In this video, I'm going to go over the worst hip pain relief
exercises and the best ones to do instead. Stay tuned.
Hey, everyone. Doctor Rowe coming to you from SpineCare in
Saint Joseph, Michigan. In this video, I'm going to go over
some common, but bad, hip pain relief exercises and show some
safer alternatives that will help lengthen and strengthen
the hips, offering more long-lasting relief. As a
bonus, all of the exercises can be done at home. They require
no special equipment and you may find give quick hip pain
relief... even in as little as 30 seconds. So, let's get started
and fix that hip pain right now. So, I'm probably going to get
some grief for this one because it's really popular. Let's take
a look at deep squats. That is squatting and trying to take
your butt down towards the floor as much as you can.
There's nothing wrong with deep squats if you have the strength
and flexibility to be able to control that movement but if
you don't, you can get a lot of issues because the further that
you go down, the less stability you have in your pelvis and it
tends to tilt posterior. So, you get what is known as butt
winking. With butt winking you can get a lot of strain on your
knees, hips, and lower back leading to a lot of hip pain.
So, here's a safer alternative that will allow you to progress
into the squat and it's just much more friendly across the
whole body and the hips. So, a better alternative to start
with is what is known as the wall squat. We're going to go
next to a smooth wall or a door. I really like this one
because it helps position your back in a very good upright
posture and it will also help train you maintain that posture
while doing the squat. So, I'm going to get into a squatting
position. My legs are going to be roughly hip width apart. I'm
going to have my feet in front of me enough when I do this
exercise that my knees are not going to go pass my toes. If
that's the case, just move your feet just a little bit more.
Take your feet angle them out slightly like five to 10
degrees. What it does is it helps take pressure off the
knees during the exercise. I'm going to put all of my body
weight onto my heels and from there, I'm just going to have
my whole backside flush against that wall. Take your hands, you
can put them on your hips or you can put them in front of
you like this into a prayer position. What I try to do also
is tighten the core a little bit. It will help build more
stability during the movement. So, I'm just going to slide
down until I feel a very good activation in the glutes, back
of the legs, the hamstrings going towards the knee. If you
get a lot of hip pain or knee pain while squatting, what you
want to do is go right above the spot where if you went any
further, you would get that and you want to hold this position
right here for about 5 seconds. From there, I just come back up
and then on the next repetition, you'll notice that
you can go just a little bit further because this helps
lengthen and strengthen the muscles in the legs and the
back. So, you want to do this one for about five complete
repetitions and with each repetition, try to build into
it just a little bit more. From there, you can take a breather.
If you feel like you have more energy, you can throw in
another set or two. Always challenge those as much as you
can but the goal is to get to a point where you can go down
safely and have your knees roughly at 90 ° back the legs
parallel with the floor I wouldn't try to go any further
than that at the beginning because it can cause a lot of
strain in the knee just get comfortable doing that movement
first to take this one to the next level what you can do is
then move away from the door and not have the support so all
of your muscles are going to have to fight this squatting
motion just a little bit so with this one I'd like to do
the prayer position just like this tight my core keep my back
straight put all my weight on my heels make sure that my toes
are nice and pointed out and then I do that squatting motion
just building into it as much as I can and with this one try
to progress into it and if you do feel comfortable at that
point you can progress into the deep squat one of the worst
ways to get hip pain relief is to do a static stretch or
exercise. Think building into a movement that is in one direction
and holding it for a long period of time. Think of this,
take a rubber band. If you were to pull on it constantly in one
direction and then relax it, you tend to lose elasticity.
It's the same thing with the muscles. If you just build into
one movement and hold it for a long period of time and then
relax, you're losing elasticity in that muscle leading to a
loss of stability. So, what we need to do instead is build
dynamic movement in there. I'm going to take a very popular
one known as the pigeon pose. This one is used commonly for
buttock pain, lower back pain, and hip pain. It's where you
take one leg and pretty much bend the knee and then put your
ankle right over the other side's knee. So, when you look
down, it looks like a figure four. A lot of times people
tend to like to press into this one too which causes a lot of
hip irritation so don't do that and don't just stretch into it
by leaning forward like this either. That causes again just
a loss of elasticity. So, instead, we're going to do what
is called be 3D pigeon pose so let's get into position you can
do this one seated I'm going to have very good upright posture
bring whatever side that you're focusing on let's say I have a
lot of right sided hip pain I'm going to bring that leg up over
the other so again it looks like a figure four and this
time around what I'm going to do is I'm going to pivot
through my waist through my hips I'm not trying to round my
back into this one but just lean forward as much as you can
what you're going to notice is a very deep stretch forming
across the hip once we get to this this time around I'm going
to add some dynamic movement in there put your hands over or I
should say your arms overlap like this kind of like a genie
position and now rotate towards the other side you'll notice
that it hits the hip just a little bit differently I like
to hold this one right here for about 10 to 15 seconds. I just
relax and then I do it towards the other side engaging
different muscles. It also helps let muscles relax at the same
time too. You can do this right here nice and slowly for about
three to five repetitions both sides and build into the
repetitions with each one. You can also target a little bit
more off to the side of the lower back hitting the muscle
called the quadratus lumborum. So with this one, I have very
good upright posture and what I'm going to do is just simply
bend away from the side that I have bent. The more that you go
over, the more that you're going to feel a deep stretch
into that muscle going into the lower back into the hips. Feels
really good. Try to hold this one for about 10 to 15 seconds.
