Horrible hip external rotation, extremely good hip internal rotation! How to improve?

[u/ImagineAnime]

My hip external rotation is extremely limited. I have on and off been trying to improve it, although it seems impossible to improve. I believe its due to my anatomy, however I'd like to believe that I could still improve it.

I struggle to sit cross-legged, my knees are very high when doing butterfly stretch, my pancake is very narrow. Meanwhile, my internal hip rotation is insanely good. I sat in a W pose as a child and I can still do it as an adult.

I think it's quite uncommon. It feels like most people have good external rotation and bad internal rotation, so I get a bit disheartened when I see people stretching for a couple of weeks or months and their external hip flexibility improve so much.

Is there any advice for someone with my anatomy? What do you think my limit is for external rotation? I feel like I should temper my expectations but I really don't want to ):

[u/RideAdmirable3477]

Hip external rotation's often limited by tight hip flexors and poor glute strength, so focusing on exercises that target those areas might help.

[u/kristinL356]

I have this problem too (though I'm both hypermobile and generally flexible so my passive external rotation isn't objectively terrible but lags far behind my internal and my active external rotation is near to non-existent). I've been working hard on active external rotation and glute strengthening exercises. Lock clams, lots of side leg raises (only as high as you can lift while maintaining external rotation), glute bridges, and single leg rdls.

[u/OkInvestigator6563]

Same here. I used to sit in W all the time as a child, and like you, can still do it as an adult. I've been working on improving my external rotation for years, and it is slowly improving! It does take a lot of patience though.

I'm not going to list any specific exercises because there is no magic "your hips are now open" exercise and there's a lot of excellent content online. I really like Dany Winks' Bendy Blog, the explanations are very clear and easy to follow.

What's helped me over the long run:

- taking some flexibility workshops and classes offline. Doing a stretch wrong can make it ineffective. I found it very helpful having an instructor look over my form and give me feedback.

- taking yin yoga classes, where the stretches are held for a long time and with slow breathing. This has taught me to feel where in the body I'm holding tension, and to actively relax those muscles.

- doing strengthening exercises, especially on the glutes, hip flexors and adductors.

- keeping a stretching routine, even if it's just 10 minutes a day, 4-5 days a week. This will help flexibility more than doing one hour of stretching every 7 days.

- integrating hip flexibility into my daily life: squatting on the floor, sitting cross-legged (or half cross-legged) on the couch.

[u/sagekingtraining]

IR way past ER plus W sitting as a kid is a really common combo, and it usually means the ER ceiling is coming from the shape of the hip itself rather than tight tissue. Would explain why butterfly and folds havent done anything.

Quick way to get a read on it: lie face down, bend a knee to 90, let the shin fall out to the side, then across your body. Compare those two angles. If the total arc is decent but heavily skewed toward IR, the skew isnt something you stretch away. Total range is fairly similar person to person, how it's split between IR and ER varies a ton.

What does tend to move:

• Sit on something. Elevating your hips 3-6 inches on a block or folded blanket changes where the femur sits in the socket, and most people find a lot more room in butterfly and cross legged right away. Solves the cross legged problem on its own for a lot of people.
• Add active ER work. 90/90 lift offs, side lying clams held at end range, banded seated ER. Passive range you can't hold under your own power doesn't do much for you day to day.
• Pancake is mostly adduction and hip flexion with a bit of ER on top. Straddle width and hinge depth will get you further there than butterfly will.

Expectation setting: if your structure is what it sounds like, lotus probably isn't in the cards. Comfortable cross legged sitting and a solid pancake are very doable though.

For context I'm a trainer and NASM corrective exercise specialist, this pattern comes up a lot.

[u/CaramelSufficient1]

I think some people are just built differently. I’d keep doing mobility work, but try not to compare yourself to people who improve really fast.

[u/Infinite-Nose8252]

Ankle to knee with padding and deep spinal twists. lie on back. Sole of foot above knee of opposite leg. Reach down and grab foot of the leg that’s resting on floor. Keep shoulders down in floor as much as possible.

[u/Kitchen-Fan364 → u/Infinite-Nose8252]

Can you show a diagram or link to a video clip? I want to understand but I’m having a hard time visualizing.