Rotation Series Part 2: Hip Rotation
Our hip rotator muscles are easily injured especially if you are an active person. Well, it happens most of the time for athletes. This pain my be the result of tight muscles, muscle strains, a compressed nerve, or ligament sprains. The best thing you can do to immediately treat this injury is to stop doing or limit that activity that causes us pain. However, we were asked this question, “Could your limited hip rotation be causing low back pain? Are you having a hard time doing this in your workout? Well, let’s find out.
Tests:
- Hip external rotation:
- -seated, bringing foot towards the other leg
- -about 45 degrees is within a normal range
- Hip internal rotation:
- standing, toes facing forward, pivot on one foot while keeping other toe facing forward
- is one (or both) feet challenging to maintain forward position are you trying to rotate at your hips instead of through your hips?
If you have an imbalance side to side, focus on targeting the more limited side with the following drills. If both sides are equally limited then spend time on both!
Mobility drills:
- Hip rotations
- 20 reps as part of warm up routine
- spending 3-5 minutes seated in the position on rest days or after workouts
- Banded internal rotation stretch
- 2-3 minutes as part of warm up routine
- Pigeon pose variation
- if pigeon pose is challenging to obtain try this variation with the foam roller and using a bench/box for upper body
- 2-3 minutes as part of warm up (before doing your dynamic warm up) or rest day stretch
- Posterior hip soft tissue mobilization
- post workout routine or rest day for 3-4 minutes
If you’d like to schedule a consult at any of our locations, CLICK HERE.
Have fun giving some love to those hips!
Dr C
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