Over the weekend, my wife flew to New Mexico for a education conference with several of her co-teachers. The thing about traveling this far and attending events like this is it requires you to sit, a lot. Hours upon hours a day.
When sitting, your hips are in a flexed position. This places your hip flexors in a shortened state and keeps your glutes from being used. All of this can make for cranky, stiff hips.
Today, I wanted to present you with 2 exercises you can use to unlock your hips after prolonged sitting. Perform these after any long bout of sitting such as traveling in a car, flying on a plane, or a day at the office. Your hips will thank you.
1. Glute Squeeze
As noted above, sitting results in tight hip flexors and under-activated glutes. So the goal of these two exercises is to reverse this trend. When the glutes contract, the pelvis tilts backwards. This, in turn, lengthens the hip flexors. That’s what makes the glute squeeze so effective.
Here’s how to do it:
- Stand with your feet about shoulder width apart and toes turned out slightly.
- Drive your feet into the floor and push your knees apart from each other without letting your feet rotate.
- You should start to feel your glutes contracting. From here, squeeze your glutes as hard as you can for 10-15 seconds.
- Repeat for 3-5 times.
2. Rocking Hip Flexor Stretch
The primary emphasis with the first stretch was the glutes while the hip flexors were secondary. That reverses with this stretch. The focal point is the hip flexor muscle but the goal is still the same: activate the glutes and lengthen the hip flexors.
Here’s how to do it.
- Set up in a half kneeling position, with both knees bent at 90 degrees.
- Squeeze your glute on the down leg. This will tilt the pelvis backward. You should feel the hip flexor stretching in this position.
- From here, gently rock forward while maintain a straight line from your knee to your ear. This will provide an extra stretch.
- Hold for 1-2 seconds and rock back to the start. Repeat for 8 times on each side.
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These two exercises will take about 3-4 minutes to do. But, if you take the time and perform them, you’ll be surprised at how much better your hips feel. If you continue to do it week in and week out, I know it will make a huge difference in the way your body feels after long bouts of sitting.
Photo credit:
1. http://www.wallstreetotc.com/prolonged-sitting-could-literally-kill-you-canadian-study-finds/214742/
