How Happy Are Your Hips?
How Happy Are
Your Hips?
By Tona Wilson, Ph.D
Ever lose track of a former employer retirement plan? It used to be difficult to track down, but thanks to the SECURE Act 2.0, finding those lost benefits is way easier now! There are several places to locate benefits you may have forgotten about and we are here to provide you with the most up-to-date resources. Most of the information provided is directly from the specific website, so you can determine which site may be best to begin your search.
The hips house 21 muscles, including the most powerful muscle in the body, the Gluteus Maximus. If you read the November article, “Is your Rear in Gear”, you learned how important the glutes are in overall body strength, function, and how a lack of strength in the glutes can lead to muscle imbalances and injury in the back, knees, and beyond.
In short, your body is only as functional and strong as your hips are happy, and happy hips are strong, mobile, flexible, and stable. Unfortunately for most, the hips have become, “the stiffest link” in our entire kinetic chain, leading us to inflexibility, pain, and even disability.
Our Hips are the Lynchpin
The hips are the hinge of the body, linking the upper and lower body together in strength, gait, and function. The “Joint by Joint Theory” by physical therapist, Gray Cook, and strength coach, Mike Boyle, is the basis by which most physical therapists and corrective exercise therapists create programs to rectify pain points caused by a failed joint-by-joint movement sequence.
From the bottom of the kinetic chain (feet on the ground) to the top of the head, each joint is a stack of alternating and independent joints starting with stability and ending with mobility. The foot and arch are the bottom of the kinetic chain, providing stability for the kinetic chain from that point upward. Then, the ankles provide mobility. Next, the knees provide stability. Moving upwards, the hips mobility, the back and core create stability, the shoulders mobility, the shoulder blades stability and the neck mobility. This is a very truncated version, but each is necessary for each from the bottom up. In physical therapy we call this, “distal stability for proximal mobility”. This works from the core out to the extremities as well as the feet up.
When the hips, which are supposed to be mobile, begin to lack strength throughout their range of motion, the body will look for mobility elsewhere. The next two joints up and down are the lumbar spine and the knee. The problem is, they’re supposed to be stabilizing the kinetic chain, not mobilizing it. Now, the knee and/or low back is doing something it isn’t supposed to do in addition to what it is, thus creating ripe conditions for a low back, knee, or hamstring injury. You can directly observe this in people’s gait when they twist at the back to make up for tight hip flexors and hamstrings that would otherwise produce a longer walking stride.
Sedentarism- A Repetitive Stress
When we think of repetitive stress injury, we think of repeated movement. Interestingly, sedentarism is also a repetitive stressor in that we are repeatedly doing nothing, which contributes to further immobility, dysfunction, and lack of strength in our hips. When we sit for 8-10 hours a day, the hip flexors remain in a shortened state and the glutes in a relaxed and extended state. Over time (as in repetitive stress), the body adapts to this new normal of tight hips flexors with dormant glutes, and dominant quadriceps and back extensor muscles to create a maladaptive movement pattern instead. As a result, the knees and lower back must now be mobilizers AND stabilizers. This is a recipe for eventual disaster and disability.
What is Mobility Anyway?
Mobility isn’t just flexibility. Flexibility is the passive ability of a muscle to stretch. Mobility is the combination of strength, flexibility, and mind-to-muscle connection to actively bring a joint through a full range of motion. We need flexibility to bring a joint through a wide range of motion, but we also need strength with which to do this as well as the mind-to-muscle connection to even find the movement pattern in the first place.
Mobility Needs Strength and Vice-Versa
Strength without mobility and mobility without strength creates a formula for functional failure. The hip (or any mobilizing joint) must be strong throughout its specific range of motion, or it will easily destabilize and become injured. Likewise, if a joint that is only strong in a shortened range of motion is taken beyond its range, it can also become injured. It’s important to train the hip joint by both creating optimal range of motion and strengthening the muscles throughout this range of motion. We must increase flexibility, mind-to-muscle mobility connection, and strength throughout the entire range of motion of any joint. In the hip, this means working through all three planes of flexion-extension, abduction-adduction, and external/internal rotation.
Putting it all Together
What should we even be doing for our hips? Well, since they do so much for us, we need to do a lot for them in our exercise regimen. Start with stretching to create a better range of motion with deep hip flexor/hamstring stretches, inner/outer thigh stretches, and external/internal rotational movements. Yoga is great for flexibility and balance, but it may not provide the functional mobility we need. Pilates can provide functional mobility and mind-to-muscle connection but doesn’t provide the overloaded strength training that weight training can. For some, physical therapy may be the first step. In any case, everyone has their own limitations with their own issues that brought them there. It is best to consult with a physical therapist or corrective exercise therapist before you embark on your own search for Happier Hips.
By increasing hip mobility, we can improve posture, have better balance, preserve the cartilage and discs in our knees and lumbar spine, and preserve our longevity. Hip mobility is the foundation of functional movement. As we age, our joint capsules begin to tighten, our flexibility decreases, our strength declines, and so our mobility suffers. Mobile hips allow for better mechanical leverage which allows for more power and strength throughout a longer range of motion, and stronger execution of activities of daily life with less effort.
This month, make hip strength and mobility your priority. Stretch, strengthen, and move your hips as well as your entire body. You’re always worth your effort.