Healthy Tips Goes Hip

Hips are as important as other body parts. The hips joints are the largest joint in the body which have a similar structure such as shoulder joints. The hips are quite movable and perform different types of motion.

Normally, you will experience difficulty moving when you have problems in hips.

The hip joints are the top part of the thigh bone, the ball part and lower part of the pelvis which forms the socket. The heavy ligaments around the hip bones let the socket and ball moving. It is similar like special cartilage around knee bone which describes as articular cartilage covering the bones of knees. This cartilage work for near frictionless action.

Your hips are the main weight-bearing part of the body. It helps you to perform important activities such as running, walking, standing, climbing stair and sitting. To eliminate any pain in hip joint or muscles, you will require to strengthen hips and keep it moving to get in normal activity.

Exercise

Doing regular exercise in the morning keeps your hip muscles active and keep engaging the entire day. Here is some exercise for better hip health.

Hip Squeeze

Hip squeeze exercise is simple to perform which helps to strengthen your groin muscles. Groin muscles are important to give average stability to hips. It helps to maintain the knees position.

How to do?

• Rest down on your back
• Bent your knees and place a small ball mid of the knees.
• Start rolling the ball in your knees.
• Hold the ball for five to ten minutes and release.
• Keep practicing this exercise 10 times.
• Stop the exercise if you get pain.

Straight Leg Raise

Strengthen your hips front and with the straight leg raise exercise. This exercise helps to maintain your knees.

How to do?

• Lay down on your back.
• Keep one knee bent and one leg straight.
• Set your quadriceps muscle on the highest point of your straight leg.
• Raise the straight leg up around 12 inches.
• Hold it there for two seconds, at that point slowly take down your leg.
• Make sure to keep your leg as straight as you feel comfortable.
• Repeat this ten to fifteen minutes.

Make the straight leg raise workout more challenging by placing small cuff weight to lower leg or thigh.

Side Leg Raise

Strengthens your gluteal muscle by doing the side leg raise exercise on the side of your backside and hip. These muscles are necessary for keeping up appropriate knee and hip position during running and walking.

How to do?

• Lay down on one side.
• Bend the leg closer to the floor.
• Keep another leg straight.
• Slowly elevate your top leg up.
• Place your knee straight and your toes facing forward.
• Hold your leg straight for two seconds and slowly takedown.
• Repeat ten times as you feel comfortable.

Hip Rotation Stretch

The figure four stretch also describe as hip rotation stretch or piriformis stretch. It is an amazing workout to make your hips rotating freely in their complete motion range.

How to do?

• Sit comfortably down and keep your knees straight.
• Cross your one leg above another leg by placing your ankle on top of your knees similar to leg crossing while sitting.
• Carefully pull your knee over your body
• Stay in this position for five seconds.
• At that point carefully push your knee from top of the leg far from you until you feel the stretch in hips.
• Hold this situation for five seconds, at that point gradually discharge.
• Repeat ten times as you feel comfortable.

Ball Bridges

Take an exercise ball to do the bridges exercise by keeping the ball under your legs. It is the best ways to strengthen your gluteal muscles and hamstrings.

How to do?

• Lay down on your back and put a swiss ball below your calf muscles.
• Let your abdominal muscles engage and carefully raise your buttocks from the ground.
• When your pelvis is elevated, then stay in this state for two seconds and lower down your legs slowly.
• Repeat ten to fifteen times as you feel comfortable.

Hip Hikers

Pelvic drop exercise also describes as hip hikers. It helps your gluteal muscles to strengthen in weightlifting position.

How to do?

• Do this exercise in standing position.
• Stand sideways and let the one foot on a step and other foot hanging off.
• By keeping your both knees straight, take down your pelvis on one side to move the foot near the ground.
• Once you bring pelvis down, then carefully lift it backside up to the beginning point.
• Repeat ten times as you feel comfortable.

