increase hip flexibility

December 14, 2011 Posture

Kettlebell Routine to Increase Hip Flexibility

Lack of hip flexibility is one of the most common issues I see in clients with lower back pain, middle back pain and neck and shoulder pain. Why are our hips so inflexible? Well, our bodies get really good at doing whatever it is we do repeatedly. Since we sit so much – at desks, on couches, in cars and restaurants – our hip flexors get tight, short and stiff.

Tight hip flexors pull your pelvis into anterior rotation, giving you a “sway-back” and throwing your body out of balance. A horizontal pelvis is as critical to good posture as a solid foundation is to a structurally sound building. Tip your pelvis too far in one direction or the other and your body has to compensate with excess tension elsewhere.

This kettlebell routine will help you develop functional flexibility in your hip flexors. It’s far more effective than static stretching because dynamic flexibility exercises prepare your body for real life. Your muscles need to be able to both lengthen and contract. Static stretching only trains the lengthening portion.

Also, dynamic movements actively engage your nervous system, the “software” that controls muscle tension. Working with the nervous systems is the fastest way to make changes to muscle tone throughout the body.

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December 8, 2010 Pain Relief

The Best Sciatica Stretch to Get Fast Relief for Sciatic Nerve Pain

Sciatic nerve pain is a common problem for many people. Sciatic nerve pain can be defined as pain deep in the posterior hip and running down the back of the leg. This is caused by an impingement on the sciatic nerve which runs through a group of small but very powerful muscles called the lateral rotators, specifically the piriformis muscle. Doctors may call it sciatic pain, sciatic nerve pain, sciatica or piriformis syndrome.

The sciatic nerve can be impinged or irritated in two places. Either it is compressed in the spine due to a bulging disc or other imbalance in the vertebral column or it can be directly restricted by the piriformis, under which the sciatic nerve runs. In some people, the sciatic nerve innervates (runs through the middle of) the piriformis; you can imagine the impact a tight piriformis muscle would have on that nerve!

In my experience, 9 times out of 10 the pain is coming from tight muscles deep in the posterior hip and can be relieved with some bodywork and gentle stretching. Use the stretch in this video daily to ease muscle tension and give your sciatic nerve room to breathe.

Also, it’s important to remember to move around a lot during the day, especially if you have the kind of job that keeps you sitting for long periods. Sitting creates tension in the hips and can cause sciatic nerve pain. If you must sit for long periods, take frequent breaks. Even getting up to walk around the office for five minutes every two hours makes an enormous difference and can be just the ticket to avoiding future sciatic nerve pain.

September 1, 2010 Healthy Aging

Why stretching won’t increase flexibility

I know you’d like to improve your flexibility. I hear this from my clients all the time! So far, I’ve showed you how to increase your shoulder flexibility, how to use fruit to keep your muscles limber, and given you 7 strategies to increase your hip flexibility. But we haven’t yet talked about the physiology behind flexibility, and understanding how your muscles work is crucial to maintaining a healthy, limber body for the rest of your life.

Most of my clients are making the same mistake when it comes to increasing flexibility. They diligently attend yoga classes, do pre- and post-work out stretching routines, and even get plenty of massages. They just don’t understand why they’re not seeing results! It seems like they might make a few initial gains, but after a couple of weeks the body just plateaus and they don’t experience any additional flexibility.

Well, here’s the reality: It’s not the length of your muscles that determines how far you can stretch. In reality, you’re just as flexible as the yogi who can tuck his foot behind his head.

Impossible! you say. I know it might seem that way, but consider this: A 70 year-old man whose muscles are so tight and restricted he can barely bend his legs to walk up the stairs goes into the hospital for surgery. This is a man who can’t even touch his toes! The nurses put him under anesthesia in preparation for the surgery. Now they have to be extremely careful moving this man because his muscles and joints are so loose they can easily dislocate something!

Fast forward to post surgery when the anesthesia wears off and the man wakes up…he’s back to his original range of motion. What the heck happened?!

Clearly it’s not the physical restriction of the muscle that’s preventing this man from tucking his leg behind his head – the nurses could have easily manipulated him into this position under the extreme relaxation of anesthesia.

So, why is he so immobilized?

The truth is, it’s his neurological make-up that is keeping his muscles tight and tense. You see, every muscle has a “set point,” a point at which little tiny sensors in the cells send a message to the brain insisting that if the muscle is extended any further, it will tear. This is called the “stretch reflex,” and it initiates a contraction in the muscles.

