3 Exercises to REDUCE Hip Stiffness + 3 that may be making pain WORSE 👀

sitting down shouldn't mean getting stuck especially when you're dealing with hip arthritis and hip stiffness how many of you have felt worried you wouldn't be able to stand up or when you do stand up you're hunched over and wobbling for the first couple of steps what if there was a way that you could stand up seamlessly be able to walk normally again and even stand up straight as a physical therapist I have seen firsthand that stiffness can be one of the most limiting factors when it comes to osteoarthritis I recently made a video about stiffness with knee arthritis after sitting for a while and then everyone started commenting well what about the hips my hips get so stiff so you are not alone in this which is why I wanted to make this video we're going to go through the three simple things you can do to reduce your hip stiffness especially after sitting so first we're going to go through the three movements to help but then I want you to stick around because I'm going to talk about the three movements that may actually increase your pain just to make sure that you're not doing them but first have you ever wondered why your hip actually gets stiff well let's talk about it for a second your hip moves in three primary directions forwards which for example walking you have muscles that help you do that that run through the front of your hip your hip also moves sideways and backwards and in each of those directions you have specific muscles primarily in your glutes and in the backs of your legs now if we look at a seated position especially for a prolonged period of time these front of the hip muscles become shortened as you're in this upright position also the glutes in the backs of your legs aren't very active at all because you are sitting on them both of these situations can lead to muscle tightness irritation and stiffness especially when you want to get up and go walking think about it this muscle's been in this shortened position for 30 minutes maybe two hours four hours and then you immediately expect your body to get up and start walking that's where the problem lies but there is one simple thing that can help because being in a seated position doesn't mean you have to be stuck there that one simple thing is movement and I want to explain why before we get into these specific exercises because I feel like the more you know the better off you are at actually doing it movement helps in two ways one it brings blood flow to the area when you're in a seated position you're allowing that those inflammatory cells some of that fluid to start to build up inside of the joint I like to think about improving blood flow with movement because think about that blood flow coming through and cycling out all that fluid all those cells that aren't doing your joint any good when you don't have that movement it just allows it to collect and collect and collect the second thing is movement allows muscles to contract and relax one of the problems with hip stiffness a lot of times is muscle tightness so being able to allow those muscles to contract and then relax can help to negate some of that stiffness so what we're going to talk through is three movements that can help because with hip arthritis not all movement is created equally and some may actually make your pain and irritation worse we have two seated exercises and then one in standing the first one is very easy to do especially when you don't have a lot of space so an airplane this one can be a really good one too so what we talked about in the beginning that the glutes in the backs of your legs play a big role in bringing your leg backwards which is important when you're walking to open up that range of motion and to reduce the stiffness I want to activate those muscles so how are we going to activate those when you're in a seated position and basically sitting on your glutes and the backs of your legs through this simple motion here so all you're going to do is just bend your knees up just as far as you can 90 degrees is usually okay what I want you to do is think about pushing your feet into the ground and slightly lifting up your hips now if you do have a chair with arms you can actually use your arms a little bit for this one as well but it doesn't have to be I'm going to think about pushing my feet into the floor and as you do that you should feel the backs of your legs and your glutes contract and I really want you to hone in and focus there because the more you think about it the more those muscles will become active so I'm pushing into the ground I'm feeling these muscles back in the backs of my legs and my glutes contract and you almost feel yourself lift up a little bit off the chair as those muscles contract I want you to hold for about three to five seconds if you're not feeling it I want you to try this push your feet into the ground and I want you to touch say the backs of your legs and maybe touch your glutes see if those muscles are Contracting if they're not what you can try is to move your feet out a little further to see if you can then feel the slight tension in your hamstrings and in your glutes I like to do anywhere between five to ten of those the good thing is you can also do that inconspicuously say you're on a work call or maybe you're at dinner you can try this motion to help to loosen up the backs of your legs and your glutes to prepare you to get up and walk now the second one what I want you to do is keep your feet in about the same position feet are going to be about hip