The whole hip system becomes a bit more complicated when you consider that enormous forces of up to five times a person’s body weight act on the joint.
The torso (40 kg) plus one leg (10 kg) add up to a weight of 50 kg. This weight of 50 kg is concentrated at the center of the pelvis. The distance from the hip joint to the center of the pelvis is four times larger than the distance between hip joint and where the abductor attaches (abductors are marked in red on the left side).
The abductors must pull four times more than the body weight to balance the pelvis. Because of this, training the abductor muscles is of great importance for all those who engage in sports that involve running or jumping. Particularly, runners should not forget to specially train these muscles becuase they are not strengthened enough during regular running.
The geometry of the hip joints is not the same in all persons. Generally, there are 2 categories: we distinguish between steep and flattened hips.
Steep hips are known as “coxa valga” while flattened hips are called “coxa vara.”