I'm not even exaggerating, because your hip mobility is far more important than just being able to do fancy moves.

It improves your posture, prevents injury, and ties in with your core strength too, win-win.

So here's four hip mobility moves that can literally change your life.

You could do them either on their own as a specific mobility session, or before your workouts for best results.

So number one, 90-90 shin boxes.

Let's break this one down into two parts.

So first we have the 90-90.

Sit on the floor with your knees bent and your feet a little bit wider than your hips, because the wider your feet, the harder it becomes.

So scale this accordingly.

Allow the knees to fall over to one side.

That puts the leading leg in external rotation and the following leg in internal rotation.

With control, you can then switch from side to side.

If you find yourself bum shuffling forwards in a way, it's not the end of the world.

But as you switch sides, think of placing your sit bone back behind you, plugging the hip into its socket to help you stay put and to really get the most out of this movement.

You're also going to get more benefits if you move the leading leg first and then the trailing leg, as opposed to moving them together like windshield wipers.

Try it out and let me know what you think of this one.

Once you're comfortable with this movement, you can then add in the shin box.

Once the legs have fallen off to one side, you're going to lean your weight into your leading leg and try to come up into a tall kneeling position.

You may need to bend your knees a little bit more and bring your feet in a little bit closer in order to do so.

Press down into the shin to rise up and tuck the tailbone or squeeze your bum in the top position to give a good stretch to the hip flexors.

From there, control your way back down and onto your bum before switching sides.

So number two, Cossack leg folds, which look a lot like scandasana posture for the yoga crew amongst us.

Start with your feet wide and your toes pointing slightly outward away from each other.

As you bend one leg, start to sit down towards the back of your heel.

Keep your chest up, drive the knee wide, and as weird as it might sound, imagine your sit bones widening away from each other as you move to prevent you from curling your tailbone under.

Anterior pelvic tilt, if you will.

Ideally, we sit all the way down to the floor, but this is something that you have to work up to over time before you can then add the leg fold.

So sit yourself down.

You can use a block as a great middle ground and then fold the knee inward, taking the hip into internal rotation.

You're then gonna roll it back out, external rotation, then simply stand back up.

But it's not as simple as it sounds to do that.

You're gonna have to lean your weight forward towards your toes, drive down into the heel, and use your hands for assistance if you need to.

Hopefully, I've not scared you off yet.

So let's move on to number three and saving the best for last with number four.

Next up is a kick through.

Super fun, in my humble opinion, and also gives your core a good bang for its buck.

Start in long lunge with just one hand grounded in line with your front foot.

If you're new to this kind of stuff, I would totally recommend a block underneath this hand to give you more space to work with here because it's not easy.

From here, thread your back leg under the body and kick it through out in front of you.

Do anything with the arms that feels helpful for balance.

You have two options with this kick through.

You either keep your body lifted like a pistol squat, or you sit your bum down to the floor, which is a little bit easier and a nice option to start with.

Either way, you then pick yourself up and thread your leg back where it came from, and that's your kick through.

So then lastly, we have number four, straddle leg lifts.

And I did tell you that I save the best till last.

You're gonna sit on the floor and take your legs as wide as you can without using your hands.

It's not hip mobility if your hands put your legs in that position.

Sit up tall and try to keep an upright spine throughout the whole movement.

Consider sitting on a block if this is difficult even before you've added in any movement.

You're going to pick up a leg, easier said than done, and then place your foot as close to your bum as possible into something that looks like a half squat position.

Try not to drag your foot along the floor, but trying is all that matters.

Perfection is not required.

From here, fold the leg inward just like we did in the Cossack leg fold, but importantly, your sit bone on this side is not on the floor.

Keep it slightly lifted to keep your knees happy in this movement.

You're then going to hinge your body slightly forward until you feel your hamstring stretch before returning upright, lifting the knee, and sending the foot back where it came from, and then change sides.

But do you know what hip mobility these movements lack much of?

Quad and hip flexor stretching.

So go and watch this video next to solve that problem.