The hip joint and the many muscles of the hip are one of the most complex in the entire human body. Those muscles of the hip provide movement, strength, and stability to the hip joint, the bones of the hip, and thigh. Let's take a look at the muscular anatomy of the hip which includes flexors, extensors, adductors, abductors, and rotators. We're listing their functions, examples of barre exercises that work to strengthen the hip in a barre class and their benefits.
Flexors
Purpose: Move the leg in front of the body (hip flexion).
Exercise: Front Leg Lift, Knee Lift, Lunge, Bicycle Crunches, Pikes
Benefit: Strengthens the source of all of our efficient movements like running, jumping or even standing.
Extensors
Purpose: Move the leg behind the body (hip extension).
Exercise: Reverse Leg Lift, Pretzel, Prone Leg Lift, Bridging
Benefit: Strengthens the glutes and hamstrings and helps to counterbalance sitting for hours.
Adductors
Purpose: Bring the leg towards the midline of the body and they flex and medially rotate the thigh at the hip joint.
Exercise: Chair Ball Squeeze, V Knee Bends (the up action), Supine Leg Lowers Crisscross
Benefit: Necessary for pelvic floor strengthening and reducing the chances for a groin strain.
Abductors
Purpose: Move the leg away from the midline of the body and medially rotate the thigh at the hip joint.
Exercise: Lateral Leg Lift, Pretzel, Squat Step Outs
Benefit: Necessary for stabilization, balance, and can reduce the appearance of knock knees.
Medial Rotators
Purpose: A group of muscles that internally rotate the femur in the hip joint.
Exercise: Leg Lift with Internal Rotation, Inverted Lunge, Center Split Stretch
Benefit: Improves balance, posture, and gait.
Lateral Rotators
Purpose: A group of muscles that externally rotate the femur in the hip joint.
Exercise: Wide V, Curtsey Lunge, Figure 4 Stretch
Benefit: Improves balance, posture and can even relieve low back and knee pain.
“instruct your clients through their workout in a way that is informed and dynamic, giving them the absolute best experience.”
The hips are responsible for so much of the movement we use in our daily lives; pulling our knees up and down, moving the legs from side to side, keeping the pelvis stable and allowing us to flex at the waist. It’s important in a barre class to include as many of those types of movements as you can. A well-balanced hip routine can improve our standing posture, flexibility and help us to reduce knee and lower back pain.
In a Barre Intensity class, our goal is to work the front, the back, the side, the inner and outer part of the body. It’s a total body workout in which the hips play a major role. When you begin to see how all these pieces work together you can more accurately cue and instruct your clients through their workout in a way that is informed and dynamic, giving them the absolute best experience.
Take your barre training to the next level and become even better at your barre teaching skills by participating in our Barre Anatomy Workshop. Wondering what our Barre Anatomy workshop covers? Read our blog, Inside Look-Barre Anatomy Workshop. Have you already participated in one of our Live or Online barre training workshops? Log into your Barre Now account and access one of your free post-training tools today!