Soothe Pregnancy Hip Pain With These Great Exercises

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With a combination of strengthening and stretching exercises, you can soothe your pregnancy hip pain with just 7 moves.

While carrying your baby in pregnancy, your hips are going to carry much of the weight (pun intended hehe). Causing them to become stiff, sore, tight and overall fatigued.

Why do hips get tight during pregnancy?

The weight of your growing belly gradually draws your pelvis forward, forcing your pelvis to compensate for support and resulting in overworked muscles in the hip girdle.

And when our belly grows, we become even more limited in our range-of-motion, making it even tougher to find relief.

But I’m here to help! With a variety of dynamic and static stretches to compliment the right activation and engagement, your hips can feel weightless again. Or as weightless as a pregnant woman can feel LOL.

How to ease hip pain in pregnancy?

Identify muscular imbalances and realign your hips to relax and lengthen the tight and overworked muscles while activating or strengthening the weaker opposing muscle groups.

Like I said before there is not one move or stretch that will be the quick fix for this. Because we are busy moms and do more than one thing!

We sit, stand, walk, work, exercise, drive, carry, cook, clean, and so much more throughout our day. Everyone’s movement patterns are different, and happen at a different frequency.

So you may come to find that you need extra reps or time in certain stretches and moves. Whether it is because you have a desk job, or are on your feet all day at work, or have to pick up your toddler 700 times. That is okay. Do what YOUR body needs and take the time to really identify your problem areas.

With that being said, we all are carrying extra weight in the belly. And the all day, everyday work of that will cause similar imbalances in every woman. Adressing these imbalances and working to correct them on a regular basis will provide you with that relief. And good news, it’s really simple!

How can I realign my hips during pregnancy?

  1. Begin by assessing your posture from the side. Look for an anterior pelvic tilt (hips point down, “duck butt” style) or posterior tilt (hips point back, “tucked butt” style)
  2. Perform 2-3 sets of strengthening and stretching exercises according to your imbalance.
  3. Get active everyday by following a balanced fitness routine that includes strength, cardio, and mobility in all three planes of movement (forward/backward, side-to-side, and rotational).

If you have a posterior tilt, you will want to strengthen your hip flexors and quad muscles then stretch your glute and hamstring muscles.

If you have an anterior tilt, you will want to strengthen your glutes and external rotators then stretch your hip flexors and quads.

StretchesVolumeStrengthening ExercisesVolume
Posterior Tilt
(“tucked butt”)
A) Pigeon Stretch
B) Hinge Stretch
2-3 sets of
30-60 sec. hold
A) Standard Squat
B) Clam Shells
2-3 sets of
8-12 reps
Anterior Tilt
(“duck butt”)
A) Runner’s Stretch2-3 sets of
30-60 sec. hold
A) Glute Bridge
B) Sumo Squat
C) Reverse Clam
2-3 sets of
8-12 reps
Exercise Plan According To Pelvic Tilt

Strengthening exercises for pregnancy hip pain

We want to approach the strengthening exercises in a well rounded way. Being sure to work the hips in all directions, front, back, rotationally and laterally. We also want to attack the large and smaller muscles of the hips and thighs.

  • Squats. This compoud exercise hits all large muscle groups surrouding the hips and the legs through a full range of motion. They do mostly target the hip flexors and quads, but can be adjusted (to sumo style) for a more posterior chain focus.

