Whether you exercise, don’t exercise, sit a lot or stand a lot, our hips tend to be tight.
It’s no wonder. Our hip muscles put in a lot of work during the course of our day. They are responsible for stabilizing our pelvis, moving our legs side to side and drawing our knees to our chest, which is basically every time we sit, run, jump or pedal.
And while having a tight rear-end is alright, having tight hips is not.
Shortened hip muscles will reduce our range of motion, which in turn may lead to pain in our hips, low back and knees. Not cool.
To help combat tight hip muscles and open up your hips, I recommend these five stretches. Do them daily and reap the benefits in return:
1. Seated hip stretch
Sit on the floor with your knees bent so that your right shin is positioned in front of you, your left shin behind you and your left hip dropped all of the way to the floor. Press your left hip forward until you feel a stretch in the front of your hip. Hold and repeat on other side.
2. Supine adductor stretch with band
Lie on your back, extend a leg up to the ceiling and wrap a strap around the sole of your left foot. Keep the opposite hip on the ground and hold. Repeat on the opposite side.
3. Supine lateral hip stretch
Lie on your back with your right knee bent, left leg fully extended. Press into your right foot to shift onto your left hip then squeeze your right glute to press your left hip open until you feel a stretch. Hold and then repeat on other side.
4. Seated figure 4
Sit down with your knees bent, place your right ankle on top of your left thigh and flex your right foot. Press your hips toward your heels until you feel a stretch through your outer left hip. Hold and then repeat on the other side.
5. Frog
Widen your knees out as far as they can go, flex the feet and bring your feet in line with your knees. Your shins should be parallel with one another Hold and then try slowly moving your hips forward and backward to bring the stretch to different parts of your hips.
PJ Wren is a local personal trainer and writer. You can reach her The Studio in Ladner, www.thestudio.ca or check out her workouts on her blog at www.fitnesswithpj.com.
