Could Your Running Injuries Be Caused By Weak Hips?

Updated: Jul 21

I have ran most my life, I started training properly in year 9, I am now 24- roughly 11 years. I spent 7 of those years tormented by injury, I was really testing myself mentally to carry on. I was getting in shape in about 8-12 weeks running a PB, feeling confident for the future, then injury would strike.

I spent the last 4 years strengthening my hips, running high mileage and setting PBs. So, let me talk to you about how your hips may be causing you injuries and how you too can sort these issues.

How do I know if I have weak hips?

A runner with weak hips will have a very different form compared to someone with strong hips, but it may take a slow motion video for a biomechanics specialist to be able to see the difference. One way to know is if you are consistently getting any of the following injuries (1):

Plantar fascitiis
Runner's knee
Lower back pain
Shin splints
IT band syndrome
Achilles tendonitis
Stress fractures
Heel problems

If you want to test you hip strength to see if you have weak hips then try out the exercises in this video here- https://youtu.be/MlEJMwxOiTA.

How do weak hips lead to running injuries?

So, now you can either stop reading as you may be one of the lucky part of the small population in the modern world who does not have weak hips. Or, you can accept that you have found the problem which has been causing you problems and see if we can fix you with these recommended exercises.

So, when running if your hips are weak then this leads to your glutes will not activate as much and this will lead to your quads and calves doing more of the work when your running instead. These muscles are not made to be the prime movers when running and this is how injuries happen.

One study showed that abnormal hips mechanics leads to an increase likelihood in knee injuries (2). As you can see from the diagram below, the runner on the right has weak hips and this leads to her glute not activating, her knee falling inwards and this would cause her ankle to be put in a pronated position (her foot falling inwards). All of this, puts her in a position where she is more susceptible to injury.

Also, its worth noting that all of these things lead to less optimal form, which means that you will be wasting energy and consequently your performance will be worse than what it could be if you had strong hips. Strong hips help the glutes fire and the glutes are the biggest muscle in the body and are built for running.

What can I do about weak my weak hips?

Luckily, if you have read this and found you have weak hips it is not the end of the world. There are many exercises out there which can get you started on your journey to better performance, most of which are best done with resistance bands. If you have weak hips then resistance bands are a must to get you back on the road to running pain free and faster.

Click here to learn how to make your hips and glutes strong with the best resistance band exercises!!!

GeorgeLewisHealth's recommended resistance bands

The Gritin resistance bands are a pack of 5 and have 5 different levels of resistance. These are perfect if you have weak hips and you can slowly move up to heavier bands are your hips get stronger.