Stretch and Strengthen Hips / Low Back

Stretch and Strengthen Hips / Low Back

Lets Move your Hips / Low Back Lets face it-- you do ALOT of sitting in 1 day.  Sitting keeps your hips in 1 place, creating soreness and "tightness" in your hips and low back.  Sitting also helps to compress your spine so you actually become shorter after work!   When you do sit: Do not sit on your wallet or foot. Do not cross your legs at your knees. Do not lean to one side. This action keeps your pelvis twisted and pulled in an uneven way the whole time you sit like that. To loosen your hips:  Walk with super large steps for at least 20 minutes.   Do some glute stretches throughout the day.   Get up and move about every hour ------------ Here are 3 movements you can do. 1. Glute Stretch- can be done in a chair of on the floor.       -Keep your foot flexed during the entire stretch (helps the knee).      -Place your R ankle on L knee and gently push the R knee away from body.     -switch legs   2. This is a specific movement to use the sacro-illiac ligaments.  Hip-hiker -- Lay on your back with your legs straight -- Slowly bring one hip up towards your shoulder while the other is neutral or slightly lowered towards your foot. -- Than swap sides -- It should take about 5 seconds for you to completely raise 1 hip and release it before switching sides.     3. This is another specific movement for your SI joint/ ligaments. -- Lay on your side with your knees bent -- Allowing the weight of your top leg to rest on the bottom leg (this is important as to not include other muscles not needed) slowly bring your top knee further forward than the bottom knee. -- (The thighs always stay on top of each other) -- Switch sides by laying on your other side and bring your top knee forward