I could not help but borrow Shakira’s song title for this latest article. She hit it on the head (of the femur) In case you’re wondering the femoral head is the ball of the hip joint.
As certified human movement specialist I see it on a regular basis. People complaining about dodgy knees or achy lower backs, over and above immobile hips.
This is especially prevalent in those who sit in chairs for long periods of time, and just in case you didn’t realise, driving counts as well. We might not realise but excessive sitting is severely compromising our wellness, especially if we aren’t making enough time for physical activity.
Most people just assume that its just part of the aging process, except guess what, it isn’t!
Knee issues and lower back issues are oft caused by lack of mobility in the hips, and as such, if we look to keep our hips mobile and able to do what they were made to do we can increase our quality of life immensely.
So why do our hips get so messed up due to the all the sitting? It is something related to Mother Nature striving to be more efficient. It’s known as specific adaptation to imposed demand (the SAID principle). Essentially it is a use it or lose it principle, where the body senses the movements that you do regularly and as such send’s nutrients to the parts of the body doing the movement and stops sending nutrients to movements and ranges of motion not being utilised. Think about it logically and it makes a huge deal of sense. Would you invest resources into something that is seldom or never used?
As odd as it sounds, the more you sit, the more efficient your body will become at sitting. The same goes for running or any movement for that matter. Now taking a runner that runs excessively and you notice that if not balanced out the excessive running leads to injuries, aches and pains. Now apply this to excessive sitting. Hello lower back pain, dodgy knees and stiff hips.
What can we do to ensure that our hips are healthy? In my opinion, diverse movements that get the hip moving through all of its ranges of motion is a great start. The hip joint just happens to be the second most mobile joint (after the shoulder) and as such does need to utilised in a way that gets it moving and signals nutrients to go to the joint.
I know what you’re thinking, “…but I don’t have time!..” The good news is that you don’t necessarily need large amounts time to work on your hips. If you’re a desk jockey, consider doing 5 to 10 minutes of movement for around 45 minutes of sitting. Your body and mind will thank you for this. Here’s a link to a sample that could give you ideas: https://youtu.be/7V0cu51vJGQ
If you’re not sure where to start, why not join us for a hip mobility workshop? We offer easy to implement movement practices that take as little as 3 minutes a day and is accessible to all body types and ages.