Hip flexor strengthening workout: marches, band knee drives, leg raises and step-ups

• Do it 2 or 3 times a week for at least 6 weeks: the band trial ran 3 times a week for 6 weeks. Move to a stronger band when 15 reps are easy, then build towards the bench and hanging leg raise ladders in our leg raise guides (our suggestion).
• Stop if you feel dizzy or light-headed. Keep a counter or wall within reach, and have someone nearby for the hardest moves if you've fallen recently (our suggestion, as in our older adults guide).
• During the exercise, pain up to about 5 out of 10 is acceptable. It should settle within an hour or so, and your hip should be no worse that night or the next morning. If it is, do less next time (fewer repetitions, a smaller range, a lighter load), not nothing.
• If the front of your hip hurts when you lift your knee, sprint or kick, use the staged plan in the hip flexor pain guide instead.
• With osteoporosis or a past spinal fracture, avoid repeated or loaded deep rounding of the back, and bend from the hips. The osteoporosis guide covers impact and lifting.
• Skip reverse crunches and hanging knee raises with osteoporosis, back pain that flares with bending, in later pregnancy or the first weeks after a birth, or with a hernia (our suggestion, applying our sit-up advice to these moves).
• After the first trimester of pregnancy, keep time flat on your back to a few minutes: prop yourself up for the leg raises, dead bugs and reverse crunches, or skip them, as our tight hip flexors routine says.
• After a recent hip replacement, keep the knee lift low unless your surgeon has said otherwise, as the seated march's move page says, and follow your surgical team's limits; our hip replacement guide has the stages.
• Bands that slipped or snapped have caused serious eye injuries, so check yours for nicks before every set.
• Same day: a teenager with sudden pain at the front or top of the hip bone after a sprint, kick or jump, often with a pop. A piece of growth plate can pull off the pelvis (an avulsion fracture), and it needs an X-ray the same day.
• Call 999 or go to A&E for severe hip pain after a fall or injury, if you can't walk or put weight on your leg, or for tingling or loss of feeling in your hip or leg after an injury.

The doses are suggested starting points, not a prescription. Choose a range you can control and stop for sharp or increasing pain, numbness or tingling. Get individual advice after an injury or surgery, or if you are pregnant or managing a health condition.

• Strengthen your hip flexors guide

• Hip flexor exercises
• Exercises you can do at home