This video, I'm going to show you how to fix hip and back
pain on one side. Stay tuned.
Hey, everyone. Doctor Rowe coming to you from SpineCare in
Saint Joseph, Michigan. In this video, I'm going to go over
easy exercises that can give instant relief for one-sided
hip and back pain. What usually causes this is because of
muscle tightness and weakness. So, to make getting relief
easy, I'm going to break the video up into two separate
parts. In the first part, we're going to focus on improving
pain-free range of motion in the hip and the back. Just get
everything loosened up. In the second part, we're going to
focus on strengthening the muscles to help support that
area and hopefully get rid of it for good. As a bonus, all of
these exercises can be done at home. They require no special
equipment and you may find give quick pain relief even within
seconds. So, let's get started and fix that one-sided hip and
back pain right now. In the first part, I'm going to go
over three different exercises that may help improve pain-free
range of motion in the hip and the back. These exercises work
by helping to loosen muscle tightness and joint stiffness
and you may find they give instant pain relief even within
seconds. This first one is called the 90-90
stretch. I really like this one because it's going to help
improve hip mobility by targeting external and internal
rotation. This one I'm going to start off on a floor. Have one
leg in front of you, knee bent at 90 degrees. The other one is
going to be off towards the side, knee bent at 90 degrees.
So to begin with, what we want to do with this front knee is
try to take it down towards floor as much as possible. If
you do have a lot of muscle tightness like glute tightness
or just hip arthritis, you'll probably find that you can't
get the knee down towards the floor. Do the best you can.
What you can do to improve range of motion is to actively
take this knee downward as much as you can until you feel a
very deep stretch, a comfortable stretch not to the
point of pain, hold that for 20 seconds, release it, and then
repeat it three times. With each repetition, you'll notice
that the knee goes down just a little bit more until maybe you
touch the floor. From there, I'm going to take my hand off
to my side, have my arm straight at my elbow. Let's
crawl up with our hand right here until we have very good
upright posture or the best that we can. In this position,
you should already start to feel a very deep stretch across
both hips, into the glutes, across the pelvis, and also
into the back. I'm going to take this one to the next level
by straightening my arm and my elbow like this and then
pivoting forward through my waist, through my hips,
lowering my downward towards the floor. We don't want to
round the back with this one but just keep it straight,
pivot forward. The more that you go forward, the more that
you're going to feel a deep stretch intensify across the
hips and the back. I try to hold this one for 20 to 30
seconds. I just relax and then repeat this one three to five
times and with each repetition, challenge yourself, build into
it just a little bit more. To take this one to even the next
level and target a little bit more off to one side, we can
put different motions in there to the muscles and the joints
just a little bit differently. So, let's say I have a lot of
left-sided hip pain or back pain. What I'm going to do is
just rotate, kind of twist through my waist right here
towards the opposite side. The more that you go over, the more
it's going to open up those hips in the back and it usually
feels really really good. So, give that a try for 20 to 30
seconds and if you feel like it's helping, throw in another
rep or two. You can also rotate towards the side of pain and
see how that feels. It helps, throw more reps in. You can
also do a leaning motion. So, with this one, what you want to
do is lean away from the side of pain. So, let's say I have a
lot going off to my right side. I'm going to stabilize on the
other side. I usually like to grab right at the ankle, put my
arm overhead like this and then just tilt my body straight away
from the side of pain. What you'll notice is it opens up
the back just a little bit differently. I really feel it
from my lower back going down into my hip. This hits a muscle
called the QL or the quadratus lumborum, a big instigator of
both back and hip pain but go through all of those motions.
If you feel like any of them are helping out a little bit
more. At that point, throw more repetitions in and when you're
done with one position, always switch the position of the legs
right here and repeat to hit them both in all angles. So,
here's an exercise that you can do standing. It's perfect if
you're stuck at work and need quick pain relief. It's called
the ballerina. For this one, I'm going to start with very
good upright paw whatever side that you're having pain. Let's
say I have a lot of left-sided back pain going towards my hip.
