10 Best Hip Strengthening Exercises to Relieve Hip Pain
These hip exercises are great for strengthening your hips to help relieve hip pain. They go from lying down to sitting down to standing up and range from pretty easy to hard depending on your injury.
The first hip exercises are pelvic tilts, bridges, and clamshells. These are great for strengthening your pelvic muscles, glutes, and hamstrings.
Then there is the 4 way hip lying down. This is hip flexion (straight leg raise), hip abduction, hip adduction, and prone hip extension. These are great for all the muscles around the hip including, gluteus medius and gluteus maximus, IT band, hamstrings, hip flexors, and others.
Now for sitting you will do a seated hip flexion and a squat at your chair. These are great because you can do them at work, or if you have been sitting for a long time.
The final hip exercise is a lunge. It sounds pretty simple, but if done right, it can be pretty challenging. You don’t have to bring your knee all the way to the floor, and you can use a target if you need one.
Tight hips can be a real pain! The hip muscles can get tight for many reasons, and it's often painful to stretch and/or strengthen them. Isometric exercises can be a great way to help relax tight hip muscles and help strengthen them at the same time.
Hip osteoarthritis or hip arthritis can cause pain in the hips, back, and knees. Sometimes standing exercises may be too difficult or painful, so here are some seated exercises that may help.
When the hips are stiff and tight, exercises can help loosen up the area to make the muscles more relaxed. These exercises start with some easier isometrics and progress to a little harder.
Often tight hip flexor muscles can cause hip pain. My favorite stretch for this area is a modified hip flexor stretch. It’s great for the hip, knee, and back area.
The biggest myth about hip arthritis pain relief is that exercise makes the condition worse. However, this couldn't be further from the truth. In fact, one of the most beneficial exercises for hip arthritis pain relief is the lunge. Lunges are great to do every day, but make sure to progress slowly so it doesn’t get inflamed.
Therapeutic Yoga is a great way to help relieve hip pain by incorporating physical therapy and yoga. Trudy, a fellow PT and registered yoga teacher from HEAL Wellness and Therapy, stopped by to guide me through some stretches and exercises for the hip.
These hip exercises are great for strengthening your hips to help relieve hip pain. They go from lying down to sitting down to standing up and range from pretty easy to hard depending on your injury.
