When considering joints and their movements, we can break each one down by whether it needs to be stable or mobile. The hip joint is one that needs to be mobile, while the joints above and below it, the lumbar spine and knee, need to be stable.
Having tight hips can affect a lot of things because not only are they the center of pretty much every multi joint lower body movement, but also because they are the power house of those movements as well. When the hip joint can not move efficiently and correctly, strength and force production go down, and injury rates tend to go up.
Mobilizing the hip means the inclusion 4 muscle groups:
Adductors
Hip flexors
Lateral hamstrings
Internal and external hip rotators
When addressing hip mobility, it's often helpful to assess what is happening with the lower back as well. When the hips are tight, it can be common to see the lumbar spine compensating for that. Often, if the hip flexors or extensors have poor function, it can cause the lower back to compensate with more lumbar flexion. If the hips are weak, the knees tend to exhibit knee pain due to lack of control with abduction and adduction of the knee. If the glutes are not firing or moving properly, the lower back will compensate with lumbar extension to replace that motion that the hips are supposed to do. This, in turn, leads to not only lower back pain, but also lower back injuries. I see this a lot in squats. The combination of lack of mobility and perhaps a lack of strength in the lower body too is a recipe for disaster and puts the lumbar spine in a compromising position under heavy weight which is never good.
Hip mobility must be executed with keeping in mind what the lower back is doing during the stretch as well. For example, when stretching the hamstrings, it's important to keep the hips in a neutral position to prevent excess flexion of the lower back. The hamstrings attach to the pelvis, so keeping the lower back out of the equation is key. When stretching the hip flexors the lumbar spine must again, be kept flat, or in neutral position. This will help lengthen the hip flexors rather than shorten them.
Source:
Boyle, M. (2022). New Functional Training for Sports. Human Kinetics.
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