Manage your weight

Extra weight causes to develop arthritis symptoms more quickly and rise the pain in joints. The excess weight cause to put more load on the hip joints which result in inflammation and pain.

Being overweight causes to affect the main weight carriage joints the knees and hips in two ways.

The excess weight causes to raise the joint reaction force inside the joint. Gradually, the excess joint pressure and reaction force results in tear and wear on the hip joints.

The cartilage damage eventually causes arthritic changes in the joints and reduces stiffness motion, swelling, pain, and warmth. Severe damage with pain may require immediate medical attention.

Excess weight also induces inflammatory factors. There are many diseases linked to inflammatory conditions such as

• Neurological issues
• Digestive disorders
• Autoimmune disorders

Thus, the inflammatory enzymes and agents also cause pain in joints and surrounding tissues in the body.

For example, when you do up and down on stairs, it put more pressure on your knees than your body weight. If an individual has hundred pounds weight which adds 150 pounds of excess pressure on the joint than the normal weight.

Maintain Flexibility

For good hip health, you will require to manage proper hip range motion. Most of the people unable to move their hips by complete range motion.

You may be a high-level athlete or weekend warrior, but your actions will not make you have a complete range of motion in your hip joint.

For example, if you have an inactive lifestyle and spending more time on your hips flexed, then you are less prone to your hip joints to move in opposite directions. The inactive lifestyle not only cause you movement impairments but it can result in pain and injuries in the sacroiliac joint, lumbar spine and knees.

Healthy hips are vital for any age person. It is the best idea to begin practicing healthy ways at an early age to prevent problems. You may find difficult to move your hips with flexibility if you have any pain and tightness in the hip muscles. Lack of motions in the socket joint and ball lead to inflexibility.  When the hip joints are unable to move properly, then you will experience degenerative bone changes.

Moreover, impaired functions in the hip joints cause all types of secondary problem in the back, feet, and knees.

There is five stretch exercise which helps to increase the effective mobility in your hips. Constant practice can bring the best results. You will require to do these stretches at least three times a week. You may also need to hold each stretch for 30 seconds and repeat two to three times every day.

Hip Flexor Stretch

It is a collection of muscles which positions in the forward section of the hip. You can perform this stretch in the following way.

• Place your left knee gently after your left hip.
• Let your shoulders position above your hips and then manage posterior pelvic tilt.
• Bend ahead until you feel the stretch in your hip’s front part.

Hamstring stretch/Hip extensor

This stretch good for the back part of hip muscles. To do this stretch follow the steps given below.

• Lay down on the floor and take a leg straight toward you.
• You can bend your knee a little.
• Focus on the part you want to stretch.

Hip Adductor Stretch

Sit with a straight back and on your feet sole, carefully push your knees down.

Inner thigh stretch/ Hip adductor

Hold a stretch at a comfortable distance by spreading your knee apart in a kneeling position.

Hip rotator stretch

It is a muscle stretch to rotate your hips in outward or inward direction.

Put your right ankle on to left knee and bend forward to feel the stretch in left hip.

Movements

You will require to do the movements for healthy hips. For example, it’s exactly same like your cycle chain which gets rust if you don’t use it.

The hips also need motions to provide lubrication and nourishment to its surfaces.

Lack of movement, cartilage in joints unable to supply proper blood.  Compression and movement are essential to get adequate nutrition into the joint surface cells. Inactive joints can cause degenerative changes and arthritis. You can do the simple walking to get movement and lubricant in hips.

Eat a well-balanced diet

For good hips health, you will require to add vitamin C to your daily intake which helps for the collagen formation. It helps to lubricate and cushion the hip bones in sockets. Vitamin C also helps to prevent bone fracture and improve bone health.

You can add various antioxidant and anti-inflammatory foods in your daily intakes such as seeds, nuts, fatty fish, berries and extra virgin olive oil.

Eat calcium-rich foods

Calcium is an essential mineral which benefits important body functions including good hip health. If your daily food intake lack calcium, then your body start to extract the calcium from your bones which result in bone thinning.

