Hip pain. It's something a lot of people suffer with, whether it's from sitting too much, not sitting enough (I'm talking to all you endurance exercisers out there), arthritis, bursitis or even having the misfortune of having your hip bones abnormally shaped (yes, that's a thing).
I have suffered with hip pain in the past. Unfortunately, it's common, but fortunately, there are a number of things we can do about it.
First, and foremost, see a professional (like a physiotherapist or your doctor) and get a diagnosis, a plan of attack and start rehabilitating yourself.
Don't play the wait and see game. You know that game. We all play it with our health and in the end the body rarely comes out the winner.
What are some of the muscular reasons why your hips can hurt? And are there stretches you can do at home to help avoid hip pain? To help me out with this column, I enlisted Travis Wolsey, local physiotherapist and owner of Sungod Sports and Orthopedic Clinics in North Delta, Ladner and Tsawwassen Springs.
He told me that some muscular reasons people encounter hip pain very rarely have to do with the hip itself. Instead, it's the muscles surrounding our ol'hips that are causing the problems.
The first key muscle group people should be stretching are their hamstrings, the muscles behind their thighs. If the hamstrings are tight, this can cause the pelvis to tilt posteriorly, causing sciatic nerve tethering (physio speak for compression) and excessive lower lumbar strain.
How do you know if your hamstrings are tight? Simple, try to touch your toes by hinging through your hips (avoid rounding your back). If you can't, add the recommended hamstring stretch into your daily routine (see Photo 1).
The second muscle group you should stretch are your hip flexors, located in the front of the hips.
The hip flexors can be both dominate and tight, which leads to increased lordosis in the spine and excess lumbar compression.
Both are bad news for our hips.
Photo 2 demonstrates a great stretch to help lengthen your hip flexors, and then I also suggest adding some focused glute work into your workout program to offset the strength ratio between the front and the back of the body.
And, finally, tightness in the glutes will limit hip mobility, which will then be accommodated for (because something's got to give) by excessive sacroiliac joint and/or lumbar movement - showing that having a tight a** is not always a good thing.
Photo 3 hits those glute muscles, while Photo 4 hits the inner thigh grouping, another area Wolsey likes to see people stretch on a regular basis.
Add these stretches into your regular routine to say bye-bye to tight hips.
PJ Wren is a local trainer and writer who can be found at The Studio in Ladner or online at www.fitnesswithpj.com.