That’s where you experience the limit of your flexibility. Simply pulling on your muscles is inefficient for increasing flexibility unless you plan to stay there long enough to override the power of your stretch reflex – way too long for most people’s patience.

Instead, you have to reprogram your nervous system into allowing your muscle to stretch a little further. Strength plays a part in this. If your muscle is weak, your nervous system will protect it by not allowing it a very large range of motion. Strengthening your muscles in their FULL range of motion is crucial to healthy flexibility.

If you’re unsure of how to start reprogramming your neurological wiring, start by simply taking the muscles and joints through a full range of motion several times. For example, if your ankles have limited range of motion, balance yourself against a wall or chair and hold your foot in front of you. Point your toes toward the ground and then lift them toward the sky, repeating 7-10 times in each direction.

This takes all the muscles along the front and back of your lower leg through a full range of motion and sends a signal to your brain that you need to be able to use your foot this way. With repetition, you’ll notice more freedom in your ankle joint (if done daily, you should notice a difference within seven to ten days). It also retrains muscles that may have become “frozen” in a shortened position.

Ida P. Rolf – founder of the Rolf Method of Structural Integration – always said, “When flexors flex, extensors extend.” This means that when you contract muscles on one side of a joint, the muscles on the other side need to lengthen. Repeated mobility exercises train your body to move in this healthy manner.

The same strategy can be applied to any area of your body that you would like to see increased mobility and flexibility. Move only one joint at a time to start.

October 3, 2009 Healthy Aging

7 Tips to Increase Hip Flexibility

Tight Hips – A Modern Day Epidemic

One of the biggest complaints my clients present during their sessions is tight hips. With the high number of professional computer jockeys in today’s modern world, the common complaints are limited range of motion in the hips and shoulders, pain in the neck, back, and feet.

Sitting all day, especially at an ergonomically challenging computer set up, creates a shortening in your hip flexors (the muscles along the front of your hip and thigh that pull you down into a chair). These muscles in turn pull your lumbar spine forward, causing tension and stiffness in the low back, bracing in your hips and what are known as dysfunctional movement patterns.

Additionally, 99.9% of everyone I see in my office sits incorrectly. I attribute this to a lifetime spent on soft, cushy couches and overstuffed easy chairs. Unfortunately, while plush seating may feel nice for a while, it has the effect of rolling your sacrum under so that your weight isn’t centered over your ischial tuberosities (sitting bones) but rather on the last vertebra of your spine (i.e. your sacrum).

Once your sacrum is jammed, your entire spine compensates. This is why a headache or sore neck is actually located in your pelvis, and why work around the hips and low back will generally result in greater shoulder mobility.

7 Easy Tips to Increase Hip Flexibility:

1. When sitting for prolonged periods, make sure your hips are higher than your knees.

If your knees are higher than your hips, all of your weight falls into your pelvis while the job of holding you upright falls to your hip flexors and the postural stabilizers of your low back.

Instead of bracing your torso to stay upright, place your feet flat on the floor, one foot a few inches in front of the other. By pressing into the ground, you should feel support travel up through your legs and into your low back. Taking the strain off your back is the first step in allowing greater mobility.

2. Do squats – full on, all the way to your heels squats!

Squats force you to mobilize your ankles, knees, hips, and the facet joints in your spine. Most people who haven’t ever trained for this kind of movement find even a basic squat with no weight to be challenging.

When performing the maneuver, make sure your torso doesn’t pitch forward. Holding a small weight, a weighted bar, or a wooden dowel in front of your chest, as in a traditional front squat position, can help you stay upright.

If you are not flexible enough to keep your feet relatively parallel, start with your legs wider apart, feet turned out at 45 degrees. The more you practice squatting, the more willing your body will be to go all the way to the ground.

3. Practice sitting down on the ground and getting up without using your hands.

This is especially helpful for lubricating the hip joints, and it erases the fear that people develop as they age that they will fall and not be able to get back up. It has the added bonus of loosening the lateral rotators of the hip – the muscles that are implicated in sciatica.

Start by finding a way to bring yourself to a seated position on the floor, hands free. Then, get up, also without using your hands. Repeat the exercise several times, finding as many different ways to sit down and stand up as you can.

When the exercise becomes too easy, add a weight. Hold 10-25lbs (or more, if you’re comfortable) at chest height while sitting and standing. This not only mobilizes but also strengthens the joints.

4. When choosing a chair for your computer desk set up, select a firm, flat surface over any padded and contoured seats.

Most chairs are designed for an “average” or “standard” body, and anyone who has ever shopped for the perfect pair of jeans knows that one size does not fit all!

