Hip abduction exercises are a great way to improve hip stability and strength. These movements involve moving your legs away from your body by contracting the hip abductors (primarily the gluteus medius, gluteus minimus and tensor fasciae latae).
These muscles play a vital role in healthy hip function and are used for frontal plane movements that allow you to move from side to side (e.g., a lateral side squat).
Weak hip abductors are a common culprit behind knee pain, poor balance, and movement limitations. They can cause your knees to collapse inward during squats or running (known as “knocked knees”), increasing injury risk.
The good news? You can strengthen them at home with just a resistance band.
This guide covers 6 effective banded hip abduction exercises you can add to any workout routine (including a specific glute workout), whether you’re training at home or in the gym.
At a Glance – Banded Hip Abduction Exercises
- Standing Banded Abduction
- Seated Banded Abduction
- Banded Clamshell Abduction
- Banded Glute Bridge Abduction
- Side-Lying Banded Hip Abduction
- Banded Fire Hydrants
What are Banded Abductions?
Banded abductions involve moving your legs away from your body’s midline while using a resistance band for added challenge.
Why They Matter
Your hip abductors control lateral (side-to-side) movement and hip stability. Strong abductors are essential for:
- Injury Prevention: Weak outer hips cause knee valgus (inward collapse), increasing risk of ACL tears and knee pain
- Athletic Performance: Lateral power for sports like basketball, tennis, soccer, and skiing
- Functional Movement: Better balance, walking stability, and single-leg strength
- Lifting Performance: Stronger squats, deadlifts, and lunges by preventing knee cave-in
Who Uses Them
Banded hip abductions are popular in physical therapy and rehabilitation programs. They’re used to assess hip mobility, identify movement imbalances, and rebuild strength after injury.
The beauty of these exercises? Anyone can do them at home with just a resistance band—no expensive gym equipment required.
7 Gluteus Minimus Exercises to Try
Check out our recent exercise guide that outlines 7 gluteus minimus exercises that help improve abductor strength.
6 Banded Abduction Exercise Variations
Standing Banded Abduction
To do a standing band hip abduction:
- Attach a band around your thighs or ankles, or attach a band around one ankle and a stationary support.
- Stand in an upright position, with your chest up, back straight and feet shoulder width apart.
- Bend at the knees slightly.
- Either place your hands on your hips or rest your alternate hand (from the leg that will be raised) against a wall.
- Engaging your core and legs, lift one leg out sideways (to roughly 45 degrees). As you lift this leg, you’ll feel the resistance from the band.
- Slowly return this leg to the floor and repeat for repetitions.
- Repeat on the other leg.
Coach’s Tip – You’ll need to really engage your core to keep your body stable during the leg lift. Only lift your leg as far as possible without bending your body. This ensures you are testing your hip mobility and strength during the movement. Don’t worry if you can’t lift your leg as high as you thought… the band’s resistance will have a notable impact.
Seated Banded Abduction
To do a seated band hip abduction:
- Sit on a chair or bench with your feet flat on the floor.
- Attach a band around your thighs, a few inches above your knees.
- Keep your chest up and your back straight.
- Push both knees outwards.
- Slowly return the legs in and repeat the movement.
Coach’s Tip – Your feet should stay in the same position, slightly rocking onto the outer edge during the movement. If you move your feet with your legs, it would engage your lower body muscles differently.
This can be a great movement to do during mini breaks at the office or when you’re watching TV. Fitting in a few sets of seated band hip abductions throughout the day could see you really improving your overall hip strength.
Banded Clamshell Abduction
To do a banded clamshell:
- Lay on your side, with one leg on top of the other, and knees bent.
- Bend your arm so you can rest your head on your hand.
- Attach a band around both thighs, a few inches above the knee.
- Keeping your feet together, lift the knee of the leg on top upwards. Don’t rotate the hips or your body.
- Repeat for repetitions.
- Repeat on the other side.
Coach’s Tip – To increase difficulty, pause for a few moments when you’ve lifted your knee out. Really squeeze the glutes to hold this position, before slowly returning the knee down.
Banded Glute Bridge Abduction
To do a banded glute bridge abduction:
- Lay on the floor with your knees bent and feet flat.
- Attach a band around your thighs.
- Perform a glute bridge by squeezing your glutes to lift your hips off the floor.
- Hold this position and push your knees out and back in for repetitions.
- Lower your hips back to the floor.
- Repeat for sets.
Coach’s Tip – Another way to do this would be to simply hold the glute bridge for a duration of time, instead of pushing your knees out and in. To keep the band in place, you’ll naturally find you need to push your thighs outwards slightly during the glute bridge anyway.
