you’re really feeling the burn!
Experiment with Angles- Try different angles. Lean slightly forward or backward to target different parts of your glutes. More of a forward lean emphasizes the glute medius in most people. On the other hand, a fully neutral upright position targets other hip abductors— like your sartorius, piriformis, and tensor fasciae latae (TFL)— more evenly.

Benefits of Doing Hip Abduction

Stable Hips- Hip abduction exercises strengthen your glute medius and minimus muscles. These are the smaller muscles that make up your glutes, along with the best-known muscle, the gluteus maximus. These muscles stabilize your pelvis as you walk, run, jump and more. Stronger hip abductors reduce the risk of imbalances and injuries like knee pain or IT band syndrome.
Better Sport Performance- Hip abduction exercise is a great way to supercharge your athletic performance. Since this exercise improves your lateral movement and agility, it can be helpful for athletes in sports like basketball or soccer. It can also enhance the explosive power you need for jumping and sprinting.
Perfect Posture- Strong hip abductors help align your pelvis and spine, keeping them straight. This takes the pressure out of your lower back. Regularly doing these exercises helps your posture and reduces pain from too much sitting or standing.

Warm Up & Cool Down

Warm Up

Lie down with your knees bent. Plant your feet firmly, hip-distance apart then drive through your feet to push your hips up. Hold briefly, then lower, rolling down through the vertebrae of your spine. This mainly activates your glutes and warms up your hip muscles, so they’re ready for abduction exercises.
Lie on your side and bend your knees. Open and close your top leg slowly, like a clam. This warms up your hip abductors and gluteus medius. You should feel a slight burn on the outsides of your hips in this warm-up.
Pop a resistance band around your mid-thighs and start to walk side-to-side. This warms up your abductors but also engages your core and stabilizes leg muscles.

Cool Down

Sit or lie down and cross one ankle over your opposite knee. Pull the leg under your ankle toward you. This stretches your hip abductors and glutes.
Sit up straight and bring the soles of your feet together. Gently press your knees out, bringing them as far as you can toward the ground. This stretches your inner thighs (adductors), the opposite muscles to your abductors. Generally, on a leg day, you should work both of these muscles, so this stretch releases your opposite muscle group and improves hip flexibility.
Kneel on one knee and shift your weight forward, stretching the front of your hip. This balances out any tightness from abductor exercises.

FAQ

No! Hip abduction exercises mostly work your gluteus medius and glute minimus, but they also engage what’s called the tensor fasciae latae (TFL), a surrounding thigh muscle and other smaller stabilizer muscles around your hips. All these muscles work in conjunction to control your side-to-side (lateral) movements. They also keep your pelvis stabilized as you shuffle side to side so you don’t fall out of alignment or put excess pressure on other joints that jump in to compensate. It’s a good idea to strengthen all these muscles together for both performance and warding off injuries.

Hip dips are natural indents that are dictated by your bone structure and genetics, so you can’t restructure your bones. These grooves between your hips and thighs depend on how your pelvis and femur (thigh bone) are shaped. Exercise, weight gain or weight loss won’t change your skeletal shape, but working out can help build muscle around your hips. In some cases, this can help to “fill in” the dips with extra muscle and improve their look. That said, workouts won’t completely get rid of them. Nevertheless, strengthening your glutes and outer thighs using hip abduction can build up your surrounding muscles, so you get a more filled-out look to your hips and glutes.

Both machines and resistance bands are great tools to use for your hip abduction exercises. The choice is mostly up to your goals and preferences, but there are slight differences in muscle activation. Machines give you a consistent resistance pattern. They’re best for isolating your hip abductors, and because of your seated position, there’s less need for balance or stability. On the other hand, resistance bands help you train more functional movement patterns. You can work on walking abductor exercises like lateral walks or standing abductions. Both these exercises are closer to real-life scenarios or those you might see in sports like soccer or football. Try both, but depending on what you’re training for, combining them can sometimes give you better results.

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