Flat surfaces make it easier for you to sit forward on your sitting bones – your ischial tuberosities. You should feel equal weight on both your right and left tuberosities. If not, try to center yourself as best you can without contorting your body. Just relax down onto the chair.

Sitting on your ischial tuberosities is much more stable than sitting on your sacrum. Your postural stabilizing muscles can easily relax and reduce the bracing along your spine, creating instant mobility for your back (this is absolutely key in resolving back and neck pain!).

5. Take extra deep breaths.

With all the stimulus coming at us from all directions – television, internet, books, MP3 players, digital advertising, children, pets…. – it’s easy to forget to breathe.

When you cease breathing deeply, your diaphragm becomes tight. Anatomically, the fascia of your diaphragm connects directly to your hip flexors, so if your diaphragm is constricted, your hip flexors will be, too.

Take time each and every day to lie quietly on your back. Breathe deeply, relaxing your rib cage, spine, and abdominal muscles. Allow your internal organs to rest heavily into your back. As you become more relaxed, direct your breathing down deeper and deeper into your pelvis, relaxing all of the tension in your low back, sacrum, gluteus muscles, and thighs. As you become more skilled at conscious breathing, you can begin to direct your breath all the way out the bottoms of your feet.

6. Practice dynamic joint mobility – taking each hip joint through a series of repetitive movements designed to increase the range of motion.

This kind of movement increases the flow of synovial fluid, which lubricates the joints. It also provides excellent neurological feedback. Range of motion is a use it or lose it proposition; the more your remind your body that you need to be able to make large, open movements, the more willing your nervous system will be to allow you to do just that.

7. Stretch your hip flexors, especially after long car or airplane trips.

As mentioned previously, sitting shortens the anterior muscles of your hip and thigh. To keep them long and limber, stretch daily, or at least several times a week.

Any maneuver that causes a lengthening along the front of your hip and thigh will lengthen the hip flexors. Some of my favorites include lunges (keep your torso upright – do not allow yourself to fall forward over your front knee) and bridges (a full back bend with hands and feet on the floor – modify this to a shoulder bridge if you aren’t quite ready for this pose).

Get Specific

Want me to personally lead you through exercises to improve your hip mobility, get your shoulders back where they belong, free up your neck and generally feel like you’re ten years younger?

Every video in my Posture Rehab video course is led by me with complete, step-by-step instruction. You won’t find these practices anywhere else (i.e. this isn’t your typical physical therapy experience…not by a long shot). Each one is designed to reset your nervous system, increase flexibility and mobilize your joints.

March 3, 2009 Hip Pain

Exercise to Increase Hip Flexibility: How To Stretch Tight Hips

Battling chronically tight hips can be frustrating, but this easy exercise to increase hip flexibility will help you stretch your hip flexors. As a bonus, it will help you get strong, too!

Most of us in the western world spend far too much time sitting in chairs. That means that you never really use the full range of motion available for your hips — that is, unless you spend a good amount of time sitting on the floor as well.

Simply sitting down on the floor and then getting back up is probably the best and fastest exercise to increase hip flexibility. And if you do it without using your hands, you’ll be building up a lot of hip strength, too.

Related:

Exercise To Increase Hip Flexibility: Sit Down Get Ups

Here’s how to do this…

Find a comfortable place to workout, about three feet by three feet. Carpet is good; you can use a yoga mat, or a patch of lush grass, whatever you prefer. Some padding is ideal, though.

Then, without using your hands, sit down. Now, without using your hands, get up.

Repeat, but this time, find a different way to sit down (be creative! try to find all the ways you can bring your body to the floor) and a different way to get up.

If you don’t quite have the strength or hip mobility for this yet, use your hands to assist you. Finding a vertical column as a support is a great idea.

But don’t get too reliant on your arms. Eventually, you want to work up to sitting down and getting up completely hands free.

Do about 10 repetitions of this (down and up = 1 rep), rest for a few minutes, and repeat. 3 sets is a good starting place. After two or three weeks, you can begin to do this while holding weight – start where you’re comfortable and work up.

Benefits Of Sit Down Get Ups

1) opens up the hip joints and lumbar spine through movement (much more effective than static stretching)

2) strengthens your muscles while limbering you up at the same time

3) creates new neuro-pathways with repetition, so it will actually change the way you move over the long term if you keep it up

4) it’s GREAT for preserving mobility as you age

If you start this exercise now, then you’ll NEVER fear falling down and not being able to get back up. Don’t wait until you’re already struggling and at an advanced age to work on your hip mobility!