What I'm going to do is take the painful side's leg, put it
over the other one just like this. Toes pointed straight
ahead. The hand on the non-painful side is going to go
right on the hip. What I'm going to do with the other hand
is put it overhead just like this. So, it kind of looks like
a ballerina. The movement from here is very easy. What I'm
going to do is tilt my body away from the painful side and
press my hip towards the painful side at the same time.
When you do this, you're going to feel a deep stretch
forming in the lower back going down towards the hip. This hits
a muscle called the quadratus lumborum or the QL, a big
instigator of one-sided back pain including hip pain. I like
to hold this one comfortably for about 20 seconds. Just do
nice, slow, controlled breathing also. From there,
just relax, take a breather, and then repeat this one three
to five times. With each repetition, try to stretch into
it just a little bit more. How I like to take this one to the
next level is using a frame to really pinpoint the stretch
just a little bit more. So, what I'm going to do is put
that painful side, flush up against that door frame and
what I'm going to do is press into it with my hands so it's a
stable anchor point and at that point, now, I lean away from
it. It just allows me to have a little bit of a deeper stretch
into the back into the hips. So, give that one a try. If you
think that it helps out a little bit more, you know, go
with that one but for this, I do try to do it on both sides
because you want to keep them in balance. So, with this next
stretching exercise, we're going to focus on a couple more
muscle groups that are big instigators of one-sided hip
and back pain. It's going to be two separate movements. The
first movement is called the 3D hip flexor stretch. It's going
to focus more on the front of the leg, the hip flexors
including the psoas muscle. This one, we need a sturdy
chair, one without wheels but you can also use a staircase.
So, whatever side that you're having pain, let's say I'm
having a lot on my left side. I'm going to take the
non-painful put it up on the chair like this. Let's keep the
back painful sides leg straight at the knee and then just put
it behind us just a little bit. Make sure that your foot is
flat. What we want from there is very good upright posture.
Take your hands, put them right on your hips. The first
movement very easy. I'm just going to lunge forward with my
body weight. Really moving through my waist through my
hips. The more that you go forward, the more that you're
going to feel a deep stretch forming in the front of the
back leg. That's hitting that psoas muscle and those hip
flexors. Hold this for 20 to 30 seconds. You want to do nice,
slow, controlled breathing also. From there, just relax
and then repeat this one for three to five times and with
each repetition, build into it just a little bit more. From
here, we can take it to the next level by hitting it at
just different spots with different movements. So, I'm
going to go back into that original lunge position but
this time around, I'm going to put my hands in front of me
kind of like a genie position and then I'm going to rotate my
body away from the side of pain. It will hit the hip and
the back just a little bit differently. So, give that one
a try. You can also rotate towards the side of pain and I
also like to do what is known as a lateral lean. So, I'm
going to go back into that original position, put my hand
at 90 degrees, I should say, my elbow at 90 degrees on the
painful side and then, I'm going to tilt away from the
painful side with my body moving through my waist through
my hips. That hits that QL, that quadratus lumborum muscle
that we were talking about earlier. So go through all of
those positions and if you feel like one just offers you more
relief it's really hitting that tight achy spot at that point
throw more repetitions in and the second part we're going to
focus more on the glutes and a muscle called the piriformis so
what I'm going to do is sit right at the edge of my chair
or your stair whatever side that you're having pain this
time around let's say it's my right side what I'm going to do
is bring that leg up rest my ankle over the other side's
knee so when you look down, it should look like a figure four.
