Often overlooked in all fitness programs, but especially for pregnancy is hip strength. Yes hip strength is very important during pregnancy. Working on your hip rotators, flexors and extensors can help prevent some low back discomfort. Your pelvis is changing and sometimes on a daily basis. Your muscles are changing in length too, you need to keep them strong so they do not become too tight, too loose or too weak on any one position.

Your hip rotator muscles run from your sacrum to the head of your femur. You will notice particular tightness around your outer thigh at the top of your leg; this is the head of the femur where hip rotator muscles attach. Important exercises to do to help this is using the foam roller and doing self myofascial release. Now the other attachment is at the sacrum. I am sure you have heard of SI joint pain during pregnancy, well the hormone relaxin and a changing pelvis are the culprits of this. Again you can roll you sacrum on the foam roller as well as perform some abdominal bracing exercises to take the strain off you posterior change from pregnancy posture. Specific strengthening exercises you want to do are standing and rotating your leg from the hip ball and socket joint as far as you can in each direction 10x without hiking your pelvis. Also performing side lying leg raises with your hip in internal rotation is another great exercise to keep the hip strong and even out the strain around the sacroiliac joint.

Hip flexor stretches are great as well when pregnant. As your pregnancy progresses and your pelvis is tipping anteriorly, you hip flexors are in a constant shortened position. Tight hip flexors are another big culprit of back pain. Perform a simple standing quad stretch and push your hip bone forward, this will get into your hip flexor muscle. For more strength and stretch pregnancy exercises visit Baby Bump Pregnancy Fitness. After your hip flexors are stretched you will want to strengthen them in extension.

When performing hip strength exercises later in pregnancy you can complete them standing. Doing a simple standing hip extension or lateral raise can do the trick. Be sure not to hike your pelvic with either of these moves. If you experience low back pain during standing hip extension this is a red flag to discontinue this exercise. Your best bet is to perform closed kinetic chain leg moves to prevent any pelvic shearing that you become more prone to later in pregnancy. By closed kinetic chain I mean both feet fixed on the floor, like in a stationary lateral lunge.



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