Bone density exercises for hips: what loads the hip bone, and a home routine
The exercises that do most for hip bone density combine two kinds of load: short bursts of impact (heel drops, stamping, small hops) and strength exercises that make the big hip and thigh muscles pull hard on the bone (squats, step-ups, lunges, hip hinges and bridges with weight). Add balance work, because most hip fractures follow a fall, and you have the full routine.
Below: why the hip responds to these and not to gentler exercise, what trials found at the hip, eight home exercises with sets, a 25-minute session, a weekly plan, how to build impact up safely, and who should check with a doctor first. Written for women over 40 and 50 who want to protect their hips at home.
Why the hip needs a particular kind of exercise
Bone adapts to the forces it feels, and it responds most to forces that are bigger, faster or more unusual than daily life. Walking is good for your heart and muscles, but your hips have done thousands of steps a day for decades, so walking alone is a small signal to the bone. Two things send a bigger one:
- Impact. When your heels hit the ground, a quick jolt travels up into the hip. Brief, sharp loads like this are a strong signal for bone.
- Muscle pull. Your glutes and thigh muscles attach right around the top of the thigh bone. When they work hard against a heavy load, they bend and squeeze the bone where it matters.
The part of the hip doctors watch most is the femoral neck, the short angled section just below the ball of the joint. It's where many hip fractures happen and one of the sites a bone density scan measures.
What trials found at the hip
| Study | Who | What they did | Hip result |
|---|---|---|---|
| LIFTMOR trial, Watson and others, 2018 | 101 women after menopause with low bone mass | Supervised heavy lifting (deadlifts, squats, overhead presses) plus jumping chin-ups with drop landings, 30 minutes twice a week for 8 months | Femoral neck bone density up 0.3% in the lifting group against down 1.9% in the low-load home exercise group |
| Allison and others, 2013 (Loughborough) | 50 healthy men aged 65–80 | 50 multidirectional hops a day on one leg for 12 months; the other leg was the comparison | Femoral neck bone density up about 0.7% in the hopping leg and down about 0.9% in the other leg |
| Cochrane review, Howe and others, 2011 | 43 trials, 4,320 women after menopause | Many kinds of exercise against no exercise | Strength training for the legs had the clearest effect at the femoral neck, about 1% better than controls |
Two points stand out. First, the gains are small, a percent or so, but the comparison is bone that keeps being lost, so the gap matters. Second, gentle exercise did little at the hip in most trials. The results came from heavy loads and real impact. For the wider picture, see does weight lifting help bone density.
How much the guidelines recommend
The Royal Osteoporosis Society's 2019 expert consensus, "Strong, Steady and Straight", is the clearest guide for people with or worried about low bone density. In short:
- Impact: build up to about 50 moderate impacts on most days, for people without spinal fractures.
- Muscle strengthening: 2–3 days a week, with loads that become harder over time.
- Balance: regular balance and falls-prevention exercise, especially for people over 65 or who have fallen.
The Bone Health and Osteoporosis Foundation in the US gives similar advice: weight-bearing impact and muscle-strengthening exercise, plus balance work.
8 bone density exercises for your hips
1. Heel drops (impact)
Stand tall near a counter. Rise onto your toes, then drop onto your heels with a firm thud, knees soft. 2–5 sets of 10, building up over weeks. This is the gentlest impact and the place to start.
2. Stamping (impact)
March on the spot and stamp each foot down firmly, as if squashing a can. 2–3 sets of 10 each foot. It loads one hip at a time, which makes it a bigger signal than both feet together.
3. Small hops or jumps (impact, once heel drops are easy)
Small, quick jumps on the spot, landing softly through your feet with knees bent. Start with 5–10, rest, repeat. Later, hop forward, back and to the sides, like the Loughborough men did. Skip this step if you have spinal fractures, very low bone density or pelvic floor leaking (see below).
4. Sit-to-stand with weight
From a chair, stand up without your hands, holding a dumbbell at your chest. Lower slowly. 3 × 8–12. Make it harder with a heavier weight or a lower chair.
5. Step-up
Step onto the bottom stair or a sturdy step, push through the heel and stand tall, then step down slowly. Dumbbells at your sides when it's easy. 3 × 8–10 each leg. One-leg moves put the full load through one hip.
6. Split squat or reverse lunge
Long stride, hand on a chair for balance, lower the back knee toward the floor and push back up. 3 × 8 each leg, adding dumbbells as you get stronger.
7. Romanian deadlift (hip hinge)
Dumbbells in front of your thighs, soft knees, push your hips back with a flat back until you feel a stretch in your hamstrings, then stand by squeezing your buttocks. 3 × 8–10. This trains the glutes and hamstrings that pull on the back of the hip. Have osteoporosis of the spine? Keep the hinge short and the back flat; ask a physical therapist to check your form.
8. Weighted glute bridge and side-lying leg raise
A bridge with a dumbbell across your hips (3 × 12), then side-lying leg raises for the outer hip (2 × 12 each side). These muscles keep your pelvis level when you walk and help you catch yourself when you trip.
