I've talked about hip health before on here....

[Steve]

Here is a great serious of articles from Keith Scott:


The hip complex is one of the most important areas in the body for the active person. If you have a bad back, sore knees, achy thighs, or just about any other painful condition, I would bet the farm that some if not all of the problems, are because of poor hip conditions. This week I am going to outline three common problems found in most people around the hip area and give three quick and reliable ways to do a self-assessment.

Three common hip problems that you probably have and how to assess your situation:

Tight hip flexors – These are the muscles and tendons in the front of your hips.

How do you know you have tight hip flexors? Lie down on your back, and pull one of your knees to your chest while keeping the other leg extended and flat against the floor. If that extended leg pops up as your bent knee approaches your chest, you have tight hip flexors. Test both legs.

Tight hip rotators – Your rotators are found deep in your hip. These are very important muscles for health and performance.

While sitting with your back straight, cross your right leg over your left knee (placing the outside of your right foot on your left knee/thigh.) If your right knee sticks up in the air and does not lie parallel to the floor (or close to parallel) then you probably have tight rotators. Make sure you test both sides.

Glute muscles are “asleep.” – What this means is that your glutes are not firing as they should and your hamstring is doing all of the work. Most people that have sitting jobs or sit for the majority of the day have this problem. This will lead to tight and strained hamstrings, hip pain, low back pain, and a host of other problems, including minimal strength levels during training.

One way to help tell for sure you have sleeping glutes is to lie on your back with your knees bent to 90 degrees. While lying, with your back flat against the floor, drive your heels into the floor and elevate your hips. Perform this motion for about 20 straight reps. If you feel a burning and/or tightness in your hamstrings more than you do in your glutes (butt), this means your glutes are not working as they should. Even if you do feel it more in your glutes, chances are you need work. We all do.

Try these three assessments to find out if you have obvious “issues.” Even if you find out that your hips seem, “OK” chances are you still need work to stay healthy. Next week I will include part II and show you some basic, but effective ways to fix these conditions, stay healthy and maximize your performance in the gym and in life.

 

[Steve]

Part II

In the last article I talked about how to identify three common hip issues. Hopefully these tests helped many readers better examine their own problem areas around the hip. In this installment, I am going to give you a few “fixes” for those common hip problems and also some preventive exercises as well.

Tight Hip Flexors: I would be willing to bet that most of the people reading this have tight hip flexors. How can I make this bet? In the 15 plus years I have been working with athletes and non-athletes, most of the people that walked through my door had tight hip flexors.

So you have tight hip flexors, now what?

1. Box Lunge and stretch – This is a two in one exercise that will not only loosen up your tight hip flexors, but it will also stretch your glutes, and upper hamstrings as well. Find a box or platform that is above knee height, and place one of your feet on the top of the box. Your up knee should be bent more than 90 degrees. Slowly lean forward, placing more weight on the box. Keep the opposite, weight bearing leg in one place and fairly straight as you lean forward. You should start to feel a stretch in the front of the straight leg. You may also feel a stretch in your glute area and even a little in the mid to back thigh muscles (adductors, hamstrings.) If you are tight in the hips, this is a great stretch and will get more than you bargained for. Hold each stretch for 20 seconds and perform 5 reps. Switch sides and repeat.

An advanced tip for your hips flexors and groin area is to hold this same stretch but rotate slightly (and slowly) towards the bent knee.

Tight Hip Rotators: If you have found that your hip rotators are tight, you need some work to get the hips healthy. Try these exercises and watch your limitations go away in the next few weeks.

1. While lying on your back bend one of you knees to 90 degrees and rotate your leg in (like you are going to cross that foot over your opposite knee.) Grab onto the bent knee with one hand and your ankle of the same leg, with the other hand. Pull your bent leg up towards your chest, being extra careful not to torque the knee (apply even pressure.) Pull your ankle and knee evenly until you feel a stretch deep in your glute area. Once you feel that stretch, hold it for 20 seconds. Repeat 5 times and switch legs.

This stretch will loosen up your external rotators in your hip very well and if you have back pain, may very well help get rid of it.

Sleeping glutes: If you found that your hamstrings are overactive and your glutes are sleeping at the wheel, you need to work on activating them for not only hip health, but for back, knee and overall body health.

1. Using the test that you performed to find out if your glutes were really asleep is one of the best ways to activate them. Here is a review:

Lie on your back with your knees bent to 90 degrees. While lying, with your back flat against the floor, drive your heels into the floor and elevate your hips. Perform this motion for about 20 straight reps. If you feel a burning and/or tightness in your hamstrings more than you do in your glutes (butt), this means your glutes are not working as they should. Even if you do feel it more in your glutes, chances are you need work. We all do.

Perform this exercise in the same way except hold each bridge for 5 seconds, making sure to consciously squeeze your butt each rep. You can also bring your heels in closer to your butt before you start. Over time, your glutes will kick in and take over. Do this exercise everyday until you notice a difference. By day three you should feel your glutes working more than your hamstrings.

2. Band Walks – Find an elastic band or tubing and tie it into a small circle. Place it around your ankles and spread your legs until the band is tight. Start to walk sideways spreading your lead leg as far as you can. Pick up your back leg (in other words, don’t drag it) and bring it close to your lead leg, while walking across the floor. Make sure you always have tension on the band. Walk across the floor at least 15 steps before simply changing lead legs and coming back to where you started. You should feel a burning in the sides of your hips. Perform 2 sets up and back. For the first set, keep your legs relatively straight. For the second set, slightly bend your knees while doing this.

This is a great way to fire up your smaller, but just as important glute muscles.

