In this video I'm going to
show you how to self-pop your hips for instant pain relief stay tuned Hey everyone Dr. Rowe coming to you from
SpineCare in Saint Joseph, Michigan. In this video, I'm going to go over easy effective
self mobilization or self popping techniques for your hips all of these exercises hit the hips just
a little bit differently so go through them all and take what is most effective at getting more
range of motion more self mobilization out of your hips as a bonus all of these exercises
can be done at home and may give quick pain relief even in as little as 30 seconds so let's
get started and self pop the hips right now so here is a really easy hip self mobilization
technique that you can do in bed or on the floor i like to call this one the hip smasher it's a
two-part exercise and the first part what we're going to do is known as the butterfly smash so
I'm going to take my legs I'm going to put my feet together like this and then I'm going to keep
the feet flat on the bed or the floor this will start to put the hips into external rotation that
is taking it outwards what we want to focus on is taking the knees right here and then just winging
them out as much as you can let gravity take them you can put your hands behind your head like this
or use a pillow too if you need that for your neck but you just want gravity to take it hold this for
about 30 seconds you're going to feel a very deep stretch into the hips inside the legs into the
groin from there what I'm going to do is then on the next repetition go into a passive stretch with
it so i'm going to take my hands like this put them on the inside of the legs and then press into
it to cause more external rotation into the hip and this becomes a great stretch this should not
cause discomfort if it does please back off a little bit to the point where you only feel a
good stretch you want to hold this one for at least 20 seconds but work your way up longer 30
seconds if you're able to you're just going to relax and then repeat this up to five times with
each repetition drive the knees down a little bit further take your hands and press into it
because it's only going to put more motion into the hips to hopefully get them to self pop on
the second part let's focus a little bit more on internal rotation that is bringing the hip inward
I'm going to be using just an average hand drying towel whatever side that we're focusing on let's
put the towel on the outside of the knee the foot is going to be flat the knee is going to be bent
just like this I'm going to take the other leg and then place the ankle on the outside of that knee
press into it for a stable anchor point the goal with this one is to take this leg right here the
one with the ankle on the knee to drive inwards like this so what I'm doing is rotating my leg
like this inwards and this is going to cause the hip to go into internal rotation and i really feel
it on the outside of the hip with this stretch you want to focus on feeling it into the hip so drive
that over as much as you can until you get a very comfortable stretch let's hold this one for 20
seconds relax take a breather and then repeat up to five times with each repetition go a little bit
more with it because it's only going to put more motion in there again to hopefully get that hip to
self pop or to self mobilize this hip self popping technique is known as the stick method because I'm
going to be using a large beat up broomstick but you just need something long and sturdy a pvc pipe
works if you don't have any of that go out in the yard and grab a big stick we can do this one in
bed or on the floor just lie on your back if you need something for your neck just place a pillow
underneath for extra comfort but what i want to do is start off with my knee at about 90 degrees I
need a stick long enough that I could grab on one end place it behind the knee and then hook on it
with my foot and toes just like this that way we have a nice lever that we can really do nice slow
controlled motions this exercise is a two-part one so in the first part I'm going to focus a little
bit more on rotation or twisting motions of the hip to get it to self-release let's just start off
by grabbing the end of the stick placing the knee at 90 degrees and then twisting it out like this
so I'm taking the end of the stick and just going out with it you're going to feel a lot of good
rotation external rotation into the hip a lot of muscle soft tissue is starting to fire only
go to your comfort level once we hit that great stretch let's hold this right here for 20 seconds
from there you're going to relax and then you're going to repeat this up to five times this right
here you want to challenge yourself with each one to go out just a little bit further to get that
soft tissue stretched out because you might find that it gives that sudden pop crack or self
release on the next one what I'm going to do is then internal rotation so I'm going to bring the
stick inwards like this and you're going to feel the muscles get hit just a little bit differently
so again focus on doing about 20 second holds for five repetitions and challenging yourself with
each one to just drive in a little bit further to get everything stretched out in the second part
I'm going to be doing what is known as a push pull so I'm going to take the stick and I'm going
to place it in between the knees just like this my knees are roughly bent at 90 degrees so one
leg is going to be closer to you one knee is going to be further away the knee that is further
away I'm going to drive into the stick the knee that is closest to you I'm going to drive into the
stick but it's going to go away so that causes the push-pull phenomenon the stick obviously is going
to be stronger so it's going to resist this motion it's a nice isometric exercise so press into it
in both directions as much as you can comfortably hold this for five seconds relax and then repeat
this up to five times with each repetition try to press into the stick even further from there what
I'm going to do is just simply do the same thing but just switch it up on the other side and do
the same thing five second holds for five times so here's the neat part what I'm going to do is
take my fist like this put my legs back up at 90 degrees but I'm going to drive my knees into my
fist and i don't know if you're going to hear this but i got a very good release right there into
my right hip so I'm pressing in as much as i can for about five seconds relaxing and doing this
for five times and if this does bug your hands what you can do at that point is use a pillow
or a towel instead but it's just a good way to really go in there put good hip motion in there
reduce some pain and get that self-release that you're looking for this hip exercise is one
of my personal favorites because it works so many muscle groups in addition to helping the hip
it's going to target the glutes buttocks low back piriformis it's known as a seated figure four or
if you're into yoga a seated pigeon pose let's start off in a chair let's slide towards the edge
