Hinge Movements: How to Hinge, Benefits, and Exercises

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Every cyclist can benefit from this foundational movement pattern.

Knowing how to hip hinge properly doesn’t just help you crush deadlifts in the gym. Mastering this basic move can benefit you in lots of other scenarios, including—you guessed it—cycling.

As one of the major movement patterns, along with squatting, lunging, pressing, and pulling, hinging is all about keeping a straight back posture as you push your hips back, engage the back of your legs and your glutes, and lower your torso down.

Sounds simple, right? Thing is, actually mastering the hinge is easier said than done, because there are a number of small nuances to doing it correctly and a slew of common form errors to avoid.

We tapped two fitness pros for tips on how to hinge correctly (including effective ways to learn), why this movement pattern is so beneficial for cyclists, and the exercises you can incorporate into your routine to practice the hinge. Here’s what you need to know.

Here’s how to do a bodyweight hinge movement, with tips from Katie Pierson, Montana-based certified personal trainer and certified spinning instructor, and Craig Secor, P.T., D.P.T., a Richmond, Virginia-based physical therapist and bike fit specialist.

Because a common mistake is rounding the shoulders and low back as you hinge, both Pierson and Secor recommend using a long stick (like a broomstick) or PVC pipe when first learning the movement.

Here’s how it works: Place the stick vertical along your spine, ensuring it touches the back of your head, upper back, low back, and tailbone. Hold the stick in place with one hand grasping it at the top near your head and the other near your tailbone. Then, perform the hinge movement and try to maintain all four points of contact throughout. This will help you maintain proper alignment. Practice this a couple times a week for a few weeks before you remove the pipe and start to add in weight.

If you don’t have a stick or pipe, you can have a friend place their forearm on your upper back—starting at about the mid-back and extending up toward the neck—suggests Pierson, and try to maintain contact with the forearm as you hinge. This will prevent the mistake of rounding through the neck and shoulders.

For extra support on proper shoulder placement, you can grip a second stick or pipe in your hands and run the stick along your quads as you hinge. This helps keep your hands about shoulder-width apart and allows the shoulder, elbow, and wrist to remain in alignment, which can make it easier to roll the shoulders back and down, says Pierson. (To use both sticks at once, you’ll need a trainer or workout partner who can hold the first stick along your spine.)

Also helpful: Practice hinging in front of a mirror, says Pierson. Stand sideways to the mirror and gently turn your head to the side, keeping your neck in neutral alignment, and observe your back position as you move. Sometimes you may think you’re hinging with a straight back, but the mirror tells you otherwise. If you don’t have a mirror, film yourself and check your form after the fact. You might also spot yourself hitting more of a squat than a hinge, often because you bend the knees too much.

Final tip: Don’t force your chest to go parallel to the floor if you feel a hamstring stretch before that point, as that can cause your back to round and shoulders to release forward, says Pierson.

Whether you realize it or not, cycling involves a lot of hinging, especially when you’re transitioning in and out of aero or tucked positioning. “You are essentially hinging at your hips while trying your best to keep your back as straight and a neutral spine as possible,” says Secor.

Many times, cyclists suffer from back pain in the tuck position, says Pierson, and knowing how to hinge properly, as well as building strength from hinge movements, can help combat that. Indeed, in an article published in Strength and Conditioning Journal, the authors note that deadlifts—an exercise that’s all about the hip hinge—can boost lower back core strength and help cyclists holding aero position reduce fatigue and cramping while maintaining control of their bike.

Simply put, knowing how to hinge correctly can help you ride efficiently and with good form and comfort, since you’ll be engaging the right muscles. And the more you practice the hinge, the more it will become second nature, says Pierson. This will help you continue to nail the hinge even as you tire, thus reducing your chances of on-the-bike injuries and accidents caused by fatigue-related form errors.

The hinge also offers off-the-bike benefits. Many of us spend a lot of time sitting, which weakens our backside muscles, including the glutes and hamstrings, as well as the upper and lower back. This screws with our posture, triggering a cascade of pain and potential injuries, according to the American Council on Exercise (ACE). Proper hip hinging offers an antidote, as it engages these oft-neglected muscle groups and combats the effects of a sedentary routine, per ACE, which describes the hip hinge as a classic exercise that “everyone should master.”

In general, when people talk about hip hinging, they’re specifically talking about deadlifting—that classic lower-body strength move that’s great for firing up your backside muscles. As Bicycling previously reported, there are two main types of deadlifts: the Romanian deadlift (also called a straight-leg deadlift) and the regular deadlift. The former involves less of a knee bend and more of a hip hinge, compared to the latter. So incorporating Romanian deadlifts into your routine is perhaps the truest way to hip hinge.

There are lots of variations you can try for a deadlift, though, says Secor, including a staggered stance, single-leg, and single-leg with offset weight.

A kettlebell swing, he adds, is another hip hinge exercise.

Not yet ready for deadlifts or swings? Start with glute bridges. Though this exercise isn’t a hip hinge by textbook definitions, it does fire up your gluteus maximus (biggest butt muscle), which is what’s engaged as you go through the range of motion in a deadlift, Secor explains. Moreover, glute bridges are great for back strengthening, he adds, which is important in cycling.

Once you’ve mastered the glute bridge, you can progress to a kneeling hip thrust, says Secor: From a kneeling position, wrap a band around your waist and attach it to a stable object behind you. Then, hinge your hips and flex your trunk forward. Squeeze your glutes muscles and reverse the move to return to a tall kneeling position.

Jenny is a Boulder, Colorado-based health and fitness journalist. She’s been freelancing for Runner’s World since 2015 and especially loves to write human interest profiles, in-depth service pieces and stories that explore the intersection of exercise and mental health. Her work has also been published by SELF, Men’s Journal, and Condé Nast Traveler, among other outlets. When she’s not running or writing, Jenny enjoys coaching youth swimming, rereading Harry Potter, and buying too many houseplants.

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