How to have ‘happy hips’: practise practical movements
Having worked with clients for nearly 4 years now, and since being in pain myself and learning more about biomechanics, I’ve realised just how much the function of one joint can be directly affected by the way another joint moves further up or down the body. When one joint is ‘sticky’ or has limited range, it throws the fluidity of our movement patterns out and other areas compensate. Then the story becomes complicated to unravel!
When your hips cause you pain, there are so many things that can be happening as they are such a complicated part of the body. For example the following is a quick summary of the joints alone; 2 main pelvic bones (illium) that each create sockets for the ball of the femur to sit on (the upper leg bone), and 2 further joints at the back of the pelvis that connect each pelvic bone to the base of the spine (sacrum) that allow limited movement and act as both shock absorbers and stabilisers.
A little about my pelvis!
I first had pain in my pelvis during pregnancy (in fact during all 3 preganancies!). I had symphysis pubis dysfunction (SPD) which thankfully often goes after pregnancy. I didn’t look into why it happened to me, thinking it was a random event, but if I’d known then (as I only found out much later when I had chronic hip and back pain) that I had hypermobility, I might have been able to find out more about how to both prepare my body for further pregnancies, as well as for life after childbirth.
You live and learn I suppose!
My chronic pain came from instability in the main pelvic joints due to hypermobility (over-lax ligaments not doing their job of supporting the joints). When the bones were out of alignment (or twisted), the muscles surrounding the joints had to work extra hard to ‘hold’ my body together and this effort ‘over-cooked’ my nervous system which turned into a cycle of chronic pain.
Looking back, I rarely thought about ‘being strong’ as anything other than being able to lift something heavy or have force to push off fast. I also never thought about ‘stability’ - in fact I just took it for granted that my body would do that automatically. How wrong I was!
Through my rehabilitation and through learning more about the way the body should function as well as how it gets into dysfunction, I realised the importance of prioritising joint health as much as muscle health. I particularly understood and respected the hugely important role the hips and pelvis play in the harmonious chain of events needed for good movement.
A note about joints in general; joints ‘feed’ on movement
Joints function best (aka ‘are happy & healthy’) when they’re both used regularly and in a variety of ways.
The regularity is needed as this stimulates the (synovial) fluid in the joint capsule that is needed to reduce friction between the bones and also gets the nutrients and oxygen into the joint to keep it healthy, as there is no blood supply inside the joint capsule. Moving the joint feeds the joint - when we don’t move for long periods, we’re starving the joint!
Moving joints in a wide variety of ways helps them to use as much of their full range of motion as possible, so that we can keep using our joints in the variety of ways we want to be able to do all the activities we want in life, for as long as we want.
We need to prioritise using our joints regularly and in a variety of ways.
Happy Hips = mobile and strong
To have ‘happy hips’ we not only need to move them in a wide variety of ways to be able (to stay mobile and move with ease), we also need to challenge the supporting muscles to be strong in order to be stable.
Being bipedal (on 2 legs rather than 4, which might have caused us less issues!) we need to locomote through our legs, stay balanced to remain upright, whilst also stabilising us to support lots of complex movements with the upper body (aka twisting, reaching, lifting, hanging to climb etc.). We therefore need the important ‘junction’ of our body (aka the pelvis) to be both mobile and strong.
There are many muscles that connect the pelvis to the upper and lower body; in fact too many to mention without this becoming even more of an anatomy lesson! They each do different jobs to both stabilise and allow the wide range of movements we can create with the hips and legs.
Glute talk
There is one set of muscles that does need to be mentioned. The gluteus muscles have a key role in stabilising the pelvis over the top of the femur, as well as helping to create a wide variety of the movements.
The muscles work together to provide good pelvic alignment when we move and when balancing on one leg (a large part of our gait cycle; walking and running). As a result, weakness of the glutes has a significant impact on your body's biomechanics during everyday activities like walking, going downstairs and lifting. All the movements I recommend below use the glutes, in fact, whole body movements (as opposed to being sedentary, particularly in chairs) generally all do require glute function - they are more key players than we give them credit for!
Practise practical movements for hip health
So, to keep our hips happy and healthy, we need to give them priority in our movements and think about celebrating their use!
The following is a list of movements that, together, address using all the ranges of movement of the hips. Instead of giving you a list of ‘exercises’, I’m giving you a list of ways to move in daily life that will mean you are using your hips in a variety of ways…the regularity is your part of the deal!
Walking!
‘Well that’s simple enough’, I hear you say! But how much do you really walk and how do you walk?
Watch this YouTube video to learn how to walk ‘well’ in ways that both open out the muscles at the front of your hip that can get tight from too much sitting, as well as firing those all important glutes!
Want to walk more efficiently? 2 simple body adjustments you can implement today
And walk more and over varied terrain to challenge your hip stability - flat paths and pavements don’t give the stimulus that’s needed.
2. Going over under and things & single leg balancing
Step over obstacles forwards, sideways and go under - but think about the movement of the hips every time you do. By challenging ourselves to traverse things, we’re both using a combination of range in our hips, as well as spending time balancing on one leg which also helps promote hip stability.
Do this by choosing to go over and under things in your path or that you spot as an opportunity to do so. Challenge yourself to go really slowly. If opportunities seem less obvious, create them - a broom from one chair seat or chair back to another across your kitchen doorway will create beneficial movement for all the family. Alter the height and choose to traverse it differently every time you have to pass through it.
3. Lower your centre of gravity
When we lift things from the ground or reach down, we often do so using the brilliant articulation of our spines; curving down to get our hands low. There is nothing wrong with this, unless it’s what you always do, in which case you’re missing opportunities to get low through the hips and knees. Get low by hinging at the hips and then bending the knees and using a variety of different widths between your knees and feet.
4. Get down to the floor
When we lower our body down without the use of our hands we have to stabilise through the whole of the lower body. These movements, and there are many ways of doing so, bring increased mobility from the wide range of positions we use the legs and therefore hips, as well as strength due to working against gravity to ensure we lower our bodies with control.
5. Sit on the floor and move there
When we arrive at the floor, sitting in a whole variety of positions helps our hip tissues adapt to the wide range of movements they need. When we switch between sitting positions, we’re increasing our hip mobility and strengthening muscles, particularly when we avoid using our arms to lean on the ground.
These are all natural movement skills; ground movements, getting up & down, traversing, balancing, walking techniques, lifting and more, that I focus on in my natural movement classes in the Reclaim Movement membership to bring much needed movement to often underused hips.
There are also many lovely hip ‘exercises’ that help us to add on healthy hip movements on top of movements we add throughout the day anyway.
Here are a few YouTube videos covering lovely hip movements to try:
Hips need rotation - 5 movements for happier hips (Follow Along)
Sitting ‘Actively’ on the Ground | 7 Natural Ground Movements for Hip Mobility & Longevity
How to improve your hip mobility - Easy to follow progressive ground movement techniques
For many more hip movements and for whole-body movement patterns that integrate hip health as part of natural movement skills listed join me in the Reclaim Movement membership with a 7 Day Free Trial - your hips will be happier for it!
