Hey, everybody is Doctor Jo and sweet Remy and today I'm going
to show you my favorite stretches and exercises for hip
pain. So let's get started.
So for these stretches and exercises, I'm going to be doing
them on a couch you can do on your bed, you can do them on
your floor, whatever is most comfortable for you some of the
stretches are a little bit better when you have more room.
So when I'm lying down on the couch, I might have to kind of
modify it a little bit, because I won't have quite as much room.
So get wherever you're most comfortable, we're going to
start off lying down, I like to do stretches first, just to
loosen everything up, lengthen those muscles and then do the
exercises, after everything is in a lengthened position. Some
people might tell you different ways, that's just the way I like
to do it. So we'll start off with the stretches. Lying down,
we're going to start off with a wide leg trunk rotation. And so
with trunk rotations, if you've seen before you have your knees
propped up together, wide leg just means now you're going to
stretch your feet or spread your feet out just a little bit, kind
of past your hips. So it doesn't have to be super far. But the
goal is to have your legs wide enough that when you rotate down
the knee on top, we'll be able to rotate a little bit further.
And that's going to get a great hip stretch. So with my feet
just a little bit wider. Now I'm just going to rotate them over
to the side. So you can see that this side is going to be able to
go a little bit farther than when they're traditionally
together where maybe you're trying to stretch your back. Now
you're gonna get your back and your hip with the wide leg trunk
rotation. With this stretch, you're just going to hold it for
30 seconds. And then do that three times on each side just
for time, I'm going to show you one way. But if you want to
follow along in real time videos, where I'm doing the
whole routine, I have a whole lot of real time videos, and you
can click on the link up there for some of those coming back
up, and then stretching over to the other side, again, 30
seconds, three times on each side. So then I'm gonna sit up
and go into a seated figure four stretch. So the figure for
stretch, the reason is called a figure for stretch is because
it's kind of just like it sounds, when you bring your leg
up, you're going to look down and your legs gonna be kind of
in a figure four position. So if you can't quite get into this
position here, what you can do to modify that a little bit is
bring your slide your foot down, that it's propped up on, and
then be a little bit below the knee. If that's hard to get your
leg up, you can also use a strap to kind of help pull it up. It
just depends on how weak or how tight your hip is. But once you
get into your comfortable position, so if it's down here,
that's fine. If you need to bring it up here, that's fine as
well. But get that figure four position. And the key is, make
sure you're coming forward moving forward at your hips, not
your back, a lot of times I'll see people do this, oh, I'm not
really feeling a stretch. Well, that's because you're not moving
your hips to get that stretch in the hips. So keep your back as
upright as you can. And then just lean forward at your hips.
So see, I'm getting more of a stretch here, down on my
piriformis and my glutes than if I'm coming down like this,
because it's all about your hip movement. So up tall, coming
forward, hold that stretch for 30 seconds, and then doing that
three times on each side just to get it nice and loosened up. The
next stretch is going to be a hip flexor stretch. But we're
going to do that hip flexor stretch kind of modified in a
seated position, you might have seen some of my other videos
where I'm just doing it in a full lunge position, that's fine
to do if you don't have any knee issues. But a lot of times when
you're doing in that full lunge position. So if I was off the
bed, there's a lot of pressure on your knee. So if you're
sitting like on the edge of your couch or in a chair, and kind of
sliding over like this, this helps take pressure off your
knee. So it's just touching the floor, but it's not getting all
that weight of your body through it. So this is a nice
modification to do, you want to kind of get this, this is the
side I'm stretching. So I'm turning towards the opposite
side and getting that leg down. Even in this position, I can
feel that there's a little bit of stretch in there because I
always have a little bit of tight hip flexors, the foot
going down or up doesn't matter too much. I feel like a lot of
times we mind down I'll get a better stretch. But the key with
this is to make sure you go into what we call a posterior pelvic
tilt. So that just means I'm rotating or tilting my pelvis
backwards. So the top part goes back. What that does is that
puts a stretch on that hip flexor because a hip flexor
comes all the way up and attaches to the spine. So when
I'm doing this when I'm rotating that pelvis, since it comes over
the front of that, I'm already getting a stretch right here.
You can place your hands on your knee right here just to bring
your ribcage board a little bit. As long as you're in that tilt,
you're still going to get a good stretch. If I'm just leaning
forward like this that took the stress off of it. So it's really
important to get that posterior pelvic tilt, and then you can
lean forward a little bit more Do you need more of a stretch,
and again, holding that stretch for 30 seconds, doing that three
times on each side. So now we're gonna go into some exercises. So
we're gonna lie back down.
What am I favorite exercises for the hips, the knee or the back.