and then have very good upright posture whatever side that we're focusing on we're going to try to
bring the leg up just like this to form a figure four so if you look down it should look like a
figure four the goal is to have the leg come down like this to the point where you could balance
a pop can on it some people will notice that it kind of sticks up just like this so if that's
the case just let gravity take it down very slowly also if you do have difficulty getting into
that position just straighten one leg put the other over like this grab the pant leg slide
it up and then slide the heel back towards you so the movement from here is very easy in the
first part since we are going to be focusing a little bit more on the hip what I'd like to
do is just kind of put a little bit of body weight into the knee this will cause a passive
stretch bringing the hip into external rotation only to your comfort level this should not cause
any pain or discomfort what i want to do is hold this position for about 20 seconds I'm going to
relax and then I'm going to do this up to five times again if that hip is very tight and locked
up you might feel that quick knuckle crack release into the hip very very quickly but i try to do
this one for five complete repetitions from there what i want to do is a more dynamic movement so
that is going through different ranges of motions to target the hip to try to get it to self-release
so from there what I'm going to do is I'm going to bend forward from the waist don't round the back
with this one but bend forward from the waist and you're going to feel the hip and the glute
buttock get hit just a little bit differently do this for about three to five repetitions for
holding for about 20 seconds from there you can then experiment with different motions so as i
lean forward what I'm going to do is then I'm going to turn towards the left kind of rotating
my body all of these motions activate the muscles around the hip just a little bit differently so
you want to do this one and then go all the way towards the right you can also do a lateral bend
so when i go forward I'm going to tilt towards one side notice if any of these motions hit the
hip just a little bit differently like it's really just targeting tight muscles that might
just be causing that more or less to be locked up and if you get that to release you might find
that again you'll get a self pop very very quickly but target different motions go with what you feel
is the most effective and i hope that gets the hip released very quickly and whatever you do on one
side always switch to the other to keep them both in balance one of the easiest ways to self pop or
self mobilize your hips is to use banded traction i'm going to be using an ordinary pull-up band
you can buy these locally at a sporting goods department you can also buy them online if you
would like to buy them online i will leave a link in this video's description what I'm going to
do is also take a hand drying towel tie a large knot because I'm going to place it underneath
a door just like this so you want a towel i should say not large enough that it won't slip
underneath that door because at that point it will be a stable anchor point so after we have
the band secured on the other side of the door let's take another towel wrap it around the
other side of the band for comfort place it behind the knee of the hip that we're focusing
on with this decompression exercise we're going to do a little bit more internal external
rotation to get that hip to self pop or mobilize so what I'm going to do is just scoot back a
little bit until you feel some tension being built into the band from there I'm going to turn my
leg in like this to the point where my knee is going to be at 90 degrees my whole leg is
flush against the floor the other leg can just go straight when you do this also you want your
leg right here the top portion to be in line with the band so don't go at an angle make sure it's
nice and straight you're already going to feel a great pulling motion being built into the hip what
i want to do is use my body weight to scoot back even more with this position we're focusing a
little bit more on internal rotation of the hip so really focus on trying to scoot back as much
as you can and allow this band to stretch that hip out I feel a really good amount right here so
you can hold this for an extended period of time you can do it for 30 seconds you can work your way
up to a minute or even longer but when you need a breather just scoot forward a little bit you want
to do this nice and slow and controlled for about five complete repetitions and with each repetition
scoop back just a little bit more because it's only going to put more traction into the hip and
hopefully get it to self pop or release after that let's do a little bit more external rotation so
what I'm going to do from there is then just turn the leg in the opposite direction like this again
getting my leg straight with the band use your body weight to scoot back and this again feels
like a very good amount of traction being placed into the hip you want to just do the same thing
you want to do at least 30 second holds relax when you need it but always challenge yourself to
scoot back a little bit more to get more traction into that hip and if it's locked up you might
get that immediate self pop crack or release so here is a great banded traction method that's
going to focus on both hips at the same time I'm going to take the band I'm going to place it
across my lower back slightly above my hips from there let's scoot back just until we feel some
good tension being built into the band from there let's just lie back like this you can take your
hands and support your neck like this or place a pillow underneath your neck for extra comfort
but we want to scoot back just a little bit more until we feel a good comfortable stretch into the
hips and also the lower back what I'm going to do next is add a little bit more range of motion into
the hips to hopefully get it to self-release with this traction so my feet are going to be flat
my knees are going to be bent like this I'm just going to slowly take them to one side in this
case it's my right side when you do this you're going to feel the hips the soft tissue around the
hips including the muscle really start to fire focus on trying to bring the legs down as much as
you can hold it for about three to five seconds come back up and then just slowly go towards the
other side you want to do this nice and slow for about 10 to 15 repetitions on each side from there
scoot back take a breather and then on the next repetition try to dry back a little bit more to
increase the traction and then just simply repeat this but if it is locked up through one of these
motions you might finally feel that hip start to just self mobilize or self release but with each
repetition again challenge yourself and do this for five complete times if you liked the video and
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