Hips Don’t Lie

Most people above the age of 30 have some type of hip limitation, and if that age decreased to 28 or even 25 in the next decade, it wouldn’t surprise me.  This is because we are sitting so much more than we were even 10 years ago.  We are going to continue to see these issues in the younger population unless we intervene.  We can prevent and/or alter these limitations by spending just a few minutes a week doing a few strategic movements.

Let’s look at the seated position for a minute.  When we are seated, the hip is flexed so the muscles on the front (anterior) portion of the hip are shortened, while the muscles in the back (posterior) side of the body are lengthened.  We also tend to relax the torso onto the hips creating a tilt on the pelvis, which in turn causes a rounding of the lower back.  All of these actions causes the muscles to fail to contract properly, causing them to become “weak” or inhibited.  When this happens, the others muscles sense this instability at the joint, and tighten up in an effort to protect the joint.  The overactive muscles think that your body can’t handle the body going into a motion, and as a protective mechanism they keep the body from going there.

The body’s protective/compensation process is really amazing and shows how smart our bodies are. We just need to take time to correct these issues, otherwise we will continue to get tighter and more restrictive in our movements.  That’s why we see the older generation slumped over or struggling to move.  It is difficult to create room in our already busy schedules for a movement routine to take care of our most precious item  – our bodies.  But, it can be done if we make it a priority.

Hopefully, these short videos will help!  Completing one video for each muscle group, each morning or evening will help create a routine and be enough for you to start seeing positive results.  The cool thing is, when we do this it doesn’t just benefit our bodies, it starts to pour into other parts of our lives…nutrition, happiness, energy, and more!  Give these videos a try as I will continue to release them weekly, and join me on a path of feeling good inside and out!