Hip Popping? Use this in your next workout!
"My hip pops during ab exercises...is that normal?"
This is a question that I get asked every month. My rule of thumb is when a question surfaces with more than one of my personal training clients, then it probably would make a decent article on my website or newsletter for lovely humans such as yourself.
So your hip pops...normal? No. Common? Yes.
Does that answer help? Absolutely not.
From a Personal Trainer's point of view, if it pops and it doesn't hurt, business as usual. If the popping is persistent with each rep, you should probably ditch that exercise (for now) and find something that is a little bit more comfortable.
That answer might be more helpful, however, you're here to see what you should do to prevent that popping, right? Keep reading.
The easiest solution? Bend your knees to shorten your legs. Most of the time hip popping occurs when your hip flexes and extends. Through most core/ab work, your legs act as a weight. An example of that is when you do single or double leg lower, or even when you do something like deadbugs.
When you bend at the knee, you make that leg 'weight' smaller and more manageable for the hip. The other thing you can do is to get more active with the other muscles surrounding the hip. Give the video above a click...this bent leg lowering with an adductor squeeze is exactly what I'm talking about. I'm squeezing a roller between my knees which gets the muscles in my inner thighs working, and I have also bent my knees to shorten the weight demand on my hips. This variation is a go-to for me whenever someone tells me their hip pops during core exercises.
Does the hip popping last forever? Most of the time I find that when you strengthen your inner and outer thighs and train your abs a little bit harder, you can clear up most hip popping. For most of my personal training clients we can clear up that hip pop in 2 or 3 workout programs and then it really is business as usual.
Make sure to give this exercise a try in your next workout!