maratoolStanding Hip Circles
How to do the standing hip circles
- Begin standing on one leg, holding to a vertical support.
- Raise the unsupported knee to 90 degrees. This will be your starting position.
- Open the hip as far as possible, attempting to make a big circle with your knee.
- Perform this movement slowly for a number of repetitions, and repeat on the other side.
Muscles worked
The muscles under tension are the hip abductors — gluteus medius and minimus, which drive the thigh away from the midline and keep the pelvis level when you stand on one leg.
A stretch loads them at the far end of the range they normally work in, so the position you hold is itself the resistance.
Even with a single joint doing the moving, the muscle is not working alone — the adductors steady the thigh against the pull away from the midline.
How this movement works
One joint changes angle and the resistance travels toward you along a single arc. Nothing is positioned to help, so tension stays where you aimed it and the usable load drops sharply against a multi-joint pull for the same muscle. Protect the range of motion; buying weight by shortening the arc defeats the point.
It is filed under stretching, so the target is range of motion rather than force — a position you can settle into and breathe in, held long enough for the tissue to give.
What you need
No equipment at all. The resistance is your own bodyweight, so you progress by changing leverage, range or tempo rather than by adding plates — and you can do it anywhere.
Every exercise using:Body only
These train the abductors too, using equipment this one does not:
- Thigh Abductormachine
- Iliotibial Tract-SMRfoam roll
- Monster Walkband
Difficulty
Listed at beginner level: the pattern is simple enough to pick up without coaching, and a position that goes wrong mid-set is obvious enough to correct on the next repetition.
Of the 8 abductors exercises in this database, 4 are listed at beginner level.
Photos: free-exercise-db — public domain (Unlicense) Full attribution →
ⓘ Informational only — not a substitute for professional fitness or medical advice.