Let’s be honest, this is nearly all of us.
- Sitting to eat
- Sitting to work
- Sitting to use a toilet
- Sitting to drive to work
- Sitting to have meetings
- Sitting to drive back home
- Sitting to study, watch tv, talk
- Sitting has become a part of our lives.
Sitting for a long time can create unhealthy hips and lower back.
What do we mean by ‘healthy’ hips and lower back?
We’ll use the definition of HEALTH as:
- a state of well-being where one can adapt to or overcome challenges, having resilience and ability to bounce back from difficult situations
Mental health would mean being able to adapt to:
- a stressful day
- a stressful situation
- a triggering experience
- and managing challenging emotions
Overall physical health would mean being the ability to bounce back from:
- a physically demanding day
- fighting off a potential cold your kids have
- properly removing toxins or pollutants from your body
Healthy lower back and hips would mean being able to adapt to:
- Walking for miles without the muscles seizing up
- Lifting and setting down moderately heavy objects without injury
- Lunges, squating, stepping onto a high step and all sorts of normal(recreational) movements your body should be able to do, without injury or pain
Yes, sitting is convenient, more comfortable than a stand up desk and necessary to work long hours...
But if you put your body in a certain position for long periods of time..
It molds itself into that position.
This can create problems, not only for your hip and lower back, but eventually other parts of your body:
- Upper back & neck
- Even your knees & ankles
- After long enough, feet & shoulders
Your hip and lower back don’t just get tight, they get tight from weakness.
Let's fix that.
Step 1: Walk
Walking is your first ‘step’ (pun intended)
Walking is a significant developmental milestone for a human baby!
As simple as it seems, walking uses all of the muscles in your legs, hips and lower back.
You use these muscles to stabilize, push off, and absorb your body weight.
How to:
- Take a break from sitting every hour or two to walk for 5-10 minutes
- It doesn’t have to be a power walk with 2 pound dumbbells and a headband
- Take a few laps around the office, outside of the building or the block if you WFH
Step 2: Stretch
If you already have tightness and weakness, just walking more won’t fix the issue.
We want to first fix the tightness, then strengthen them.
Stretch, then Strengthen!
I wanted to say if you’re 30+ years old, you likely need more stretching.
But with funding cuts for PE classes, classroom time, studying and technology…
We’re seeing more orthopedic issues in teens and young adults.
Keep it simple and start with static stretches where you hold these stretches anywhere from 30 seconds to 1 minute.
How to: 2 main stretches and 3 bonus stretches
Hip Flexor / Front of Your Hips
These groups of muscles are the first area we would tackle because this area is bent or shortened the most when you sit.
If you want the advanced version, do the Couch Stretch.
You can stretch your hip flexors and quads together!
Glutes
Simply, your butt muscles.
You can do the glute stretch in a Pigeon Pose, either on the floor or on an elevated surface.
*Bonus
Groin / Inner Thigh
Like the other stretches, ease into the stretch so you don’t strain your muscle.
Hamstring and Quads
Your hamstrings connect to the back of your hips and your quads connect to the front of your hips.
So while they are further from your hips, they are important to stretch for hip health.
Step 3 - Strengthen
While you can progress to doing these exercises with weights and added resistance…
We’ll stick to activating the muscles we stretched for Part 1 of our Hips and Lower back tutorial.
How to: 3 main exercises and 2 bonus exercises
Cat Cow
We didn’t include a static stretch for your lower back due to the risk of over-stretching it.
You can add a side bend to level up your Cat Cow exercise.
Instead we’ll use this exercise to help create movement while loosening up the muscle near your lower back.
Hip Flexion
Hold onto a table or wall and bring your knee up slowly and as high as you can.
Squats
Sit onto a chair or with assistance to squat to or below parallel.
Standing Kickback
Hold onto a table or wall and push your foot back while keeping your leg straight.
Side Lunge or Wide Squat
Keep your side lunge shallow until you get stronger
Or opt to do wide squats for a similar effect.
RECAP
1. WALK
5-10 minute walk breaks every 1-2 hours of sitting
2. STRETCHES (hold each stretch 30-60s.)
Hip Flexor
Glute / Pigeon
3. STRENGTH / MOBILITY (10-15 reps each exercise)
Cat Cow
Hip Flexion
Squats
*BONUS
Stretch - Groin, Hamstrings, Quads
Strength - Kickback, Side Lunge or Wide Squats
You won’t fix years of sitting in one day, but do them consistently to start the process.
If you need help applying these tips, click the button below to talk with a coach!
