Hey everybody it's Doctor Jo and Princess Remy!
Today we're going to show you some
stretches and exercises for hip impingement or FAI.
So let's get started.
So the first stretch
is going to be a hamstring stretch.
Take a strap or a belt, you can use a towel or
a dog leash, something that has a loop usually works the best.
You're just going
to wrap it around your foot here, I like bending up the one that I don't stretch
just so it takes some pressure off my back, so you're going to lie all the way
down and you want to keep that leg nice and straight.
Use the strap to pull your
leg up, and try and keep that knee as straight as you can because that's going
to stretch those hamstrings underneath.
If you pull your toes down a little bit,
that will give you an extra stretch, that will help activate the calf stretching
as well, so you'll get a full stretch through there.
Make sure you hold the
stretch for 30 seconds, come on back down, and you're going to do that a total of
three times.
So when it's the hip where there can be a lot of imbalances and
that's so close together, I would say stretch both sides especially if you
seconds a total of three on each side, really just get everything nice and
stretched out.
After you stretch out the hamstring, you can kind of stay in that
position.
This time just go ahead and bring that leg down because you're going
to come back up almost like you're stretching your hamstring, but now you're
going to drop that leg across your body to stretch out the IT band, so now this
way up at the hip and comes down past the knee, so it's definitely going to
cause a lot of hip problems if it's tight, so again holding it for 30 seconds,
coming back, take a little break or switch sides and do that a total of
three times.
I'm showing these stretches with a strap lying down, but you can
stretch out these muscles a whole bunch of different ways, so if you want to try
exercises, but they're pretty easy to do with a strap or a belt or something like
that, but you'll feel it nice on the outside of your leg there, and if you go
higher, if you can, that stretches out a little bit more, but try and keep your
back flat on the ground, so it's not rolling over because then that's not
really getting that stretch.
Trying to keep your back down and just rotating
that leg and that hip over.
After you stretch those out, go ahead and pull that
loop all the way around your foot and then roll over onto your stomach.
I'm
muscle, so again this might be an awkward position for some people to get in, so if
your quad muscle, but this is nice if you're already using the strap and
you're already lying down, so make sure it's around your shoulder so you don't
have to twist and pull and make your back sore, and just start pulling and try
and get that heel as close to your bottom as you can, and so this time you
should feel the stretch in front of your thigh where that quad muscle is, and so
again holding that stretch for 30 seconds and then come back down.
And then
since this is a tougher position to get into, I'd stretch all three on one side
and then switch it over and stretch them on the other side, but so that 30 seconds
3 times getting that nice stretch in there, where it's not a painful stretch,
but it's a little bit uncomfortable, lots of tension, and that kind of hurts so
good feeling, not just hurt so hurt kind of feeling.
So after you get all that
stretched out with the strap, you can take that off and then you're going to
stretch your glutes and your piriformis muscles.
So those are the muscles kind of
in the back which still all connect around the hips, so if you've got that
right here, so take the side that you want to stretch,
cross it over, the higher up you get that
the better stretch you're going to get, and you should feel it right through
here, so if you're not feeling it very much keep your back straight and then
lean forward, so as I lean forward I get a lot more stretch through here and
again this is another one where you want to hold it for 30 seconds ,relax it a
little bit, and then come back into the stretch, so again that impingement is right
call it, so it's right there, so something's getting impinged in there,
and a lot of times when you have that impingement, your labrum might actually be
involved, so you can see an impingement on an x-ray, you can't see the labrum on
an x-ray, so if you're doing your stretching and exercise and you're not
getting much better, make sure and go back to your doctor and maybe get some
impingement.
The next stretch is going to be for your groin muscles because
again that's on the inside.
A lot of times when you have that pain, it's in
the front groin area, and it's in the back booty area, it's kind of a "C"
that's a good way to test it.
If you take your hand make it like a "C," put it
through there, usually the pains in the front there and in the back there and
that's how you know that there's something going on, so a good way to
stretch the groin muscles is just to get into a butterfly stretch.
Pull your feet
close them together, and then once you start feeling a little bit of a stretch,
then take your elbows and push downwards on your thighs.
If you feel like this
isn't very much, then you can pull your feet in a little bit more and then push
down, try and keep your back pretty straight.
Some people kind of like to
curl it down, see I'm not getting as much of a stretch as I am if I keep my back
straight and push forward, so this is another one you want to hold it for 30
seconds.
