The hidden victim of the epidemic – the hips

We hear it all the time core strength is essential to athletic performance, reduce the risk of infection and live a healthy life. But what most people don’t realize is that the psoas and iliac muscles are also considered cardiac muscles. Like the other muscles that make up the heart, if the muscles working in the hips aren’t in good health, you’ll soon know about them.

Back pain, knee pain, shin splints, IT band friction syndrome, plantar fasciitis, and all kinds of other aches and pains often stem from the hips.

The muscles around your hips are what support your torso and pelvis, creating a strong foundation for your limbs to move around. When these muscles (mainly the lumbar, iliac, and gluteus maximus) aren’t in good shape, you won’t have the strong foundation you need, which means other parts of the body have to pick up the slack. When these other muscles do a lot of compensation, repetitive strain injuries can soon result.

“Stretching and strengthening my hips helps me feel confident in any movement. I know that I am much less likely to get injured.” –Kelly MacDonald, Personal Trainer and Creator of LES MILLS STRETCH™

By strengthening the muscles around your hips, you can not only reduce the risk of injury, but also improve your athletic abilities. Build strong butt muscles Strengthening and stretching your hip muscles helps transfer force across your upper and lower body, so you can move more aggressively. This means running faster, jumping higher and performing better.

Ask Bryce Hastings, Physiotherapist and Head of Research at Les Mills, about Most useful extensions For many, he says, it’s hard to beat the focus on the quadriceps. “We only have 10-15 degrees of extension available at the hip (where the thigh moves behind the body) and we use all that movement every time we take a step. Compare this to the hamstrings, which typically allow 90 degrees of hip flexion, which we only use about 30 A degree when we walk or run. Therefore, a loss of 10 degrees of hamstring length is generally OK, while a loss of 10 degrees of lumbar length is a real problem. Any shortening of these muscles transmits the movement that should occur in the hip down noon during each step, and this is a disaster.”

If your hips are tight, your movement is less, which makes even the simplest of movements — such as walking or pushing the stroller — painful. A tightened hip can also lead to pelvic tilts, affecting both your posture and the straightening of your head and neck. bad posture is related Stress And the depressionwhile neck alignment problems can lead to headache.

Post-pandemic hip health is more important than ever

while we know The dangers of sitting for long periodsFor many, the restrictions caused by the pandemic mean we are spending more time than ever before at home working and sitting on our bottoms. a recent study She identified prolonged sitting as one of the main causes of pain and discomfort caused by limited hip extension. The hips are contracting whenever you sit, and the quadriceps (the large, strong muscles at the front of the hip) are in a short position. In as little as 30 minutes, that muscle tension can become a problem. You experience a loss of flexibility in the muscles, and as you age, this can become more noticeable and the muscles become less flexible.

Signs you need to lengthen your hips

“We know it’s important to drink water, brush our teeth, and get five or more,” says Kelly MacDonald, personal trainer and creator of LES MILLS STRETCH™. [vegetables and fruit] daily to maintain our health. It is important to stretch, especially the hips, because they are the central points of your body that take a lot of the load every day.” She adds that if you are dealing with any of the following situations, you will definitely benefit from a hip lift.

• Sitting for more than four hours a day
• Low back or knee pain
• No pinching or pain in the hips
• Feeling restricted when moving
• If you struggle to touch your toes.

Do your hips catch your feelings?

It’s not just your physical body that benefits from the strength of your hips, your hip health can affect your emotional health as well. While there is a fair amount of controversial and widespread thinking on the subject, it has been shown that people associate different emotions with different areas of the body, and the hips are where some people think holds a lot of emotional stress. While the relationship between feelings of stress and where we feel in our bodies needs further research, there is no doubt that the physical, emotional, and environmental stresses we all experience can affect the way we live.

With that in mind, the sun salutations, pelvic lengthening exercises, and hip-opening poses you do in your yoga and BODYBALANCE™ sessions may not only release physical tension, but relieve mental stress as well.

And of course, yoga isn’t the only option. Lunges And the squat All are beneficial for hip health, as is stretching. If you want to take action and enjoy the benefits now, you can join Kelly MacDonald for 15 minutes Hip treadmill-less session.

This article originally appeared in www.lesmills.com/fit-planet