Hip Mobility
Hip mobility is extremely important when it comes to our everyday movement. The hip joint is responsible for so many of our daily movements and activities, including walking, bending down to pick something up, standing up, rotation and stabilising our bodies. Making sure that our hips are stretched is crucial to our everyday lives.
Tight hips can affect our ability to move, place a bigger strain on the lower back, and increase tension in other areas of the body. As we are moving into a world were we are sitting down more often, stretching is taking a back seat to our working life. That’s why we want to give you a few hip stretches that will take 2 min out of your day, so that you can keep mobile in this sedentary world.
This first stretch is for our hip flexors. The hip flexors are responsible for flexion at the hip, for example, sitting at a desk. The hip flexor can often become quite tight and can use a good stretch.
For this stretch we want to start in a kneeled position, like a proposal, with one knee on the ground and one foot on the ground. You should then drop your hands to the ground, on the inside of the front foot. Trying to keep the chest up, we want to drop our back hip into the ground as much as we can. Remember, we are just looking for a gentle stretch, so this shouldn’t be super uncomfortable at this point. If you would like to further this stretch, you can drop down to your elbows instead of your hands.
The aim of this stretch is to feel a gentle pull through the front of the hip on the back leg, just above the thigh. This stretch should run over the hip joint. If you are feeling this through the front leg, try squeezing the glutes of the back leg to increase the amount you are extending through the hips. This stretch is a great start for increasing hip mobility.
This next stretch is what some might refer to as our frog stretch. The frog stretch has a focus on our hips and our inner thighs/groin. This is helpful for trying to sink deeper into a squat position, whether it is for a workout regime, or just trying to pick things off the ground. This is an easy stretch to complete that just requires you to take a few deep breaths and hold this position.
To start the frog stretch, we want to be on our hands and knees. Gently, we will spread our knees further apart so our hips can start to lower to the ground. You can either stay on your hands, or drop to your elbows. The aim is to sit back into our hips and keep them low to the ground.
You should feel a gentle stretch through the inside of the thigh, the groin and the hips. We are not looking to be in any pain whilst completing this stretch. You can hold this stretch from 30-60 sec depending on how tight you are through this stretch.
This last stretch is our 90 90 stretch. This aims to again, stretch through our hips, and also get into our glutes. Our glutes are responsible for extending the hip when we walk/run, flexing the hips for when we sit laterally and medially rotating the hips, for when we want to twist and turn, abducting and adducting the hips, and general stabilisation. The glutes are responsible for so much of our everyday movement, which is why it is so important to stretch them out.
For this stretch we are going to be seated on the floor. One leg will be bent in front at a 90 degree angle, with the knee flat on the ground. The other leg will be out to the side at a 90 degree angle, with the knee on the ground. We will be bending over the front knee trying to drop our chest into the ground.
The aim of this stretch is to feel a stretch in the glute of the front leg. You can increase the stretch by walking the hands towards the feet instead of over the knee. You can also try to increase the stretch by trying to bring the hips forward, without lifting them off the ground.
For more information on how we can help you on your fitness journey, please contact us.
