Your hips and pelvis work together as the foundation for your spine above and for the legs beneath them, and the muscles, ligaments and tendons surrounding them play a hugely important role for runners.
This includes the hip flexors that run down the front of the hip, which lift the knee and bring your thigh upwards during the swing phase, but also muscles that you wouldn’t necessarily associate with your hips. These are the quadriceps, which insert into the hips, and the gluteal muscles in your buttocks – gluteus minimus, medius and maximus – which help keep your hips and pelvis level as you run.