Yearning for a bigger butt? Doing hip abduction exercises can be a great way to achieve that well-defined waist most women crave.
However, training your hip muscles isn’t just for aesthetics alone.
Training your abductor muscles can improve your body’s strength, balance, and mobility. It also helps you treat and prevent knee pain or joint problems.
In this article, we’ll explore everything you need to know about hip abduction exercises. From its benefits to the best hip abduction workouts, you can do it in the comforts of your own home.
Let’s get started.
Hip Abduction: An Overview
Hip Abduction refers to the flexion and rotation of the hip joints through the hip abductor muscles.
While the body relies heavily on the core muscles for balance and mobility, the hip abductors are also fundamental to physical movement.
It connects the thigh bone to the pelvis and assists the body’s balance. It supports basic movements like walking or standing.
Here are the three primary muscles responsible for Abduction:
- Gluteus Medius – The primary muscle that drives movement in the hip joints. Such as hip extension and external rotation.
- Tensor Fascia Lata – Helps stabilize the hip and knee joints.
- Gluteus Minimus – The smallest in all of the abductor muscles. Assists in abducting, stabilizing, and internal rotation.
Living a sedentary lifestyle can cause many people to develop weak abductors. It leads the body to rely on the wrong muscles for movement.
Having weak abductors puts pressure on your joints. It can debilitate your body’s performance. It may cause pain and make you more susceptible to injury.
What Are Hip Abduction Exercises?
Hip abductor exercises aim to develop your abductor muscles to prevent injury and enhance your body’s overall performance.
These workouts are composed of working the three main abductor muscles through engaging in a series of lateral exercises.
Many people engage in hip abduction exercises. It may be for weight loss, physical therapy, or injury prevention.
Some athletes do hip abduction exercises to prevent or treat injuries like patellofemoral pain syndrome. Also known as runner’s knee, it is a common injury that occurs in runners with weak hip abductors.
A recent study has shown how hip abduction exercises improve the health condition of women with patellofemoral pain.
Is Hip Abduction Good For Glutes?
Hip Abduction gives a lot of benefits to your glutes.
Traditional glute exercises like squats are great in targetting your gluteus maximus, the largest muscle in your butt. However, it doesn’t do much in targetting your other glute muscles.
Strengthening your hip abductors can help sculpt your glutes and give your bum a more defined shape.
An ideal glute workout should include a dose of hip abduction exercises to encourage the equal distribution of strength in your glute muscles.
Since we have everything covered, below are six of the best hip abduction exercises you can do:
6 Best Hip Abduction Exercises Help Your Glutes Bigger
1.Clamshell or Clam Exercise – Clamshells are quite a popular exercise that is equally simple and challenging. Aside from toning your butt and hips, it significantly improves your stability. It promotes balance in your glutes, pelvic floor, and thighs.
Targets: Gluteus Medius
Equipment: Exercise Mat and Resistance Band (optional for manual resistance)
How to Do It:
- Proceed to lie on one side. (If you have resistance bands, you can loop them around your thighs.)
- Use your arm below to support your head. Use your top arm to keep yourself steady. Bend both of your knees to a 45-degree angle.
- Tighten your abdominal muscles and tuck your belly button in to help balance your pelvis and spine.
- With both of your feet touching, raise your top knee as high as you can without lifting your lower leg off the ground.
- Hold it for a few seconds until you feel your hip muscles engaged.
- Carefully bring your top leg back to its initial position.
- Repeat.
2.Side-Lying Hip Abduction – Another popular hip abductor exercise. The side-lying hip abduction aids in stabilizing the hips and knee. It helps improve balance and alleviate knee pain.
Targets: Tensor fasciae latae and Glutes
Equipment: Exercise Mat and Resistance Band (optional for manual resistance)
How to Do It:
- Lie down on one side on an exercise mat. (If you have resistance bands, loop them around your ankles.)
- Keep both of your legs and hips stacked together. Support your head with your lower arm. You can either place your top arm to your side or on the floor for balance.
- Keep your feet relaxed into a neutral position and keep your balance in check.
- Tightening both your glutes and core, raise your top leg until it is above your hip joints. Steady your body and hold that position for a few seconds.
- Slowly lower your leg back down to its initial position.
- Repeat.
3.Prone Hip Extension – This hip extending exercise helps stretch out your hip muscles, hamstrings and tighten your glutes. As simple as prone hip extensions may seem, it’s a bit challenging to do.