  • Glute Bridge. These will target the large glute muscles that support your hips and keep them in line against your pelvis tilting forward. I prefer these to a donkey kick because the range of motion can be easily adjusted as well as the intensity (weight).
glute bridge
  • Clam Shells or Fire Hydrants. Both of these movements are external rotations for the hips and are great supporting exercises. External rotation is very important for everyone, pregnant or not, because it provides stability for the hips. Keep in mind, as our bellies grow, the “external rotation muscles” do tend to become overactive because it is natural to widen our gait in pregnancy.
clam shells

  • Reverse Clam Shell. Basically an internal rotation of the hip. This movement will be your best friend when you are in the 3rd trimester and that sciatic pain just won’t go away. Our anatomy makes cross body stretches close to impossible, and those are what really target the sciatic area. A reverse clam shell will help lengthen those muscles by contracting the antagonist.
reverse clam shell

Now you may be wondering, “How can I release my tight hips during pregnancy?” By stretching the overactive muscles that are around the hip girdle, such as the hip flexors, external rotators, quads, and glutes. This will help to relieve the “pulling” of these overactive muscles to soothe hip pain.

Stretches for Pregnancy Hip Pain

How do you stretch your hip flexors while pregnant? The Runner’s Stretch is the most effective hip flexor stretch for pregnancy. Targeting the hip flexors and quads in a gentle and controlled range-of-motion. It can be modified for standing, sitting, or on the ground.

How do you stretch your glutes and hamstrings while pregnant? The Pigeon Stretch will target the glutes and external rotators while a Hinge Stretch will target the hamstrings. Both can be modified for seated or standing.

There are also two ways you can use each stretch, dynamically (through an active range of motion) and statically (a hold).

The best time to do a static stretch is when you have time to really rest in that pose and focus on relaxing your muscle groups one by one. These are very deep stretches and are best done when the body has been warmed up. Such as the end of your day of activity or following a workout (but NOT right before).

Dynamic stretches are best done in preparation for a workout, like in a warm up and can even be used as a cool down. Also, best done in the morning (slow and controlled) when you feel stiff to find relief.

When and how to use these exercises and stretches

While we want to keep it simple, we want to remember that the goal is to find balance.

We DON’T want to neglect strength training the muscles that seem to be extra tight and only work the weakened ones because then we will just shift the imbalance in the opposite direction.

We DO adjust the frequency and workload accordingly. For example, most of us will have tight hip flexors. We wouldn’t write off squats and only strengthen the glutes, because then we will have the same problem but switched! So when should you do which exercises?

My favorite philosophy is to listen to your body. If you notice a certain muscle group or area is tight and/or sore, stretch those ones. Then strengthen (or work) the opposing muscles.

See? Simple! Strengthen the quiet muscles and stretch the loud ones 3-5 days per week until you feel relief. Then you can reduce the frequency.

Now let’s look at the bigger picture. If you are chronically tight and sore in one of those areas and notice it affecting your daily life, you will want to adjust your workout regimen accordingly. So keep your frequency high, meaning more often, on the weaker muscle groups. These “weaker muscles” are the ones opposite of the problem area. If you don’t workout often, just increase your reps or sets of those muscle groups when you can.

Example, everyday my glutes are so tired and sore, a sure sign they are overworked or overcompensating. So I will make sure I do hip flexor and quad focused workouts 3 to 4 days a week and glute focused exercises 1 to 2 days a week. I will also focus on deep (static) stretching my glutes more often while mostly dynamically stretching my hip flexors and quads.

Once you notice that you are more “even” and you have minimized your pregnancy hip pain, don’t worrry about being as strict or scheduled. Just follow your body’s lead based on that day. Mix up your workouts, find balance, and have fun!

Workout To Soothe Pregnancy Hip Pain

Jump in to this well-rounded workout designed to help prenatal moms like you that may be struggling with pregnancy hip pain. No equipment needed to join me for this at home workout video. You will feel as good as new!

Muscular imbalances during pregnancy really take a toll on your comfort and getting relief can make a world of a difference. If you are also experiencing back pain during your pregnancy, check out The Best Exercise To Relieve Prenatal Back Pain. There you can find out more about the causes of your discomfort with a video workout to help get you started!

And for more prenatal exercise guidance, check out my post, 9-Month Pregnancy Workout Plan: The Ultimate Prenatal Fitness Guide.

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About the Author

Coach Zoe

Fitness trainer and mom of 3! I love working out, hanging out with my family, and motivating others.

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