By Krystal Willis and Ross Ashcraft
Ever have problems with your hips? Do they ache? Do you need to walk around after sitting for long periods of time? Is your low back consistently sore? These pains can be cause by tight hip and gluteal muscles. These muscles can causes shooting pain, numbness, sore hips, and even mask as sciatic syndrome. Pain in this area can also be caused by arthritis. If you suspect arthritis then consult your doctor.
Below are a few things that you can do to help relieve the pain and figure out what is causing it. The first set of stretches will address the main muscle of discomfort in your hips. The second set will make sure the muscle that support the hips don’t sneak in and ruin the good work accomplished in the first set. I recommend you doing these stretches right before bed.
Technique:
Stretching the Gluts and Outer Thighs
When: Before you go to bed
On the Floor:
a) One leg in front of you bent at the knee and the other leg stretched straight out behind you. b) Bend over the leg that is in front of you. You may not be able to bend very far, but continue
OR Using your Bed: to bend until you can feel your hips loosen. c) Hold for at least 30 seconds. d) Briefly straighten back up. e) Repeat. Each time you do that you will be able to bend a little farther.
a) Place one knee on the bed and the other leg extended behind you, stretching it until you feel your hip stretching. b) Bend over the leg that is in front of you. You may not be able to bend very far, but continue to bend until you can feel your hips loosen. c) Hold for at least 30 seconds. d) Briefly straighten back up. e) Repeat. Each time you do that you will be able to bend a little farther.
Stretching the Groin and Inner Thighs
When: before you go to bed
Sitting on the Floor:
a) Sit on the floor with your legs bent and the soles of your feet touching. b) Bring your legs as close to your body as you can. c) Place your hands on your knees and press down. d) Hold for at least 30 seconds and allow those muscles to release. e) If necessary you can do one leg at a time or both. Each time that you do this you will be able to push your legs down a little farther.
Once your hips have stretched you should feel a lot better. These stretches are easy to do and you can do pretty much anywhere.
Please attempt these stretches and let us know what you think.
References:
ladyzona.com
bryanking.net
myorthoteam.com
ross’sbrain.com
Yay! These are a few of my favorite stretches. I always have a hard time explaining them so I am so grateful for you sharing this link. The one where you sit I have always called the butterfly!
I do these all the time. They are really wonderful!
I live because of these exercises. Without them I dont know where I would be. I do this stretch as part of my daily routine and when I have a spell with my ciatica. You would be a fool not to practice this! Also I will be stealing this blog for my client homework…THANKS!
I love these stretches. My favorite is the groin and inner thigh stretch or we used to call it the butterfly stretch. I could feel the difference in my lower back. I will definately keep doing these stretches.
I absolutely love the second stretch. I catch myself doing this one all the time when I am just sitting around the house and have been doing it for years. The first one on the other hand i just tried for the first time. I didn’t mind this one when my left leg was back and my right one was bent but when i changed legs, i felt like it was to much on my right knee. ( I have had previous problems with my right knee) and the pressure of my weight was too much. But I did enjoy trying both of them. Thank you !
I have a lot of issues with lower back and hip pain and after doing these techniques this morning I could really tell just how tight my hips were. They were very sore before we started the techniques but after we did them I could tell a difference in the short amount of time we did them. This is something I will start doing every morning and at night as well! Thanks for the tips 🙂
All of these stretches feel great. My favorite stretch out of these is the stretching of the glutes and outer thighs technique, you really feel this one!
Another stretch that would help sciatic nerve pain would be a psoas stretch. This technique is very easy and not complicated at all. You will simply lay on your back and bend one knee. You will clasp your hands together right below the knee so you can hold the stretch. Repeat on the other leg. This will help stretch out those glute and quad muscles to help bring you some relief.
I have to say that I have been very guilty of not doing much stretching since I have been away, but this morning I realized how much I have missed it. There has been a lot of inactivity lately and my muscles have become very stiff and sore in my lower back and hips. Stretching this morning on my first day back was like a breath of fresh air for my muscles, and was a good reminder about what I am supposed to be doing. Thanks Ross! 🙂
I love these stretches because I have hip discomfort and they help a lot, but at the same time they make my hamstring muscle ache, but that is because of the good stretching I am getting that I don’t do as often as I should. But these stretches are also great for relieving lower back pain that hip muscles can cause.
I am trying to do these exercises every night before going to bed. It makes me feel so good. Thanks so much for taking the time to teach us. I will pass it on to my mom, who has arthritis.
My job requires me to drive 6 hours a day. I have lower back pain. Since you posted your blog, I have been doing the stretches and feel some relief. With continuing these stretches, I’m hoping they will get better.
I have done these stretches ever since this was posted and they are really working for me. The Butterfly one really is my fav! Thanks for the post
I feel like these are great techniques. I’m mainly thinking about having my brother who plays football for TU to try these. He’s always complaining about soreness.I’m sure he will appreciate this!
This one came back at just the right time ! I do stretches daily just because it makes me feel much better. But I had lost this one in storage somehow, have been having lower back pain like no other for the last three days, the kind that everyone can tell u have something going on. All the stretches and other things I had tried didn’t touch this. After doing these two stretches instant release, and keeping them in my night lineup, back to normal, no pain. Thanks for keeping the things already learned back in front of me.
Thanks Robin…Happy to oblige!
I love doing these stretches! I have lower back pains all the time when I first wake up. I did these three stretches before I went to bed, the next morning when I woke I felt great! I really do think that stretching is a very important activity that needs to be performed daily. Thank you for the tips.
I always have really tight hips so these hip stretches really help! My mother has low back issues, while giving her a massage i told her how to stretch herself out and showed her this link and it worked wonders for her. I also helped her out by doing the glut routine. I thank you and my mother thanks you!
I do these stretches a lot, they are great.
My favorite one is stretching the gluts and outer thighs on the floor. The others felt nice also. Stretches are always my favorite part of massage.
Oh my gosh! I would totally feel my glutes pain after a heck of a leg work out. I normally do the sit down stretching or the chair/bed stretching. But doesn’t relieve soreness.
I keep forgetting that lower back pain usually involves glute muscles that I will remember and try sitting on an exercise ball for more comfort.
I love these stretches. I find that i’ll do these just sitting around. I think they make the lower back and hips feel good. Thanks got the great information.
I suffer from lower back pain, making it hard for me to stand up after sitting for hours and waking up from the bed. These hip stretches would be really helpful to relieve the pain. Thanks for sharing this.