So this is a great kind of exercise for all of those is
bridging, bridging is super easy, but it really gives you a
good workout for all these muscles around the pelvis,
again, the knees and the back. With bridging, you just want to
prop up your legs, feet about knee and hip width apart. So you
want everything to kind of be in alignment, the further out your
feet are, the more your hamstrings are gonna work, the
more you come in, that'll take the hamstrings out a little bit.
And that just matters because sometimes when people do
bruising, they'll get a hamstring cramp. So if you
haven't done these before, take your time, if you start to feel
that cramp coming on, bring your heels towards you a little bit,
that'll take it out the hamstrings out of it just a
little bit. With the bridging, you want to slowly roll up, I
always like to say one segment at a time of your spine, you
don't have to stop at each segment. But you really want to
kind of roll up really to make sure you're activating those
muscles. So as I come up, I kind of I lift my bottom up first,
and then I roll up. So again, you don't have to stop at each
spot. But then kind of rolling back down, that just makes you
slow down and work it if you're just going up and down, you're
not really getting the exercise, you're just using momentum to
get up and down. Also, I've had some people say sometimes, well,
this, this hurts my neck, I'm getting a lot of pressure on my
neck. If you're getting pressure on your neck, you're probably
trying to force yourself up to see when I really try and force
myself up, I'm getting pressure on my neck, the pressure should
really be at your shoulders when you roll up. So if you're coming
up to here in here, that's where that pressure should be, and
then rolling back down. So if you're getting pressure on your
neck, just try modifying a little bit maybe not coming up
quite as high. Because that might be what you're doing is
you're just pushing up so hard, you're pushing down with your
head instead of using your hip muscles to roll up. And then
again, nice and slow, rolling back down. So the next one is
going to be clamshell exercises. clam shells, are great for the
gluteus medius muscle on the outside. And that has a lot to
do with our hip function. And the way we walk. A lot of times
people will also say these are really easy, they don't feel
like they're working in this probably because they're not
quite doing it right. So you're gonna bend your knees up kind of
propped up on each other, the feet are also stacked up on each
other. And they're about you want your feet to kind of be in
alignment with the rest of your body. It doesn't have to be
exact, but that's kind of what you want to do. The key with
this is your hips should always be perpendicular to what you're
lying on. So you don't want to roll your hips. If you start
rolling your hips, then you're you're not getting the exercise
and you're not going to feel it where you're supposed to feel
it. So the bottom leg stays down, the feet stay together,
you can roll them apart, but you're not picking up your feet
for this one. So I'm just going to lift that top knee, if you
need to keep your hand on the top part of your hip, that's
fine. That will help you kind of know that you're not rolling,
and just bring it up. So see, my my hand here is not moving. If
I'm rolling back, then I'm not getting the exercise that I
want. You should feel it right here that top the leg this on
top is where you should feel. And I'm just coming up. And then
nice and slow coming back down, make sure you're controlling it
back down, don't just come up and then come down because
you're missing part of that exercise. Nice roll up nice and
slow back down. This is one where maybe the first three to
five are pretty easy people that I'm not really feeling anything.
And then once you get past five, you're really probably going to
start feeling it right there. That's where you want to feel it
in the top or the outside part of the hip right there this up
on top. So then the next one is just going to be a hip flexor
exercise or straight leg raise. And so again, that's working
that muscle that we just stretched earlier. I like to
keep the side that I'm not working propped up one that just
takes some pressure off the back and to that gives me a good
target of where I want to lift my leg, the side that I'm
working, I'm going to pull up my toes, that just kind of helps
lock out my leg because you want to keep your legs as straight as
you can. Try not to bend that knee and sometimes maybe it'll
bend a little bit, but that's just sometimes a sign of some
weakness in that leg. So really pull up those toes, try and lock
out that leg. And then you're just going to slowly lift it up
just to about level of the other side. So
it's not, you know, coming all the way up because then people
just kind of go fast and they're using momentum and you're not
really using your muscles to lift that leg. So again, pulling
those toes up. Nice and slow. Just a little pause right here.
And then slowly coming back down. Make sure you're not just
letting gravity drop that leg back down. If you get doing
these and you're doing a lot and they're easy, then try not to
maybe come all the way back down if you don't bring your leg all
the way back down. That makes it a little bit harder because you
have to keep that leg engaged. Age and those muscles engaged
the whole time. So that's a way to kind of progress as you get
going. But making sure that you're not overdoing it because
sometimes it feels these feel really easy. And then you might
be a little bit sore later. So doing less is better to start
off with and then progress later. So there you have it.
Those are my favorite stretches and exercises for hip pain. If
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description below. And remember, be safe, have fun, and I hope
you feel better soon.