width apart you're going to take both of your hands and place them on the outsides of your knees the motion we're going for is taking your knees out to the side while your feet stay on the floor so think about like opening your knees up you can try this movement first and see what kind of range of motion you're working with opening your legs this way can become difficult with hip arthritis or moving your legs to the side so this is just a very gentle motion we're not trying to go out as far as you can we're just staying in a small range of motion but the thing is we're trying to activate the sides of your hips so that's where you want your mind going right now think about using the sides of your hips to take your knees apart from each other once you can do about five or ten of those and you don't experience significant pain you can take this one step further and use your hands to essentially resist the opening so notice I'm pushing in with my hands as I try to push out with my knees this isn't as hard as you can it's about fifty percent effort but you're holding for about three to five seconds and then relaxing adding this extra resistance can allow those muscles to work a little bit more again we're shooting for about five to ten of these it doesn't have to be a lot but you have to find The Sweet Spot that really helps to activate the outsides of your hips you may even feel a little bit of thigh muscle kick in with this one as well and you're loosening up your arms at the same time so we are essentially killing three birds with one stone and relax those are our two seated movements now let's talk about the movement in standing when you stand up I really want you to think about pushing through your feet like we did in the first exercise and then really trying to bring your hips forward as you stand up bring those hips forward as I push through my feet now for this last movement you can use a chair for support if needed but it's just going to be a simple weight shift side to side because if you think about it when you're walking you're essentially shifting your body weight from one leg to another and so we're trying to replicate that to get your hips ready for it you can take this one step further by lifting one heel and then the other what that's going to do is essentially push more body weight to one side and then the other again prepping your hips to go and walk now this one can be also helpful if you find yourself standing for a while and then have to go walk a certain distance or do stairs this side to side motion can be very helpful to limber up those hips doing anywhere between 10 to 20 of these can be helpful and again if you need to use support feel free now I want to go into the three movements that may actually irritate your pain because I want to make sure that you're not doing those in hopes that things are going to get better when it may actually be making things a little worse I want to caveat this with these movements aren't necessarily ones to avoid or never do again in my experience as a physical therapist these have been three movements that can actually increase pain in patients with hip arthritis now if these movements feel good you can absolutely do them but if they don't I would focus on the three we just talked about instead the first one being a seated March commonly see this in seated workout routines seated workout videos the problem with this one can happen because when you're in a seated position these muscles are shortened and irritated then when you go and ask them to lift up the weight of your leg you can overload and just put further stress on these muscles the second one is a straight leg raise that looks like this you extend your leg and then lift it straight up a lot of patients who have front of the hip tightness and even groin tightness I have videos on both of those down below you may experience pain when doing this or not be able to do it in the first place that is again because you are overloading the front of the hip with a longer lever so this becomes even harder and even more stressful to those muscles now the third one is one I like to use a lot of times for patients that have a knee arthritis and that is straightening one leg out and then the other now this one may not be as painful for you because you are now using your thighs a little bit more than the front of the hips but this one can be exercise that flares up pain depending on how sensitive your hips and your muscles are at that moment so these are just simply three movements to perhaps rethink about and think about replacing with the three we talked about in the beginning the idea is to reduce your pain levels and pain intensity so then it can open the doors to more movement if you're constantly doing movements that are flaring up your pain you're counteracting all of the possible benefits if you know someone that is dealing with hip stiffness having a hard time walking having a hard time standing up after sitting go ahead and share this video with them one person at a time we can start to combat hip stiffness and open the doors to Adventure with osteoarthritis

Channel: Alyssa Kuhn, Arthritis Adventure

Views: 1,335,433

Keywords: hip pain, hip arthritis, hip stiffness, hip stiffness exercises, hip stiffness after sitting, hip osteoarthritis, hip pain exercises, dr alyssa kuhn, keep the adventure alive, tight hips, hip tightness, hip flexor exercises, hip flexibility exercises, physical therapy, hip pain relief, hips, stiff hip, stiff hips

Id: 3wQUUt6L2w4

Length: 11min 48sec (708 seconds)

Published: Wed Aug 30 2023