A 25-minute hip bone routine
Warm up for 3 minutes: march on the spot, 10 bodyweight squats, 10 bridges.
| Part | Exercise | Sets × reps | Rest |
|---|---|---|---|
| Impact | Heel drops, then stamping (or small hops when ready) | 3 × 10 each | 30 s |
| Strength | Sit-to-stand with weight | 3 × 10 | 60 s |
| Strength | Step-up | 3 × 8 each leg | 60 s |
| Strength | Romanian deadlift | 3 × 10 | 60 s |
| Strength | Weighted glute bridge | 2 × 12 | 45 s |
| Balance | Stand on one leg near a counter, 30 s each; then heel-to-toe walk, 10 steps | 2 rounds | none |
Do the strength part with weights heavy enough that the last 2 reps of each set are hard. In bone trials, the loads that moved the scans were heavy; light weights for many reps did much less.
A weekly plan for hip bone health
| Day | Do |
|---|---|
| Monday | The 25-minute routine |
| Tuesday | Impact only (heel drops and stamping, 50 total) + a brisk walk |
| Wednesday | The 25-minute routine with split squats in place of step-ups |
| Thursday | Impact only + balance work (5 minutes) |
| Friday | The 25-minute routine |
| Saturday | Impact + a longer walk, ideally with some hills or stairs |
| Sunday | Rest |
Two strength days is enough to start. For the whole-body version, with the spine and wrists too, see bone density exercises for women over 50. Want it sized to you? The free 2-minute home strength quiz asks about your goals, knees, back and time and builds a 12-week plan.
How to build up impact safely
| Weeks | Impact |
|---|---|
| 1–2 | Heel drops only, 2 sets of 10, most days |
| 3–4 | Heel drops and stamping, 3 sets of 10 each (about 50 a day) |
| 5–8 | Add small two-foot jumps, 2 sets of 5–10, if knees, hips and pelvic floor are comfortable |
| 9–12 | Hops on one foot, or jumps forward, back and to the side, holding a counter if needed |
Land softly, with bent knees, and stop if a joint aches the next day.
Why balance belongs in a hip bone routine
Bone density is one part of whether a hip breaks. The other is whether you fall, and how. Most hip fractures in older women happen after a fall, usually sideways onto the hip. A 2019 Cochrane review of 108 trials in people over 60 found that exercise programs, mostly balance and functional training, cut the rate of falls by about 23%. Strong legs and hips also help you catch yourself when you trip. That's why the routine above ends with balance, and why strength training may protect hips more than its small gains on a scan suggest.
Pelvic floor and impact
If jumping or stamping makes you leak, that's common after childbirth and menopause, and it doesn't mean you have to skip bone loading. Stay with heel drops and step-ups, which load the hip with less pressure on the pelvic floor, and work on the pelvic floor itself. A pelvic health physical therapist can help you build back up to jumps.
Who should check with a doctor first
- You've had a spinal (vertebral) fracture, several fractures, or a hip fracture: ask for a physical therapist to set your starting point before impact or heavy lifting.
- You've had a hip replacement: follow your surgeon's guidance on impact and deep bending.
- Your doctor has told you your bone density is very low, or you're on bone medicine and unsure what's safe.
- You have hip pain that's worse at night, came on after a fall, or makes you limp.
For most women with osteopenia or osteoporosis, the ROS and the BHOF both say strength and impact exercise is safe and recommended, with the changes above. Exercise works alongside any bone medicine your doctor prescribes, not instead of it. Protein, calcium and vitamin D matter too; your doctor can tell you if you need more.
Questions people ask
Can you increase bone density in your hips?
A little, and you can slow or stop loss. In trials, heavy strength training and impact work kept hip bone density steady or added up to about 1%, while women who didn't train kept losing.
Is walking enough for hip bone density?
Walking alone is a small signal for the hip. Brisk walking with hills or stairs helps more, and adding impact and strength work does the most.
Are squats good for hip bone density?
Yes, especially with weight. The LIFTMOR trial used heavy squats and deadlifts. At home, sit-to-stands, goblet squats and step-ups with dumbbells use the same muscles.
Is swimming or cycling good for hip bones?
They're good for heart, joints and muscles, but they don't load bone much because they aren't weight-bearing. Keep them, and add the routine above.
How long until hip bone density improves?
Bone changes slowly. Trials usually run 8–12 months before a scan shows a difference, and many doctors repeat a bone density scan no sooner than every 1–2 years.
What exercises should I avoid with hip osteoporosis?
The ROS advises care with movements that combine bending forward and twisting, especially under load, and caution with high impact if you've had fractures. Ask a physical therapist if you're unsure.
A plan that loads your bones the right way
The 2-minute home strength quiz asks about your goals, knees, back, equipment and time, then shows the 12-week plan it builds, in sessions of about 15 minutes.
Take the quizMore plain guides on getting stronger at home: all our home strength guides. Related: how to prevent muscle loss after 40.
Sources: Watson S.L. et al., "High-intensity resistance and impact training improves bone mineral density and physical function in postmenopausal women with osteopenia and osteoporosis: the LIFTMOR randomized controlled trial", Journal of Bone and Mineral Research, 2018. Allison S.J. et al., "High impact exercise increased femoral neck bone mineral density in older men: a randomised unilateral intervention", Bone, 2013. Howe T.E. et al., "Exercise for preventing and treating osteoporosis in postmenopausal women", Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, 2011. Sherrington C. et al., "Exercise for preventing falls in older people living in the community", Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, 2019. Royal Osteoporosis Society, Strong, Steady and Straight: an expert consensus statement on physical activity and exercise for osteoporosis, 2019. Bone Health and Osteoporosis Foundation, Exercise for your bone health. This guide is about exercise habits and is not medical advice; follow your doctor's or physical therapist's advice where it differs.