So, this is known as a seated figure four or if you're into
yoga, a seated pigeon pose. So, what we want to do is try to
take this knee downward as much as we can but we're not going
to press into it. Don't crank into it. What you want to do is
just actively press down as much as you can until you feel
a very deep stretch forming over the glute, over the hip,
and also into that piriformis muscle. It should feel really
deep to the glute at that point. One, we feel that, what
I'm going to do is have very good upright posture and then
I'm going to pivot forward through my waist through my
hips. I'm not trying to round my back into this one. Move
through your waist. The more that you go forward, the more
it's going to intensify that stretch and it usually feels
really really good. So, I try to hold this one for 20 to 30
seconds. I come back up and then repeat it up to five times
with each repetition going to it just a little bit more. So,
with this movement, you can also do rotation and that tilt
like we did earlier. So, just pivot forward again, put your
hands in front of you like this, you can rotate away from
pain or you can rotate towards it. Anything that feels better,
throw more repetitions in at that point. If you want to
focus a little bit more often to the lower back hitting that
QL muscle, what you do is just have very good upright posture
and then what you do from there is just tilt away from the side
of pain. That'll help open up the lower back. So, go through
all of those motions if any is pinpointing that pain and just
hitting that spot of tightness, stiffness, whatever a little
bit more throw more repetitions in and I do recommend doing
this on both sides to keep them in balance. In this part, we're
going to focus on getting rid of hip and back pain for good
by strengthening the muscles and soft tissue that support
the hips, the pelvis, and the back. This is called the figure
four bridge. It's a great daily exercise that you can do in bed
or on a floor. So, what I'm going to do is start off lying
flat on my back. If you're unfamiliar with the bridge,
it's a very back-friendly exercise that's going to target
a lot of muscles. So, what I'm going to do is get in that
position first. Have your knees bent, feet flat, take your
hands, put them on your hips. You're going to tighten your
core muscles, squeeze your glutes, lift your hips upward
towards the ceiling until your body is in a nice straight line
from your knees to your hips to your shoulders. You should feel
a ton of muscles firing the core, the lower back, the glute
the legs. We're going to take this one to the next level by
taking one leg up off the bat or the floor and then putting
the ankle over the other side's knee to form a figure four. In
this position, you should feel a ton firing on the glute right
here that is driving upward towards the ceiling and on the
other side, you should feel a deep stretch forming in the hip
and also over that glute and the piriformis. So, it helps
strengthen and lengthen at the same time. I try to hold this
one for about 5 seconds. From there, a going to relax, take a
breather, and then I'm going to repeat this one up to 10 times
with each repetition, build into it just a little bit more
and whatever you do on one side, always switch to the
other side to repeat. You can also focus on the hips a little
bit more by doing what is known as a clamshell bridge. So, I'm
going to put my feet together and then I'm going to take my
knees and drive them outward as much as I can until I feel a
very good activation of the inner leg muscles and also into
the hips. From there, the movement is very similar. We're
just going to put our hands on our hips and then drive our
hips upward towards the ceiling. This one will just put
a little bit more focus on those glutes and across the
hips. Five-second hold, you're going to relax and then repeat
this one up to 10 times and with this, if you feel like you
have a little bit more energy, you can throw in another set or
two. So, here's another really easy hip and back strengthening
exercise that you can do daily. It's called the hip hiker and
it's going to put a bit more focus on the quadritus lumbarum
and the glute muscles and alls we need is a staircase for this
one so every time that you go upstairs throw in a couple reps
it probably will add up over time I'm going to start by
putting one foot up on a stair the other is going to go right
off to the side the movement pretty straight forward take
your hand put it on your hip and then drive that hip upward
towards the ceiling as much as you can you'll feel a deep
activation across the hip into the lower back it's going to
hit that QL muscle. You want to hold this one right here for
about 5 seconds. From there, just relax and then you're
going to repeat this up to 10 to 15 times. With each
repetition, drive that hip up just a little bit more and then
when you're done on one side, I do recommend switching to the
other and repeating and if you feel like you have a little bit
more energy, throw in another set or two. If the exercises
help, please support the channel by giving this video a
like and maybe subscribing too. If you have any comments or
questions, please leave them below. I'll get back to you as
soon as I can. Thanks for watching!