Women age with 50 requires 1,200 mg of calcium every day which is equal to 3 glasses of milk per day. Calcium food include

• Dairy product
  • Milk
  • Cheez
  • Yogurt
• Fortified foods
  • Orange
  • Cereal
• Leafy green vegetables
  • Spinach
  • Turnip Greens
  • Kale
  • Mustard Greens
  • Pak-Choi
  • Beet Greens
  • Broccoli
  • Podded Peas
  • Acorn Squash
  • Parsley
  • Sweet Potatoes
  • Brussels Sprouts
  • Soybean Sprouts
  • Green (Snap) Beans

But do not overeat calcium above 2,000 mg per day which can trigger kidney stones.

Take vitamin D

For the calcium absorption, you will require to take vitamin D which is a soluble fat vitamin. You can get vitamin D in foods such as fatty fish and dairy products and vegetables.

You can also get vitamin D by the sun exposure in the early morning. But you need to avoid too much sun exposure as it causes premature wrinkles and skin cancer.

You can take vitamin D supplement to fulfill the 800 to 1000IUs each day.

According to the research of Cochrane in 2014, vitamin D supplement contains calcium which is effective for recovering bone fractures including hip bones. Take only recommended amount of calcium supplement to avoid hypercalcemia in blood.

Avoid smoking

According to studies, smoking has a link with bone loss. The content of carcinogens in cigarette stimulate osteoclasts production which breaks down the bone cells. Smoking also causes bone quality damage.

Prevent falls

Be careful with your surrounding and watch for risks such as potholes, icy walkways, and rough sidewalks. Avoid clutter and be cautious around pets who make you fall down in a rough way. Roughly falling down can cause long-term injuries in hip bones. Avoid wearing high heel footwear which can cause to hurt bone and even it can make you fall down.

Bone density

Find out about your bone density. It’s important to know if you have osteoporosis such as small bones, white, thin. You will require to have a scan to find out bone density which helps to know how strong your bones and what the risk symptoms after any fracture.

Your family history of osteoporosis can be a risk factor. Apart from that menopause and previous fracture also the risk factors. Consult your doctor for further treatment and medicine to build the bone density.

Hip Pain Therapy

A long hour sitting or any injury may cause to damage or block blood flow in hips nerves. This pain can get relief from certain therapies.

The physical therapy for hips is aim to improve the everyday life quality by reducing the pain and raising mobility of the hip muscles.

The suitable condition for physical therapy

• Distance walking problem
• Difficulty while sitting on a chair
• Weakness or stiffness

Your doctor will suggest physical therapy after analyzing the range of motion, strength, functional abilities and balance while stair climbing and walking. It will help to plan the relevant treatment which relieves any pain in your hips and restore your hip muscles mobility.

Physical therapy to relieve the pain includes strengthening, stretching, gait training, joint stabilization, and balance training.

Ultrasound, ice, heat and electrical stimulation may be part of hips therapy. The physical therapist may suggest how to use assistive devices and orthotics.

There will be a comprehensive exercise program which helps to maintain daily life activities.

Change your shoes

Your shoes look good after some time but do you know they lose support after a walk of 400 miles. Bad shoes, uncomfortable shoes cause to hurt your arches, and you may feel pain from foot to hips.

Uncomfortable shoes cause to walk you side step which means bad shoes create an angle and push you to walk on sides of food. Walking on side feet pressurize your hips including knees and soles. This condition causes injury such as plantar fasciitis and muscle inflammations.

Bad shoes also unable to absorb less shock which makes harder to move for hips, knees, and ankles.

For managing good hips health, avoid prolonged sitting and physically exhausting activities which put more pressure on the hips.

Practice regular stretches and exercises to get back in good hip position.

However, don’t ignore hip health if you experience constant pain. Try consulting a chiropractor.

Eat healthy food and drink enough water for boosting good blood circulation in hips nerve and maintain a healthy lifestyle.