How To Progress In The Hip Hinge Movement

If there is one movement pattern that a majority of people struggle with, it is the hip hinge movement. The hip hinge movement is the bread and butter for all leg days. If you are dedicated to grow your hamstrings, glutes, and lower body, you need to progress and master this movement. If you want to build a strong posterior chain for powerlifting, you need to master the hip hinge movement. The reason that most people struggle with this movement is due to the lack of body awareness. Therefore, I recommend that you record yourself performing these movements to track your progress.

The Hinge is one of the seven basic functional movements that the body performs on a daily basis. It is one of the most effective ways of building lower body strength, and is a staple in deadlifts, hip thrusts, kettlebell swings, glute bridges and glute focused hip extension. One of the most common mistakes for a lot of people is learning how to move their hips without flexing their lower back and causing a lower back injury. Once you have mastered this, you will be able to reduce or prevent lower back pain, tightness, as well as flare ups.

The seven functional movements include the : squat, hip hinge, lunge, push, pull, gait, rotation and the bonus, the hip thrust.

The goal is to have your spine stay neutral throughout the entire movement. If you have this problem, continue reading this post and follow along using this video on Instagram.

Hinge Bodyweight

The first progression step of this movement is to learn with just your bodyweight. Start the movement with your hips by pushing them back with a slight bend in your knees. Keep your eyes down and forward, your neck and back in a neutral position as your perform the move.

Hip Hinge To The Wall

The second progression step of this movement is to hip hinge to the wall. Using the wall is going to teach you muscle control of the move as well as the best stopping point for your body. Stand a foot away from the wall with your legs hip width apart. Push your hips back with a slight bend in your knees and pause once your bum touches the wall. Make sure that your spine is in a neutral position. If you struggle with this progression, keep practicing step 1 and step 2 until you have mastered it.

Your body mechanics are unique compared to another person’s, so where your natural stopping point is will be different to where my natural stopping point is. Eventually, you will be able to improve this by doing regular hip mobility exercises.

Hinge Hands On Head

The third progression step of this movement is hip hinging with your hands on your head. Having your hands on your head helps you be aware of the three points of contact: the head, between the shoulder blades and your bum. In order to perform any exercises that require the hip hinge, you must keep your spine in a neutral position.

As you can see in the pictures and the follow along video, my eyes are not looking up in the mirror but are forward and down. This helps with keeping my spine neutral. If you move your eyes around, your head will also move and put your spine in a hyperextended position. The hyperextended position will put too much pressure on your lower back and spine.

Hip Hinge With PVC bar

If you don’t have a PVC pipe in your gym, you can improvise with the piece of equipment that I’m using or use a Swifter and practice at home. The fourth and last progression step of this movement will reinforce the three points of contact for the hip hinge. These are the head, between the shoulder blades and your bum. The aim is to give you awareness of your body, how your spine is supposed to feel when it is in a neutral position and how to start an exercise by engaging your hips first.

The PVC bar acts as the neutral position that your body should be in when performing the hip hinge. You must not deviate from that line.

Hip Hinge Neutral Positioning

Here is an example of a dumbbell good mornings with the neutral position. I have drawn a line on each of the exercises so you can see all three points of contact.

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I hope that this breakdown of the hip hinge movement was helpful and informative. Let me know what you struggle most with this movement pattern in the comments below. Don’t forget to like and subscribe to join the blog squad. Follow me for more powerlifting, health & wellness, and style content. Follow me on Instagram, Pinterest and TikTok for more video content.

Until next time,

Folakemi