Improve Your Hip Mobility
If you work at a desk or spend a lot of your day sedentary, you may experience tightness in your hip flexors. Tight hip flexors can lead to lower back pain and make every day tasks more difficult like walking and climbing stairs for example - not including if there are other more strenuous activities you enjoy.
Try these exercises once or twice a day and begin to feel a major difference!
Hip Opener
1. Begin with both knees on the ground, hips square to the front.
2. Bring your right foot front and place your foot flat on the ground, creating a 90 degree angle with your leg.
3. Keeping your posture straight, lengthen your spine, thinking about if a pin was pulling you up from the top of your head. You should begin to feel a stretch in your left hip.
4. If you feel like you need a little more of a stretch, open your chest up to the sky, leaning back slightly without arching your back.
Hold for 30 seconds and repeat on the other side.
This targets the glutes and external rotators and is a good exercise to help you engage your hips to start off your mobility circuit.
Honey Pot
1. Begin laying on the ground with your pelvis in neutral alignment (not arching or tucking) and your legs straight out in front of you.
2. Bend your right knee and bring it close to your body with both hands. Do not lift your pelvis off the floor; if this means you can’t bring the knee up as far, that’s okay.
3. Imagine that your hip joint is a honey pot and that your leg is the stirrer; slowly, use your hands to circle the leg around the hip joint, 5 times one way and then switch directions for another 5 circles.
4. Hook your right arm underneath your thigh, bringing it close to the body. Slowly bring it out to the right side, rotating outwards from the hip joint.
5. Let go and slowly bring your leg back to the starting position.
Repeat on the other side.
Frog Stretch
1. Start on your hands and knees and bring your knees as far apart as you can while still remaining comfortable.
2. Bring your pelvis forward and lower onto your forearms. You should feel a stretch in your hips.
3. Rock your weight (gently) onto your forearms and back into your hips, squeezing your knees together as you roll backwards.
Perform for 10 rocks total.