When practiced consistently, hip mobility exercises can translate into moving with greater ease in everyday life. Jordan Baggot is a 500-hour certified yoga teacher and educator who shares hip-focused poses and invites students to listen to their bodies, rather than simply recreate shapes, as they move through the practice.

You’re already well acquainted with the benefits of stretching your hips—so much so that it might feel as if you’ve taken up a second residence in Pigeon, Bound Angle, or Squat. So when you see people practicing movements to improve hip mobility in yoga, at the gym, or on social media, perhaps you frustratedly wonder whether you’re missing out on anything. 

It’s not that the hip openers you do in yoga class aren’t important. They’re considered static stretches, which help improve your flexibility. However, hip mobility exercises feature static stretches as well as dynamic movements so that you’re not only stretching your hips, but accessing your full range of motion. That translates to your lower body becoming more agile in everyday life.

After all, real life demands movement—getting in and out of your car, bending down to pick up something heavy, or suddenly switching the direction you’re walking when Google Maps steers you wrong. Hip mobility exercises, like the ones below, help ensure that you’re prepared for it.

3 Hip Mobility Exercises to Add to Your Routine

The following yoga-inspired movements challenge your hips to move in new ways. Move slowly, choose the less-intense variations whenever possible, and listen to your body.

1. Figure-4 Windshield Wipers

Sit with your knees bent and your feet flat on the mat in front of you. Place your hands a few inches behind your hips and cross your right ankle over your left thigh in Seated Figure 4. Lower your right foot toward the left, tapping it against the floor if it’s comfortable, then return to Seated Figure 4. Then lower your right knee toward the right, tapping it against the floor, and return to center. Continue rocking side to side in Figure 4 Windshield Wipers for as many rounds as you like. Switch the cross of your legs and repeat on the opposite side.

2. Fire Log Switches

Sit on the mat in a cross-legged position with your left leg on top and your knees and ankles stacked in Fire Log Pose. Shift your weight into your right hip as you lift your left leg and lower it to the mat behind you in a bent-leg Pigeon variation. You can press your hands against the mat to help you move your legs or, for more of a challenge, keep your hands in the air. Turn toward the left as you open your hips to face the long edge of the mat, as if you were in Wide-Legged Forward Bend with your legs bent. Continue to roll onto your left hip and face the back of the room, once again in the bent-leg Pigeon variation, but now facing the opposite side of the room. Lift your right leg off the mat and cross it over your left in Firelog Pose. Repeat Firelog Switch on the opposite side. Continue as many times as you like.

3. Squat or Malasana Knee Taps

Come into Squat (Malasana) with your hands on the mat or on blocks outside your feet. For more of a challenge, reach your arms straight in front of your chest and clasp hands. Shift your weight into your right foot as you turn your left knee inward and lower it toward the mat. Then turn your left knee out again as you return to Squat. Repeat on the opposite side, shifting your weight into your left foot as you lower your right knee toward the mat. Return to center. Repeat Malasana Knee Taps as many times as you like.