3 Stretches to Reduce Hip Pain
Hi, my name is Marc Albano. I'm a physical therapist here at the outpatient physical therapy clinic at Sharp Grossmont Hospital. I’m going to show you a few hip exercises
that can help strengthen and support your hip as well as help improve flexibility and
range of motion. First off, keep in mind that everybody is
different. So while I’m going to be showing you a few basic exercises that could help a lot of people, it’s best to consult your physical therapist
or your doctor first to determine which exercises are specifically most appropriate for you. The first exercise that I want to show you
is called the hip flexor stretch. Think about how often you spend a day with your hips flexed like when you are sitting. This exercise is something you can do pretty much anywhere and I’ll need Dan to help demonstrate. One of the functions of the hip muscles is
to help stabilize your leg when you walk, especially when you take a step and you stand on one leg momentarily.
An exercise that can help with this is called the side lying clam. You can do this exercise in the comforts of your own home. While keeping the pelvis steady and the feet together slowly open up your knees, hold it there for one second and then return back
down. When you do this exercise, be sure to keep the pelvis steady and make sure it doesn’t roll back. I recommend starting out with three sets of 10 per day with this exercise. Doing this exercise helps strengthen the glute muscles, which are attached to your hip. Here’s another very helpful hip exercise,
again, which you can do in the comforts of your own home. They’re called bridges. First, start off by laying on your back, bend your knees to this point. Have your hands down on the bed or table. Next, contract your glutes and slowly raise your hips up. This creates a bridge underneath your body. Hold that there for a second and then lower yourself back down. I recommend starting out with three sets of 10 of these exercises per day.
Strengthening these glutes helps you strengthen the muscles that extend your hip. The hip flexor stretch, the side lying clams
and the bridges are exercises that could help strengthen and support your hip as well as
improve flexibility and range of motion. They could also help you decrease hip pain..