You can come back up and then you can relax but all of those
motions right they just target muscles a little bit
differently and allows them to get engaged relax and
constantly be put through a dynamic movement to get better
results and remember whatever you do on one side switch to
the other to keep them both in balance. So nothing makes me
do a Tony Stark eye roll faster than when somebody is told they
have hip pain because their core and abdominal muscles are
weak, so they get recommended to do old school crunches and sit
ups. Crunches and sit ups... all they do is round the back and
strain the back leading to pain. They don't really do much
of anything. So, here is a better alternative that is not
only going to help safely strengthen the core and the hip
but put it through dynamic movements of rotation that you
might find will give you better results. This one is called the
3D dead bug. I like to do this one on a floor next to a wall
or a door. So, I'm going to bend my elbows roughly at 90
degrees. Make this press into the door just like this and
then tighten the core at the same time. So, into it, tighten
the core, and then you're going to raise your legs up bending
the knees roughly at 90 degrees. You want your hips,
your knees in a nice straight line also. The movement is very
easy. I'm going to demonstrate it on the right side so you can
see it a little bit easier. So, I'm going to straighten one leg
like this at the knee and allow the heel and the calf muscle to
hover right above the floor. Don't let it touch. When you do
this, you're going to feel a ton activate into the core into
the glutes that support the hip right here. I try to hold this
one for about five seconds and then I'm just going to relax
and then you can do it on the other side. I recommend doing
this one for about 10 to 15 repetitions on both sides and
if you feel like you have a little bit more energy, you can
throw another set or two in. Just get used to this movement
first. From there, you can progress into taking this one
to the next level by putting some rotation into the hip to
further strengthen it. So, what I'm going to do, take one leg
down like this again but this time around, I'm going to turn
my foot outward as much as I can. You'll feel the muscles
really start to fire. You can also experiment with taking the
leg out like this while taking your foot out at the same time.
Go out as far as you can and hold this one comfortably for
about five seconds. You can also do the opposite. Turn the
foot inward like this and then go inwards. You'll notice that
it hits the hip just a little bit differently but go through
all of those motions and if you feel like one hits it just a
little bit better, throw some more repetitions in. Just
whatever you do on one side, always switch to the other to
keep them both in balance. So, we really popular core and hip
strengthening exercise is the supine leg lift. Lying flat on
your back, keeping one leg straight, lifting it up just
like this or even the flutter kick variation. The problem is
with this exercise, it really doesn't engage the core all
that much. Instead, you're putting everything onto the hip
flexors right here at the front part of the thigh. When you're
doing this also, people don't tend to relax into a neutral
position. They're constantly keeping those hip flexors flexed and
at that point, you're getting extreme fatigue, strain, and
then pain. You know that deep burning sensation that you get
in the front part of the legs right here into the groin?
Those are your hip flexors screaming at you to please
stop. So here's a safer alternative to build hip and
core strength. This is called the hip flexor bridge. It's
much better than a supine leg lift because you're going to
engage a lot more muscles through dynamic movements to
help take a lot strain off that hip flexor. I'm going to start
lying flat on my back. You can do this one in bed or on a
floor. Let's begin with the bridge movement and then
progress into that leg lift. So, I'm going to have my legs
roughly hip width apart, knees bent, feet flat. I'm going to
take my hands, put them right on my hips. Let's tighten the
core for a little bit more support. The first movement is
very easy. We're just driving our hips and pelvis up towards
the ceiling until we have a nice straight line from our
knees to our hips to our shoulder. If you're unable to
get into this position, do the best you can raise up as much
as you can and then over time hopefully you will gain
strength and flexibility to get into this position right here
but in this position I already feel a ton firing my core
muscles lower back the glutes the legs and also into the
front of the legs right here I try to hold this position
comfortably for about five seconds from there I'm just
going to relax take a breather I would get used to this
position maybe do about five to 10 repetitions and at that
point, if you feel like it's getting a little bit easy, you
can progress into this next one. So, let's focus a little
bit more on that leg lift. Let's get into our bridge
position but this time around, I'm going to lift one leg
straight forward like this and put all of my weight on the
other side. When you do this, make sure that your hips are
level. You don't want one tilting but from here, if I
want to engage the hip flexor a little bit more, I just lift
the leg back towards me just a little bit and it gets pretty
challenging. Try to hold that one comfortably for five
seconds and then just relax, come back down like this. Allow
all of the muscles to relax at that point so that hip flexor
won't stay in a flexed position. From there, I just
repeat this one nice and slowly but I do it on the other side
on the next repetition. I try to do this for about five to 10
repetitions on both sides and if you feel like you have a
little bit more energy, you can throw in another set or two. If
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