5 Quick Methods To Prepare Your Hips For Pickleball

Hip injuries are notorious for keeping pickleball players off of the court, and they’re among the most common injuries to occur while playing the game. We’ve already dug into a few of our favorite hip exercises in the past, but here are five more to keep your hips loose and healthy before a match!

1. Lying Cable Hip Flexion

As Brady demonstrates in the video above, cable hip flexions are one of the best exercises for strengthening your hip flexors. Going beyond basic stretching is essential sometimes, as working the leg muscles near your hip joints will encourage growth beyond just flexibility.

1. Attach a band to a cable machine and lower it close to the ground.
2. From a seated position, wrap the cable around both of your legs at the ankles.
3. Lay back so that your whole body is flat and your legs are straight out, side by side.
4. Slowly bring your knees up, pulling the cable up towards your chest as far as possible.
5. Once you’ve brought your legs up as far as you can, slowly return to the starting position.
6. Do 3 sets of 5-8 reps.

2. Butterfly Stretch

This classic hip stretch relieves tightness in your hips and improves your overall lower body flexibility. As long as there’s ground to sit on, you can perform a butterfly stretch!

1. Sit on the floor and bring your feet together with the soles touching.
2. Once your feet are positioned sole-to-sole, try to bring them in towards your groin, as close as is comfortable.
3. Straighten your spine, tuck your chin in towards your chest, and lean forward to bring yourself into an upright posture.
4. Slowly move your torso downwards as low as it can go without being overstrained. Hold this position for a minute or so.
5. Return to your upright seated position before going back into the deep stretch, which you should repeat 3-5 times.

3. Horizontal Squat Stretch

The horizontal squat stretch is one of the most rewarding stretches and is also one that should come naturally. Not only will it loosen up your hips, but it’ll also likely stretch out your back in the process!

1. Start in a position with both your knees and elbows on the floor, as though you were going to start crawling, with your knees bent at 90 degrees.
2. Spread your knees as far apart as is comfortable, allowing your spine to stretch out as straight as possible.
3. Lower your upper body down towards the ground, pushing your hips backward and down towards your ankles.
4. Once fully extended, hold this position for 40-60 seconds. Repeat 3-5 sets.

4. The 90-90

Here’s another stretch that Brady’s fond of. Not only does it loosen up your hip flexors, but it also improves the overall range of motion and flexibility in your legs as a whole. 

1. Sit on the floor, bending one leg out in front of your body with your hip rotated outwards. Your lower leg and knee should be on the ground, with the knee bent at a 90-degree angle.
2. Your other leg should be in the opposite position: hip rotated inward with shin and ankle touching the ground. This leg should also be at a 90-degree angle, with the knee pointing at the other leg’s heel.
3. Keep your back straight and hold this position for 40-60 seconds before slowly rotating your body so that your legs switch positions. Do 2-3 reps for each side.

5. Spiderman Lunge Stretches

Lastly, let’s stretch like Spiderman. No, seriously, the Spiderman lunge stretch is one of the most effective ways of loosening up your hips. Let’s bring your hip flexibility from Zero to Superhero!

1. Start in a pushup position with your hands shoulder-width apart.
2. Slowly bring your left leg forward until your foot ends up alongside your left hand.
3. Squeeze your right glute and push your waist slowly downward, stretching out that right leg and holding for a few seconds.
4. Return to the pushup position with your feet together, and repeat for the other side of your body. Try to do between 5-8 reps per leg.