Some people like to put their hands out so if you start off and you
have maybe a target right here, and you can get to it then you'll know if
eventually you can get a little bit further and a little bit further, but
people tend to start curling their back a little bit, so I like just taking my
elbows on my thigh both, and then pushing them down that way, and
then get a nice stretch through that groin area, those abductors inner thigh
muscles.
So after you get all that stretched out, you're nice and loosened up,
now you want to strengthen those muscles.
So great way to strengthen all those hip
muscles is to do a four-way hip exercise.
So we're going to start lying back down
again with the exercises, and we're going to start with a simple straight leg
raise.
I like to prop up my other side not only to get a target for your leg,
raise.
I like to prop up my other side not only to get a target for your leg,
when you have that hip pain that hip impingement, you're going to have a
prop this leg up it's going to take pressure off of the back.
You want to
keep this leg as straight as you can, so if you pull up your toes that helps kind
of lock out the leg, just bring it to about even up the other side, so you
momentum to get up, just bring it to about right here, and then slowly come
back down.
That's the important part going slow and
controlled.
If you're just swinging it up and down like this, you're using momentum,
and that's not really strengthening those muscles, so go nice and slow nice
and controlled coming back down.
You don't have to touch the ground that will
make it harder, but if you need to instead of just going up and down
without touching you can kind of stop and reset each time, but if you get to 20,
25, 30, and it's easy, then you can add a little ankle weight on there.
So
basically with the 4-way hip, you're just going to keep turning all the way
around, but I'm just going to show you how to do it, I might be switching legs,
but usually you can just keep the same leg and go all the way around, but I
want you to be able to see me doing it.
So this time you're going to roll this way,
still use a strengthening this leg, but now you're going to strength the inner
inner side, those adductor muscles.
So with this top leg here, you can either
prop it up behind it, or you can prop it up in front of it, it's really up to you,
it's for your comfort level, it doesn't particularly matter if it's in the front
or the back.
I'll show you the back way just because it will be a
little easier for you to see my leg.
Same kind of concept, you want to keep that
leg straight, you want to pull up your toes, and you really want your leg to go
straight up and down, so you don't want it going forward.
You lift like this, you
want it just to go straight up and down, now you can see my leg's not going very
high just because in this position it's not going to go very far, but you're
really going to feel those adductors working, so nice slow and controlled,
again nothing big, nothing fast, but just working those muscles making them
do all the work instead of using momentum.
So now you roll over onto
your stomach to do the leg extension, so same thing with the leg extension, I'm
going to use this leg now, but just so you can see it a little bit better, you
want to lock out that leg, pull up those toes, keep your hips down.
A lot of times
people want to kick up high and they try and kick like this, but that's really not
working those hip extensors, so really keep those hips on the ground, keep that
leg straight, and just do a little lift.
You can see I'm not lifting very high,
of using my body to do the work, so just little lifts off the ground coming back
down.
Try and keep your leg as straight as you can.
Sometimes your knee wants to bend a little bit for this, that's okay, but
like as straight as you can, so again starting off with 10 and working your
way up from there, and then so normally then I turn the other way, but I'm just
going to turn this way, and now you're going to do hip abduction - ab, going up
this way.
So the biggest thing with this one is you want to keep your hips pretty
perpendicular to the floor, so try not to roll them when you're going back and
forth ,and keep your toes tight pulled up toward you.
Keep that leg tight, but when
back because you want to be in a straight line, so if you try and kick
back a little bit that will help activate those muscles out on the side,
so not going up this way, but kicking back, leading with your heel, going that way.
So same thing, doesn't have to be a big lift, but you just want to lead with the
heel and kick up and down, starting off with ten to fifteen and working your way
up from there.
Then while you're kind of in this
position, you're going to do a clamshell exercise, and this really works that
glute med, the medius area right there, that has a lot to do with the hip and
how we walk and keeping everything stable, so this time bend both knees kind
of placing one foot on top of the other and then one being on top of the other
this one's also very important to keep those hips perpendicular, straight up and
down.
People tend to want to roll when they open up like that clamshell, but if
you do that, again you're not using the muscles so if you have to lean up
against a wall where you're doing it, that's fine this is more important than
the height so keep your feet together and just lift that top knee off of the
other, so again it's not this, you're not rolling, but you're just coming
straight up and back down, so again if this becomes easy you can either put a
little ankle weight on your thigh or you can use a resistive band, but make sure
that you're comfortable.
If this is uncomfortable, make sure you're lying all
the way down so you're protecting the rest of your body.
So there you have it,
those are your stretches and exercises for hip impingement or FAI.
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and I hope you feel better soon.