Your hips are similar to Grand Central Station, acting as the main hub for many different systems in your body. Hip flexors, extensors, abductors, adductors, and rotators all play a role in joining our hips together. If any of these muscle groups become strained, shortened, injured, weakened, or otherwise out of balance, they can cause severe pain that radiates throughout the region

Improve Your Posture and Minimize Hip Pain

Our hips can become locked when we sit or sleep in unsupported positions for extended periods. Good news, simple posture improvement exercises and lifestyle changes can restore hip mobility and reduce the risk for future pain.

Egoscue Method: Begin with a full body posture checkup to identify the factors that are adding or subtracting force on your hips. The Egoscue Method uses photography and computer modeling to locate specific postural imbalances in your body so you can bring these imbalances back into alignment.

Sitting Posture: Today’s sedentary workplace culture aggravates hip pain. While the verdict is still out on whether standing desks help or hurt posture (initial studies advocate standing desks, follow-up research says benefits are over-hyped), it’s clear that sitting all day is downright terrible for the body. To alleviate the negative effects of sitting, take regular movement breaks every hour and improve your seated posture with an ergonomic chair, ensuring your feet are flush with the floor and your lower back is properly supported.

Sleeping Posture:

• Pillow: One of the easiest and most effective ways to improve sleeping posture is to move up from the hips and start with the right pillow. Core Products 130 Theraputica Cervical Sleeping Pillow brings the head, neck, and shoulders into alignment. If you think this has nothing to do with the hips, think again! Rounded shoulders can throw the head off center alignment all day. If the head is too far forward from the waist, it can pull the lower back and hips out of alignment.
• Bed: Go firm! While soft beds may seem comfortable when you lay down, they do not provide sufficient support for correct body alignment. The lower back contracts and causes the surrounding muscles, including those along the hips, to tighten. If you’re a side sleeper, support your lower back by placing a small pillow between your knees while sleeping at night.

Safely Stretch the Hip Muscle Groups

Once you have taken steps to improve your posture, you will notice your body and hips start to loosen. Stretching will help further lengthen and soften the muscle groups in the hips. Start with these stretches:

Psoas:

Most hip stretches focus on the anterior muscles. Your frontal hip flexors need love, too! These gentle stretches lengthen the psoas and release tension trapped in the frontal hip flexors. The psoas is located deep in the lower abdomen and runs from the lower back to the upper femur. Stretching the psoas decompresses the lower back and allows further mobility on the stretches that follow.

How to do it: Safely stretch the psoas by engaging the hip flexor and entering a lunge position. Place a small pillow on the ground under your bent knee. Your front leg should be forward at a right angle and your front knee should never go further forward than your lead ankle.  Keep your back straight, your hips square, your pelvis tucked, and lunge forward slowly and gently. Engage your abs and sink lower. Do not let your hips rotate out and do not let your back round. For an extra stretch, grasp the back heel (currently on the ground) and raise it toward your sitz bones.

Anterior Muscles:

Now it is time to stretch the large anterior muscle groups, adductors and abductors. Try these poses:

Pigeon and Seated Pigeon Pose:

How to do it: Begin in a lunge. Keep the right leg straight behind you. Move your left foot toward your left hand. Your left shin and thigh should be parallel to the ground and your left knee should be aligned with your left hip. Your hips should be square. Gently bend forward from your waist. You should feel the hip opening. Repeat on the other side. If this pose feels uncomfortable or hurts, immediately stop as it can put too much pressure on the knee. Variations with different support blocks and blankets can aid in increasing flexibility here.

If this pose creates too much pressure, a variation can be done by lying on your back. From this position, bend your left leg and twist the knee outward so that your left ankle rests on your right knee. Bend your right leg to a right angle, keeping the left ankle on top of the right knee. Reach through your legs and clasp your hands behind your right knee. Bring the right knee towards your chest. You should feel a stretch of the outer hip on the left side. Repeat on the other side.

Bridge Pose:

How to do it: Lie on your back and bend your knees while keeping your feet flat on the floor. Keep your legs hip width apart and place a block between your knees. Raise your sit bones while keeping your abdominal muscles engaged. Keep your arms and feet flat against the floor. Continue to squeeze the block between your knees while your sit bones are raised. Your body should form a triangle as your head and shoulders rest on the floor, your knees bent, and the floor, meeting your feet at a right angle. Hold for 30 seconds if possible.

Downward Facing Frog Pose:

How to do it: Start on your hands and knees on a comfortable surface. Widen the knees out to the sides. Place the ankles behind the knees. Turn the feet out to the sides. Place the elbows and forearms on the floor with hands laid flat. Press the hips towards the back. Feel the stretch in the hips. After you complete the stretch, press yourself back up to hands and knees or table top pose.

Wild Card: The Iliotibial band (IT Band)

The Iliotibial band (aka the IT band) runs from the outer hip, down the leg, and over the knee. Tightness in the IT band can cause hip and knee pain and is very common in people who undertake repetitive motions such as running.

How to do it:  To stretch the left iliotibial band stand with your left side facing a wall or chair. While keeping upright, cross your left leg behind your right leg and push your right hip in toward the wall. Once stretched, rotate 180 degrees and stretch the other leg in the same manner.

Benefits: Keeping the IT band supple will increase mobility in the hip joint and will keep the large muscle groups from tensing up.

Decreasing Hip Pain

Improving posture and adding a proper stretching regimen can lengthen muscles and retrain them over time. Remember, a tight or injured muscle and improper posture was not developed in one day. Improving posture and loosening muscles takes time and dedication to new habits. Improving posture and stretching habits will pay dividends as by reducing hip pain and bringing your body into fuller alignment.