How to Keep Your Hips Healthy in 5 Simple Steps
Quarantine 2020: A New Version of Screen Time is Born
The quarantine of 2020 has challenged us all as individuals, as a society, and as a world. Now, for many of us our new day to day is spent in front of a screen. Our work, our school, our communication, and most of our lives have transitioned into the virtual world.
This situation has positives and negatives for everyone and many of us are now experiencing differing levels of back and neck pain, tension headaches, and tightness in our bodies that we have never felt before.
How Can I Exercise in my Small New York Apartment?
It can be extremely hard to keep our bodies healthy and strong with a limited amount of resources to exercise with daily. If you live in the New York area, you have been without a gym for close to half a year now and have been forced to find new ways to get your heart rate up and strengthen your muscles in the comfort of your own home.
More sitting + decreased exercise = postural dysfunction, decreased cardiovascular health, and decreased immune response.
5 Simple Physical Therapy Movements to Open Up and Strengthen your Hips
If this sounds familiar to you, let’s get you up out of that chair and moving! I will take you through 5 simple Physical Therapy-based movements to help target tightness and weakness in your hips. Why I chose to start here is because of all the sitting we have been doing since the lock down.
Our glutes are elongated and weak, our hip flexors are shortened and weak, our core shuts down, and our bodies just hurt! So let’s start:
- Hamstring stretch: Lay on your back with one leg in table top (90 degrees knee bend) and hold the back of the leg. Gently kick the leg as straight as it will go, hold 30 seconds and repeat 3x on each side.
- Kneeling Hip flexor stretch: Move your body into a deep lunge (you can use a pillow under the back knee if it hurts on the floor) and roll your hips towards your nose (posterior tilt). Focus on pushing your hips toward to wall in front of you instead of down towards the ground. Hold for 30 seconds, repeat 3x on each side.
- Body Squats: Stand with feet hip width apart and sit back as if you were trying to sit into a chair. Repeat 10 times, take a minute rest, perform 2 more sets.
- Straight Leg Raises: Lay on your side with your bottom leg bent slightly. Lift the top leg up – 10 repetitions for 3 sets on each side.
- Isometric ab Press: Lay on your back and bring one leg to table top. Press your hand into the knee but do not leg the leg move and hold 10 seconds. Switch hands but keep the same leg and repeat another 10 seconds. Switch to the other side (4 times total for the round – repeat 3 times)
Unsure Where to Start? Give us a Call!
These exercises are great for getting the blood flowing into your legs and hips while helping to strengthen your body at the same time. These exercises may not be for everyone, and you should consult a healthcare provider before practicing them on your own.
If you are unsure if these will be helpful for you or if you have any questions feel free to reach out to us at our Flatiron Office and we will be glad to answer any questions you may have!
