2 min read

Dr. Kurt Hoverson

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Avoid Hip Pain By Adding Three Exercises To Your Daily Routine

Many things can cause hip pain, such as previous injuries, prolonged periods spent sitting, hip/pelvis alignment, and decreased hip mobility.

Pain can be present anywhere around the hip, but the most common areas are the front or side. You might also experience a decreased range of motion in your hip due to pain and tight or weak muscles. You may even notice limping while walking and have trouble bearing weight on the painful leg.

You are most likely to experience hip pain if you sit for long periods, have recently picked up a new sport/ activity/ exercise (ex. running), or if you already suffer from back pain due to altered movement patterns.

In most cases, the treatment can also serve as a form of prevention for hip pain! The goal is to return as much range of motion as possible to the hip, then learn to control and keep that motion.

The following exercises are intended to be down 2-3x/day and prioritizing at least one session right before a workout.

Windshield Wipers
Windshieldwipers
Start position Knees bent and upper body reclined back, with arms supporting.

End position Rotate knees to one-side, trying to keep your chest “tall and proud”. Then repeat on your other side.

You should feel tension on the side and back of your hip.

Complete 10 reps, 2x each direction.

Hip Flexor-Hamstring Stretch
Guy doing hip flexor stretch

Start positionHalf-kneeling position, squeeze glute of back leg and drive knee forward.

TIP: If you feel pain in your low back, you’re going too far.

End position Sit back on your heel and keep your front leg straight as you fold your spine forward.

You should feel a stretch through the front of your kneeling leg and a stretch through the back of your front leg.

Complete 8 reps, 3x each leg

Load
Guy doing load exercise
Start position Split-stance position, with equal weight between both legs; both feet flat.

End position Move your body forward over your front leg and shift your hip toward the side. Back foot is on your toes, with ~70% of your weight now on your front leg. Reach your front arm straight overhead.

You should feel a tension stretch through side of your hip.

Complete 8 reps, 3x each leg

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3 min read

The Gluteus Medius Stretch Is Key To A Stronger Butt

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The Gluteus Medius Stretch Is Key To A Stronger Butt

If you’re not texting on your phone, you’re sitting at your desk hunched over and working away on your laptop. To avoid any pain, a good gluteus medius stretch is necessary for a stronger butt.

If you’re feeling hip pain, it’s probably because you’re not activating your glute muscles enough. Though you may not feel any pain now, the mid-day walk to grab lunch will eventually catch up to your hips.

To get a better idea how your butt is related to your hip pain, allow us to explain.

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This important group of muscles do this as their major actions:
Medius: abducts the hip (hip to the side)
Maximus: extends the hip (pulls the thigh behind you)
Minimus:abducts the hip (hip to the side)

These important muscles are often weak and underworked. So many of our jobs require us to sit for prolonged periods of time that it gets difficult to fix hip pain. The lack of mobility causes our gluten to “turn off” or stop firing as effectively. Once our glutes stop firing, we start developing imbalances within the hip which can lead to aches and eventual hip pain.

When building strong glute muscles, you can expect to see some of these things happen along the way:

Alleviate back pain: Learning to contract your glutes in a multitude of ranges can alleviate a lot of the mechanical back pain you are currently experiencing. Your glutes work to stabilize the pelvis and keep the hip joint centered. When they’re strong, your lower back doesn’t need to compensate and take excessive mechanical stress.

Increase performance: If you want to maximize your athletic potential, squatting should be a top priority. Stronger glutes will improve your speed, agility, and jumping skills, and quick side-to-side movements. Every time you take a step, your glute max stabilizes your pelvis, making transitions into movements safe on your pelvic joints and ultimately your back.

Abolish knee pain: A strong glute medius keeps the pelvis stable and prevents swaying from side to side. When your pelvis isn’t stable, it puts a lot of excessive pressure on your knees and ankles. When your glutes are strong, it helps to maintain proper alignment of the knee, hip and ankle. This natural alignment keeps your knee from hurting by tracking the knee cap properly.

Try out these 3 gluteus medius stretch movement techniques and see if you can hold the positions for 1 minute each with total control.

This will give you a good indicator of how well your glutes are doing.

Kick Backs
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Single Leg Bridges
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Side Clamp
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