My top 3-Exercise Hip Strength Circuit for Pain That Improves With Training
If you have hip pain that actually feels better once you get moving, that’s usually a good sign.
It often means your hip doesn’t need more rest. Your hip needs more strength, control, and capacity.
The following 3-exercise circuit targets the most common weak links we see in active adults and athletes:
Hip flexor strength and comfort
Internal rotation strength
Adductor (inner thigh) strength
You can run this circuit at the beginning of a workout as a warm-up, between sets of lower body lifts, or at the end as accessory work.
Frequency: 2x per week
Dose: 30–60 seconds per exercise
Rounds: 2 total
Total time: 3-5 minutes 2x week
1. Reverse Squat (Band or Cable)
What it trains: Hip flexion strength while maintaining trunk control.
A lot of hip pain shows up in deep flexion. Aggravating activities can include squatting, sprinting, stairs, tying shoes. Instead of avoiding that position, we choose to strengthen it.
How to do it:
Anchor a band low or use a cable.
Hold a weight or handle to engage your lats.
Keep back flat on ground.
Pull your knees toward your chest under control.
Lower slowly.
Key cues:
“Flat back.”
“Slow on the way down.”
This builds strength in hip flexion without aggressively compressing the front of the joint. If your hip feels better during training, this is often a high-return movement. Try playing around with the hip position to see what feels natural for you.
2. 90/90 Supine Hip Internal Rotation
What it trains: Internal rotation strength at 90° hip flexion.
Many people with hip pain are stiff or weak into internal rotation. This pattern can get worse when the hip is flexed which impacts deadlifts, squats, sitting, and climbing.
How to do it:
Lie on your back.
Hips and knees at 90°.
Yoga block or ball between knees.
Band wrapped around feet, held in hands and criss-crossed.
Flatten your low back into the floor.
Rotate your feet outward (this creates hip internal rotation).
Key cues:
“Squeeze on the block.”
“Rotate from the hip, not the ankle.”
“Control the tension.”
This strengthens the hip in a position that often feels vulnerable with minimal risk of ticking things off.
3. Copenhagen Bridge
What it trains: Adductor strength and frontal plane stability. aka a really strong and resilient groin
Your inner thigh muscles play a major role in hip stability. Weak adductors often show up in:
Groin tightness
Hip irritation during running
Loss of control at the bottom of squats
How to do it:
Top leg supported on a bench.
Bottom leg hovering (or supported if needed).
Body in a straight line.
Hold.
Key cues:
“Stay long.”
“Hips forward.”
“Don’t sag at the hips.”
Start with a short lever (knee on bench). Progress to long lever (foot on bench) as strength improves.
Why This Circuit Works
Together, these three exercises train the hip in all three planes:
Sagittal plane – Reverse squat
Transverse plane – 90/90 internal rotation
Frontal plane – Copenhagen bridge
That’s full-spectrum hip control.
When pain improves with activity but limits higher-level performance, the solution is often building tolerance instead of avoiding movement.
This circuit builds:
Strength in positions that feel limited
Control at joint angles that usually trigger symptoms
Capacity so your hip can handle more load over time
How to Progress It
Weeks 1–2
30 seconds per exercise
Focus on clean positioning
Weeks 3–4
45 seconds per exercise
Slow the lowering phase of the reverse squat
Progress the Copenhagen lever
Weeks 5–6
60 seconds per exercise
Add load to the reverse squat
Turn the 90/90 into slow controlled reps instead of just a hold
When to Adjust
Muscle fatigue is fine.
Mild soreness is normal.
Back off if you notice:
Sharp pinching that lingers into the next day
Groin pain above 4/10 that doesn’t settle
Increasing irritation as volume climbs
The goal is gradual capacity building without flaring anything up.
If your hip feels better when you train, that’s a strong signal: it likely needs more structured strength, not less movement.
Run this twice per week, stay consistent for 4–6 weeks, and you’ll often see noticeable improvements in tolerance, control, and performance.
If pain persists or limits sport, getting assessed can help individualize progressions (we do that at the clinic) but this is a very solid starting point.
