When you're long inactive — consider hours at the office or watch TV— your hips become tight. When not extended, big muscles called hip flexors can start in your low back and cross over your hip.If this happens, you can develop low back pain, says Marty Matney, LAT, ATC, Seattle athletic trainer, and Chair of the NATC, adding that many other smaller muscles working on the hip can also become near from inactivity. When left unchecked and tightness gets worse, you can experience changes in your hip joint's function and motion, which can lead to painful hip arthritis during your walk. In the worst cases, you may need some surgery.
Then how do you know that your hips are tight? There are some disturbing signs, Matney says: having difficulty from sitting up to standing, followed by some hard moves, a little bent up or downstairs and feeling sorry before or behind your hip. Knee pain could even result, mostly because of your gait changes due to tightness.
The solution is simple: step down and move, improving the versatility of the hip. The advantages? "With greater hip flexibility, you'll have smoother transitions, better walking, and less hip or low back pain," Matney says.
To make the hips and the muscles around a little easier, do Matney's five-stretched routine. Keep the entire sequence for 20 to 30 seconds and repeat it two to three times every day (do not forget to breathe in-depth) two to three times a day.
The ideal time to do a hip stretch of the day:
- Before and after a practice: Do #2, #4 and #5
- Every 20 minutes you take a desk break: Do #1 and #2
- Before sleep: Do all five stretching exercises (or at the very least, do #3 while getting ready for bed)
No comments:
Post a Comment