Your hips are arguably the most important joint in the body used daily for almost every human activity including sitting at your desk, driving a car, climbing up stairs and/or dropping into another squat on one of my home workouts - yes you love them really! 😝
Today I want to bring your attention to the basic knowledge you should understand in order to appreciate both the MAGNIFICENCE of the joint itself and the potential issues you can avoid by giving them the love and care they truly need.
What are the hips?
We can summarise the hips simply as the joint that connects our pelvis to our thigh bone.
Your hips primary functions are supporting the weight of the body in both static (e.g., standing) and dynamic (e.g., walking or running) postures and as a "ball and socket" joint has the ability to move through a huge range of movements in your every day life:
☑️ Flexion and Extension (walking/running/sitting/squatting)
☑️ Abduction & Adduction (stepping sideways / Jane Fonda workouts)
☑️ Rotation (kicking a ball / dancing the night away / twerk it baby)
Of course, there's a LOT to cover here and realistically we'd need a 3 year course to cover it all in detail so for today we'll keep it simple and just make it clear that HIPS ARE AWESOME AND HELP US WITH MOST FUNDAMENTAL HUMAN MOVEMENTS!
Why should we care about them?
Until you speak to someone who suffers with "dodgy" hips, or experience it yourself, it's hard to really appreciate their true value, but it's safe to say without them functioning well life is much tougher:
❌ Painful hips can be chronic and literally stop you moving at all.
❌ Poor mobility in hips prevents movements such as squatting, walking, lunging, jumping and more.
❌ Lack of strength in muscles and tendons around the hips will result in poor balance and a higher risk of injury (ie: falling over) particularly as we get older
Happy Hips are KEY for your health and performance:
If you have the mobility to move your hips safely through flexion, extension, adduction, abduction and rotation pain free and you have appropriate strength in the muscles around them to hold your body upright safely and securely your LIFE IS SO MUCH EASIER!
🤸♀️ You can move freely
🎪 Your balance will improve
🏋🏼♀️ Your overall strength will be greater
🏂 You'll have confidence to try ANY activity you wish
Do you give your hips the love they need?
I think in truth most of us could do more to help our hips, me included, and depending on your goals (from circus act to just living life better) I strongly encourage you to at least THINK about how you care for your hips each day.
✔️ Stretch them at least once per week, or daily if you can
✔️ Include some strengthening exercises for glutes / hamstrings / core in weekly plan
✔️ Try some sports massage to relieve tension or sit on your foam roller at home while you watch Netflix. #NetflixAndRoll
Anything you can do to help care for your hips will benefit you NOW and LONG TERM too.
Need some help to get started?
I've just launched a 7 day Happy Hips Flexibility Challenge that's ready for you to start right now, and follow along on demand anywhere, anytime you need.
You'll need a Premium Membership to get access and are free to revisit anytime you need so hopefully you get the "bug" to stretch more and you're hips will thank you for it in 7 days, 7 months, 7 years, even 7 decades time.
Daily practice leads to best results but there is NO TIME LIMIT on this challenge so take as long as you need and revisit anytime you need.
Good luck!
FRANK
your Personal Trainer / Hip-Hippy Shaker
