Stretch and Strengthen your Hips

Some of you asked me to share the stretches and exercises my PT prescribed for me for my hip. I started out with a pile of papers - from my ortho, my gait analysis and my PT.

I'm worse than forgetful and need to have things in neat little lists or I'll forget to do them. So I cut out the pictures and put them in a notebook according to body part - hip/knee, trunk/pelvis, and lower body.

I'll do three separate posts so your eyes don't glaze over.

Page 1

This one feels really good once I've done it. The important thing to remember is that you don't want your knee to go over your toe, this goes for squats too...words to live by. And don't arch your back. I'll say that just a couple of more times in this post.

You can also put your foot flat on a chair to do this one - all the points I noted above still apply.

With this one, you don't want to lift your opposite hip or arch your back in order for your leg to go down. It's also a controlled lowering of your leg; you don't just flop it over to the side.

You want to be sure you don't arch your back. You can lie flat if you want, but don't arch your back then either.

Nothing special to note with this one.

You want to be sure you stand straight and don't lean. You can also use a thera-band around both ankles and side step. When you do that, you can slightly bend your knees and at the waist (like an 'athletic stance').

I am so inflexible that it's almost ridiculous, and this stretch is really hard for me. I'm also very uncoordinated and almost fell of the bed doing it. Again, you want to be sure you aren't arching your back while holding your foot. If you can't hold your foot - like me - you can use a dog leash. Put the handle around your foot/ankle and use the leash to gently pull your foot up.

So that completes our knee and hip stretching and strengthening exercises. I have yet to be able to complete them all in one sitting without (kid) interruption so I don't know how long it should take you to complete them all.

Next up will be trunk and pelvis work.

Disclaimer: I am not a medical professional and have no formal training (of any kind, not just medical). What I have posted should not be considered medical advice. If you are injured please visit your dr. I am simply relaying information that was given to me for my particular injury and rehabilitation.