Prevent Exercises:

To ensure that you maintain mobile, flexible and fired up hips (in other words “Healthy Hips”) here are some exercises that I like to do with my clients to keep them healthy and at the top of their game.

1. Deep Squat Holds – Spread your legs past shoulder width and work on slowly squatting as deep as you can while keeping your back fairly straight. Once you find a spot where you cannot squat any deeper without discomfort or pain, hold that position for 30 seconds. Repeat about 5 times. To add some extra work, once you are in that position, push your knees out slightly with your elbows. This will put your adductors, and rotators on stretch, while forcing your other muscles to brace and fire. This is an excellent exercise to stretch and fire up your hips in a simple and safe manner. Each time out, try to go deeper and with your legs spread a little more.

2. Mule Kicks – If you really want to fire up your glutes try this simple exercise. Bend over a table or bed, or even a bench face down. Brace yourself with your hands while you kick one of your legs up and back. Make sure to extend your hip while slightly bending your knee. Once you kick that leg up and back, hold it for a count of 3 seconds. Return and repeat about a total of 12 times. Switch legs. This exercise will surely fire up your glutes and get them firing the way they should.

**if you have low back problems, be careful doing these in the beginning.

Try these exercises and watch your limitations shake loose before your eyes. You will move better and feel better after the first few sessions.

 

[Steve]

Part III

In this installment, I am going to list very simple, basic exercises that anyone can do to help keep the hips healthy. This article will briefly cover strength training for and around the hip complex. Plug these exercises into your routine to help keep strong, healthy hips. These exercises are meant to be simple and things that you can do at home, even if you do not have a lot of equipment.

Remember, this is a basic list. There are plenty of other exercises that you can do too. Start with these and move up from there.

1. Squats – Whole body exercise that should already be part of your program. Make sure to incorporate one-legged squats into your training.

2. Dead lifts – This is another exercise that will work the entire body as well as focusing on the hip complex. Make certain to keep a straight, neutral back. Perform these with your knees bent slightly to about 20 degrees. Pitch your butt tight as you extend (up movement) your hips. This is one of the best exercises out there for many things, but essential for a healthy hip complex! If you are not certain you can do these next to perfect, find someone that can help you do the correctly.

3. Russian Hamstring Curls - Start on your knees with a partner holding onto your ankles from behind. While trying to keep the hip extended and the back in neutral, slowly lean forward from the knees, using the glutes to keep the hips straight. Lean forward as far as your hamstring strength will let you, ultimately aiming for at least a 45 degree angle. If possible, pull yourself back upwards. If you cannot do this, then fall to the floor carefully and catch yourself in the push up position. This is an extremely tough exercise and may take a while to get it. Since you will be producing an eccentric load while doing these, limit this exercise to once a week.

4. Band Walks – Get a theraband or theratubing and tie the ends together. Place your feet into the newly made circle. Open your legs and make the band tight. Walk side ways across the floor very slowly and deliberately while fighting against the resistance of the band. Come back across the room working the other side. Do this with your knees bent and then perform with your knees straight.

 

[CoachCrimson]

I would like to suggest that this thread be made into a sticky in the exercise forum. It is absolutely invaluable advice to a very large portion of the population, and even more so to those people coming out of couch potatoism (yes i made that word up). The majority of us here became overweight in part because we were overly sedentary. Which means that most of us probably suffer from at least one of these issues. Trying to get physically active while dealing with these problems is only going to make things more difficult, so attacking the target can really help alot of people get physically fit more "easily".

Personally, I know that while I blame my very tight hamstrings on a host of my physical pain and limited range of motion, I also know that my hips are just as much at fault. Until reading this however, I had forgotten that aspect, and even worse had forgotten to target it. In the past I have done some of these exercises (thanks to the trainers at college who could pinpoint these as some of my issues), and it made a world of difference while I was an athlete there.

I really recommend that everyone do some of these tests, and to even do the exercises even if you don't feel you have any serious issues. Prevention is the best medicine after all anyways.

 

[Steve]

Thanks for the reinforcement coach.

It's obvious that not many people read this or cared about it. Unfortunately, in my experience..... almost everyone has overly tight hips. And I will add, anyone having trouble with the major lower body exercises is probably experiencing that trouble due to the problems listed above.

 

[maleficent]

It's obvious that not many people read this or cared about it.

Not true - it was read - just didn't require a comment...

Unfortunately, in my experience..... almost everyone has overly tight hips. And I will add, anyone having trouble with the major lower body exercises is probably experiencing that trouble due to the problems listed above.

I pass both tests with flying colors but i cant do squats or lunges so I moved on...

 

[Steve]

Not true - it was read - just didn't require a comment...

Touche

I pass both tests with flying colors but i cant do squats or lunges so I moved on...

It's not ALWAYS a hip issue.

Sometimes it's a center of gravity (COG) issue. I've seen obese people who couldn't squat b/c their body mass was distorted from excess fat, which, in turn, through off their COG.

I've seen people with poor upper-body posture, enough to throw off their COG when performing exercises such as the squat.

I've seen people that just didn't "get" how to squat. It looks simple, sure. Bend your knees down so that you end up squatting. That is grossly wrong though. It's more about leading with your hips.

I've seen people with very poor balance and proprioception who can't squat. In this case, I find a 50/50 split. 50% of them *think* they can't squat when in reality they can. The other half really can't and need to work their way up to an exercise such as the squat. By work their way up, I mean perform other exercises that will improve balance and proprioception without calling on the degree of effort that the squat does. Overtime, they can begin squatting.

I've seen other issues.

I've seen combinations of all the above.

It's not a simple assessment.

But everyone, aside from people with physiological pathologies that restrict them from doing the squat, can squat.