You’ll find it difficult to escape suffering if you’re experiencing hip pain. You’ll have trouble staying active because these vital joints are involved in so many fundamental motions, such as walking and running, but the hips are also crucial for all the time you spend sitting down. You might not get a break when you take a seat to relax because they’re always in a tight, flexed posture while your butt is in a chair.
Fortunately, there are hip-relieving stretches and exercises you may perform. Finding relief may depend on your ability to strengthen the muscles surrounding your joints and increase your range of motion.
How Does the Hip Function?
It’s crucial to first gain a better understanding of the hip joint. The hip serves as the link between the lower body and the pelvic. This joint is known as a ball and socket joint because the head of the femur, or thigh bone, rests just inside a socket that the pelvic bones have formed. The hip may rotate in six directions, and ball and socket joints are incredibly flexible. The hip can move in the following ways: abduction and adduction (bringing the thigh in towards the body and pulling it out, respectively), flexion and extension (‘closing’ the joint and moving your thigh in closer to your body and ‘opening’ the joint and moving the thigh away), and external and internal rotation.
You use your hips virtually always when using your legs because of their large range of motion. When your joints are functioning at their best, that’s excellent for your general mobility. However, when something goes wrong and you have hip discomfort, that becomes a problem.
What May Be the Reason for Hip Pain?
Despite the hips’ relative stability, Warner points out that a variety of people frequently experience problems with their joints. According to him, “it’s a hot point for irritation because of its weight-bearing nature and the number of tendons and soft tissue structures that cross it.”
Most often, mechanical abnormalities in the body cause hip discomfort. Hip imbalances can result from injuries or strength imbalances on either side of the body, which can change the hips’ natural movement pattern. Then, hip-powered movement becomes “less efficient, frequently leading to weakness and exhaustion.”
To obtain relief follow the steps listed below.Make sure to get in touch with a physician or physical therapist for more customized treatment for your injury if your hip pain doesn’t seem to improve or stays the same after doing this program
Hip Pain Relieving Exercises
The 90-90 Hip Switch
Reason: Start with a focus on hip joint mobility. This exercise facilitates the hip’s external and internal rotation.
Method:
Sit on the ground with one leg straight in front of you and the other pointing to the side to begin. Moreover, maintain a 90-degree bend in both knees.
When your glutes feel a safe stretch, bend forward over the front leg. Hold on for a brief while.
Turn to face the other side and do the same by pirouetting over your heels.
Sets and Reps: Switch back and forth for ten to fifteen repetitions.
Hip Flexor Stretch
Why? Because the hip flexor muscles are responsible for the ability to flex the hips. You are using your hip flexors every time you drive your thigh upward to get your foot to the top of a step. This exercise will give this muscle, which can become tense from prolonged sitting, a nice stretch.
Method:
Get down on one knee. Verify that the hip, knee, and ankle are all in alignment with one another.
To tuck the pelvis under, gently squeeze the glutes and abs.
When you feel a stretch in the front part of your hip and upper thigh, slowly lunge forward onto the front leg.
Raise the arm across your body from the front leg and use it to bend your body away from it.
Single-Leg Squat
Why: After mobilizing the hip, work on strengthening the surrounding muscles to create stability. Warner states, “We frequently observe weakness in the gluteus medius and minimus, which are part of the lateral hip musculature.” There is evidence that this activity strengthens those muscles.
Method:
Holding the other leg out in front of the body, balance on one leg.
As though you were going to settle into a chair, place your hips back and lower. As you push back up, watch that your knee does not flex or give way.
Take your time, aiming for a two-second return to standing and a three-second descent.
Reps and Sets: 3 sets of 8–12 repetitions
Staggered Stance Deadlift
Why: By using the hips to extend, this exercise will significantly aid in strengthening. It also serves as a transition exercise between a standard deadlift and a single-leg deadlift.
Method:
Take out a pair of kettlebells or dumbbells. Step forward with one foot after starting with your feet evenly spaced, about shoulder-width apart. Put more weight on your forward leg and raise your back foot to its toes, creating a kickstand.
Lower the weights to the floor by pushing the hips back while keeping your spine neutral. Hold the weights next to your body.
When you stand up again, try to squeeze your glutes as much as you can.
3 sets of 8 repetitions per set.
As a seasoned content writer specialized in the fitness and health niche, Arun Bhagat has always wanted to promote wellness. After gaining proper certification as a gym trainer with in-depth knowledge of virtually all the information related to it, he exercised his flair for writing interesting, informative content to advise readers on their healthier lifestyle. His topics range from workout routines, nutrition, and mental health to strategies on how to be more fit in general. His writing is informative but inspiring for people to achieve their wellness goals as well. Arun is committed to equipping those he reaches with the insights and knowledge gained through fitness.