My hips generally are very tight after too many years sitting at a desk, so I am actively mobilizing them and starting to see some improvements. Specifically I am trying to improve my squats, and drive my knees outward to create more torque.

However, whenever I do any type of external rotation exercise, I find that I meet resistance first from an area encompassing my glutes, TFL, and down into the IT band long before I meet any resistance from my adductors. In simple terms, I’m feeling the stretch on the opposite side of my thigh to where I would expect to. This resistance appears at anywhere between 70-90 degrees if you imagine externally rotating each leg at the same time, and after a few mobilization movements it will ease to the extent that I can feel my adductors stretching.

Just to give some context as to how tight we are talking, if I lie on my back and spread my legs, I can only manage just over 90 degrees of angle. So I know it is a major issue.

Is this a common thing for people to experience? I’m interested because I suspect it is indicative of something else that I might not be actively treating yet, so any comments on cause and how to resolve it would really be appreciated.

Many thanks,

Will