Stiff Hips? How to Improve Hip Mobility

Have you been told you have tight or stiff hips? We often find ourselves prescribing exercises targeted at Hip Mobility for a number of different reasons. Hip stiffness may be a contributing factor to lower back pain, knee pain and multiple other aches and pains in the body.

The hip joint is a ball and socket joint where the thigh bone meets the pelvis. The intention of hip mobility exercises is to help improve range of motion and/or control of that joint. If you think you have tight hips it is important to work with your physio to identify what is causing the stiffness. Is the tightness muscular/soft tissue or joint related? Is that hip joint stiffness modifiable or worth pursuing? If so these exercises are the right ones for you.

The underlying cause of hip stiffness is variable and can range from past injury, cumulative tightness from not moving into and exploring certain ranges of motion or it could be due to activities and sports that you are participating in.

There are different approaches and ways to target hip mobility which can be broken down into:

1. Static Stretching: This can be helpful for when there is soft tissue tightness around the hip and certain muscles are overactive. It can be helpful to incorporate breathing into these exercises and you can think of them as relaxation exercises.
2. Active Mobility Exercises: With an emphasis on controlling the pelvis (the socket of the ball and socket joint) and the femoral head (the ball). These type of exercises are designed to reset the patterns of how you recruit muscles around the hips

Both have their place depending on what stage you are at with your injury and how your body moves.