Targets: Gluteus Medius, Hamstrings, and Glutes.
Equipment: Exercise Mat
How to Do It:
- Lie on your stomach on the ground. Keep your legs extended.
- Place your arms below your head for support.
- With both your core and glutes tight, raise your one leg upward, knee straight. Stop until your leg is a few inches off the floor.
- Hold your position for at least five seconds before slowly lowering it back to its starting position.
- Repeat.
4.Fire Hydrants – Fire Hydrants are an excellent exercise to achieve wider hips and a sculpted butt. This exercise helps alleviate knee pain, improves balance and posture.
Targets: Gluteus Medius, Core Muscles, and Glutes.
Equipment: Exercise Mat and Resistance Band (optional for manual resistance)
How to Do It:
- Go to your hands and knees. Keep your shoulders above your hands and hips in-line with your knees.
- Keep your core tight as you lift one leg away to your side at a 45-degree angle.
- Hold that position for a few seconds.
- Carefully lower your leg back to its initial position.
- Repeat.
5.Side-lunges (squat) – A lateral lunge is another excellent hip abductor strengthening exercise. It can help improve your range of motion and tighten your glutes and hips.
Targets: Glutes, Hamstrings, Adductor Magnus, and Hip Abductors
Equipment: Dumbbell or Stance Band (optional)
How to Do It:
- Assume in a standing position. Keep your back straight and feet a shoulder’s-width apart. Lace your fingers together and hold them to your chest in a prayer position. (If you have a dumbbell, hold it in front of you, chest-level.)
- With your right leg, take a long step outward from your side.
- Tighten your glutes and your core as you slowly bend your right knee, pushing your hips back into a half-squat.
- Hold that position for a few seconds before easing your leg up to its starting position.
- Repeat.
6.Lateral Step-up Abduction – Lateral Step-ups are another effective exercise. It can help tighten your glutes, extend your leg muscles, and alleviate joint pain. It can also improve your posture and stability.
Targets: Glutes, Hip Muscles, Quad, and Hamstrings.
Equipment: Plyo Box or anything stable enough to elevate you knee-high from the floor.
How to Do It:
- Stand straight next to the plyo box. Put your left foot on top of the box.
- Keep your core and glutes tight as you lift yourself off the ground. Make sure your hips are steady.
- Be careful in keeping your balance in-check as you hold yourself with one foot on the box.
- Carefully descend your free foot down to the ground until you are in your starting position.
- Repeat.
Benefits Of Hip Abductors Exercises
1.Improves Physical Performance
Strengthening your hip abductors can significantly improve both your balance and mobility.
Most people with knee pain and joint issues often have weak abductor muscles due to living a sedentary lifestyle.
Even hard-working athletes or other people with physically demanding occupations encounter similar issues when they don’t train their abductor muscles.
Doing hip abduction exercises can help strengthen your abductor muscles. Doing so can help you perform at your best and utilize your strength to its fullest.
2.Improves Stability and Posture
Hip abductors aid the core muscles in promoting stability in the body during movement.
Your hips connect your upper body to your lower leg muscles. Strong hip abductor muscles help support the spine and keep the body upright.
Doing hip abduction exercises is also essential for aging adults and seniors.
One study claims how seniors gained improvement in both their balance and physical performance due to hip abductor exercises.
3.Lowers Risk and Treats Osteoarthritis
Our hip muscles are also primarily responsible for supporting our body mass.
Having weak abductor muscles may often make your knees bear the full-brunt of your weight. It is due to the impaired frontal-plane pelvic control during walking or external knee adduction moment.
The immense joint load would cause health issues and can even heighten your risk of developing osteoarthritis in the future.
Strengthening your hips can help take some of the weight off your joints and prevent osteoarthritis from developing.
Research shows how hip abduction exercises help alleviate knee pain and improve mobility in people with osteoarthritis.
4.Increase Hip Definition
Following a hip-targeted workout can give your hips definition. The more you train your abductor muscles, the more your hip and glute muscles will develop.
As long as you follow a well-balanced diet, amp your protein intake, and stay consistent with your exercises, you’ll get the curvy hips of your dreams in no time.
The Bottom Line
Adding hip abduction exercises to your workout routine can be beneficial in a lot of ways.
Aside from getting well-defined hips, doing these exercises can leave a positive impact on your health. It can also prevent serious health issues from developing in the future.
It’s clear how increasing your abductor muscle strength can help you live a healthier and happier lifestyle.
