About Hip Muscles

The hip muscles support the body's weight, are instrumental in the ability to walk and are involved to some degree in every full body movement. The hip muscles control the ball and socket hip joint and sit at the vital junctures where the legs meet the pelvis and the pelvis meets the spine. Strong hip muscles are essential to protect the hip joint. However, few people do exercises focused specifically on the hip muscles.

Identification

The hip muscle group is a complicated network of interacting muscles. There are 17 muscles divided into four distinct categories. The abductors are on the outside of the hips. They are also known as the gluteal group and are located in the buttocks. The adductors are on the inside of the hips. They are often referred to as the groin muscles. The flexors are on the front of the hips. They are often referred to as the Iliopsoas group. The extensors are on the back of the hips and extend to the back of the legs. They are sometimes referred to erroneously as hamstrings. Hamstrings are tendons and not muscles.

Features

The hip muscles help with four basic types of movements in the human hips. The most basic is rotating forward and back. This happens when people walk or run. One hip bears the weight of the body while the other rotates to take the next step. The other three movements take place when a person is standing still. One happens when a person bends their torso forward and back. Another occurs when a person bends from side to side. The last happens when a person rotates the hips in a circle. In all the movements, every hip muscle must play a role.

Function

The network of hips muscles work in elaborate cooperation. Since hip muscles surround the hip joints from all sides, they have a complimentary push and pull system. When one hip muscle contracts, another hip muscle on the other side relaxes. Since hip joints move quickly and often unpredictably, the hip muscles must respond in conjunction automatically. This requires highly complex coordination. It is believed this is one of the reasons it takes human babies so long to learn to walk.

Considerations

Since many of the muscles of the hip extend to different parts of the body, problems with hip muscles can manifest elsewhere. It is common for hip injuries to lead to knee and back injuries. This is especially true of athletes who attempt to push their bodies before a hip muscle injury heals. When hip muscles are injured, they cannot coordinate with other hip muscles effectively. The rest of the body attempts to compensate, often with disastrous results. Broken hips are a common injury for the elderly. Weakened hip muscles do not support or protect frail elderly hip bones as effectively as they once did.

Prevention/Solution

Maintaining strong hip muscles is essential to good hip health. Running, walking and stretching are all excellent ways to keep hip muscles strong for healthy people. Many gyms have weight lifting machines that specifically work the adductor, abductor and gluteal muscles. Weighted squats are also excellent for strengthening the hip muscles. If you have a hip muscle injury, it is important to allow it to heal completely before performing strenuous exercise that could injure you more.