Side-Lying Banded Hip Abduction
To do a banded lying hip abduction:
- Lay on your side with one leg on top of the other, keeping your legs straight.
- Attach a band around your thighs or ankles.
- Lift your top leg up, hinging at the hips. As you raise it up, the band will create resistance.
- Hold for a moment, before slowly lowering this leg.
- Repeat for repetitions.
- Repeat on the other side.
Coach’s Tip – Really focus on your form and keeping your legs straight. You may find you need quite a light resistance band for this, which is completely fine. Similarly, try it without a band if it is too hard.
The movement doesn’t need to be huge. Even a subtle push out will help to engage the outer hips. Unless you have very good hip flexibility, you’ll struggle to lift your leg past 45 degrees.
Banded Fire Hydrants
To do a banded fire hydrant:
- Start in a quadruped (all fours) position so your hands and knees are resting on the floor.
- Attach a band around your thighs, a few inches above your knees.
- Lift one leg outwards, hinging at the hips.
- Slowly lower it back to the floor.
- Repeat for repetitions.
- Repeat with the other leg.
Coach’s Tip – If you want to add progress to this exercise, lift both knees off the floor. This will require your core to really kick in and provide the stability you need. This turns the exercise into both a glute and core exercise, ideal if you’re a bit short on time and looking for a quite workout to tide you over.
Check out our exercise guide on how to do fire hydrants for help mastering the basic movement.
Choosing the Right Resistance Band
For hip abduction exercises, opt for:
- Loop bands (closed circles) rather than therapy bands with handles
- Mini bands (12-15 inches) for exercises around the thighs or knees
- Longer loop bands (32-41 inches) for ankle exercises
Resistance Level Guide:
- Light: You can do 20+ reps easily → Too light, go heavier
- Medium: Last 3-5 reps feel challenging → Perfect
- Heavy: Can’t complete 8 reps with good form → Too heavy, go lighter
Start with light to medium resistance and progress as you get stronger.
Tips for Banded Abductions
Any type of banded abduction should be slow and controlled. Focus on a 2-second lift, 1-second squeeze at the top, and 2-second lower. Avoid rocking or using momentum.
Really concentrate on feeling the outer hip and glute working. If you feel it more in your quads or lower back, reassess your form.
Include these exercises 2-3 times per week. They’re perfect as:
- Warm-up activation before lower body workouts
- Standalone mini-sessions during work breaks
- Finishers after leg training
- Part of a mobility routine
Progressive Overload
As exercises become easier, progress by:
- Using a heavier resistance band
- Adding more reps (aim for 12-20 per side)
- Adding a pause at the top of each rep
- Slowing down the tempo
Pre-Workout Activation
Try bodyweight hip stability movements before adding the band, such as Chinese planks, hip airplanes, or bodyweight clamshells. This “fires up” the muscles and improves your mind-muscle connection.
Band Placement Matters
Band at ankles = harder, for advanced training
Band above knees = easier, great for beginners
Before attempting any sort of banded abduction exercises, you might want to try a few general bodyweight hip stability movements to fire up the glutes and muscles around the hips such as Chinese planks and hip airplanes.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
Using Momentum: Swinging or rocking your body to move the band defeats the purpose. Keep movements slow and controlled—quality over quantity.
Band Too Strong: If you can’t complete 8-10 reps with proper form, your band is too heavy. There’s no shame in using a lighter band to build strength properly.
Not Engaging the Core: Many of these exercises require core stability. If you’re wobbling excessively, slow down and focus on keeping your torso stable.
Rotating the Hips: Especially on clamshells and side-lying abductions, keep your hips stacked and avoid rotating backward. This ensures you’re actually targeting the abductors.
Going Too High: You don’t need to lift your leg to 90 degrees. A 30-45 degree angle is sufficient to engage the hip abductors effectively. Quality of contraction beats range of motion.
Forgetting Adductors: Only training abductors creates imbalances. Include hip adduction exercises (squeezing legs together) to maintain balanced hip strength.
Bottom Line
Hip abduction exercises may not be the most glamorous side of fitness, but their impact can be huge. Weak outer hips could be the root cause for other limitations in your movement, so by performing these hip abductor stretches and exercises often, you can ensure your outer hips and glutes are strong and able to support functional lower body movements.
If you are struggling with these banded hip abductions, try them without a band as this will remove the extra resistance on your muscles.
It’s also worth ensuring you include hip adduction exercises in your workout routine too, helping to avoid muscular imbalances.
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