I showed hip airplanes to a colleague recently. He’s a fast runner, and he did exactly what most people do. He twisted from his lower back and his hips barely moved. I’ve recommended this exercise to about half of the 90 runners I’ve done a gait analysis for, so I see this a lot. The cue that fixed it for him: → Brace your core so your lower back stays still → Rotate from the hip of your standing leg until it won’t go further → Rotate back out again → Keep your standing knee pointing forward There’s no need to force extra range from your spine. The goal is to rotate from the hip. Done like this, one movement trains: → Hip stability on one leg → Rotation control at the hip, in both directions → Your foot and lower leg working together with the hip I tend to give it to runners whose hip drops when they land. If you only do one exercise outside of running, this is a good one to pick. Would highly recommend doing it in toe socks or barefoot to create more foot splay.