One Exercise to Improve Your Hip Pain
Over the last several months, I have come across personal and some clientele having issues with the external rotators and adductors of the hips. Whether you may have recently felt like you have had a tight groin, gluteal, or lower back, this article will help you gain some insight on what may be the primary issue for your discomfort. This article will give you some education on your hips and what you can do to strengthen the muscles that surround your hip.
This is your introduction to ‘Pre-hab’
Our body is a very unique piece of sexiness and strength all in one. We can literally do just about anything with the human body. However, some people claim that squats and deadlifts are bad for the knees or back. Well, I am here to tell you that having a ‘bad back’ or 'bad knee' excuse; it is a bunch of hocus pocus. If you have recently performed squats or deadlifts and had an unpleasant experience, more than likely, they are not the reason your lower back or knees bothers you. Now, do not get me wrong, some individuals do have a knee or back problem, that just means modifications need to be made for exercise.
In whole, there are numerous possibilities of why people may feel that a squat or deadlift may be the reason for discomfort in the knees or back. Instead, let’s take a look at the anterior leg and external hip rotator muscles that typically cause imbalances in the hips; which cause people to think they have an issue for a bad back.
Tight Adductors / External Hip Rotators & Weak Glutes / Abductors
( These muscles are attached to the femur and pelvic bone ).
Even though they are touched on a little bit, I could talk about the quadriceps, hamstrings, and posterior muscle groups more; but that is for another article. I do not want to make this more complicated than it should be.
First, let’s look at the anatomy of the hips:
With nearly a dozen muscles that connect to the pelvic bone and lumbar spine, we are very susceptible to having an muscular imbalance or another issue; especially for people who sit frequently. Commonly, our hip adductor or hip external rotator muscles can become very tight and weak. When that happens, our lower back muscles will often become shortened and weak. If that becomes the case, cause any sort of stress up the lumbar muscles of the back, it can seem like you are really ‘pulling your muscles’. In reality, it isn’t the end of the world. This can be also known as lower cross syndrome in the hips.
The muscles attached to the femur and pubic symphysis can often become shortened and tight. When that happens, our hips become less mobile. Example: where do you feel it when you try to do the splits? That is the area we are talking about. If our femur and knee joint is drawn in from tight adductor muscles, your glutes become weak and elongated. When your glutes become weak, your lower back muscles then start taking a majority of the workload in your daily life. Which is not good.
So how can we fight having tight hips and lower cross syndrome? Well, here is one video to help you get started.
To start, all you need is a resistance band of some sort. With the resistance band, attach the band to an anchor and follow the movements in the video link provided above.
Do this every day before you exercise and you are going to have a great start to a stronger and healthier hip movement pattern.
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- PT
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