Know Movement

Hip pain can be difficult to pinpoint when it comes to the root cause. You have 36 muscles that attach to your pelvis, plus ligaments connecting from your lumbar spine into the sacrum. Now let's toss in the major joint of the hip: the femoroacetabular joint. This joint is a ball and socket joint which provides us some of the greatest range of motion; with that range of motion comes a price. Learning how to properly stabilize your pelvis is key to preventing hip and low back pain. The layers of connective tissue that surround our hip joint is thick and fibrous. Working on this tissue through manual therapy is important. It is equally, if not more important, to be working on this tissue through mobility exercises daily.

Do you sit for longer than 30 minutes a day? More than likely, your hips are tight. This anterior hip tightness can begin to wreak havoc on your pelvis. This lead to a host of issues such as inhibited glutes and then overactive hamstrings to overcome the work the glutes can no longer perform. This is just one scenario that can occur from lack of hip mobility.

So what can we do? Move! I personally like to follow this pattern:

1. Loosen the tight tissue
2. Mobilize the (now soft) tissue
3. Activate the opposing muscle group

Begin to open up the front of your hips through either foam rolling or similar techniques. Next, try a hip opening mobility technique, something that is dynamic. Finally, work on activating your glutes. We must first open up the front side, in order to access our backside. You can use this formula and apply it to any of the muscle groups in the body.

While hip pain can be a product of many different things, one full proof method to being proactive in your own hip health is to move through mobility exercises in all directions. If you have any questions, feel free to contact me.