Aching hips

kgailloux

I need some advice - I am not a very athletic person!
I have been walk/jogging on my treadmill and my the back of my hips are beginning to ache. Are there any stretches that I could do to help alleviate this or do I should I push through?
Thanks.

riginthering

Many. Try these:

1) Sit cross-legged on the floor. Walk your hands forward, letting your head sink down. Focus on relaxing your back.
2) Lay on your back on a mat, with your knees pulled up to your chest. Keeping your knees together, slowly let your knees drop to your left until they touch the floor (or however close you can get) and relax. Bring your knees back up to center, then repeat on the right side.

My boxing instructor was also a yoga nerd, and he invented this, and it works really well: Get a large tube sock and drop two tennis balls into it. Knot the tube sock on the other side, so the tennis balls don't move around. Place the sock under your spine at the hips or below so one tennis ball falls on either side of the spine. Lay on it, focusing on making the muscle relax around the bump of the tennis ball. Gently rock up and down to really spread out the muscle.

gigglybeth

This might sound dumb, but check your shoes. When I first started working out my lower back down to my knees was in so much pain I could hardly walk. I changed shoes and it went away.

Cherimoose

Try this stretch:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2qZ517Rw7ME

Let us know if it helps.

daniellabella986

Make sure your shoes are in good condition - you might want to consider Dr. Scholl's fitness insoles, they helped me out a lot.

Try doing a child's pose but make sure your knees are wide and your feet are touching, so that you can come further forward. Another good stretch is to lie on your back on a mat or carpet, bend both knees, and put one leg over the other. Pull your legs forward and pull on the supporting knee. That will really help stretch out your hip flexors.

Good luck and feel better!

stepheatscake

Shoes are important. Whenever I haven't run for a while and then go for a jog on the treadmill my hips totally ache. Your body will get used to it! Trail running helps cause the ground is softer.

riginthering

Trail running helps cause the ground is softer.

Also, you can see if your local high school lets locals use their track after school hours. Good tracks are soft and bouncy!

FrnkLft

Back of hips sounds like a possible lower back problem to me. Is it above your butt? Make sure you've got good shoes on, and be careful with your stretching.

paladinmfp

I had a similar problem. After walking everyday for a month, both my feet hurt and my hips. I went to a podiatrist to get the feet sorted out. I got some orthotics that she modified slightly to account for one of my legs being slightly shorter (car accident result). That and a new pair of properly fitting shoes, eliminated the foot problem.

For the hips, mostly the left side for me, I went first to my doctor, who recommended physical therapy. The root of the problem was my piriformis
(https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&ved=0CC4QFjAA&url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piriformis_muscle&ei=IvPOUuuXMaP52QWMtoGICQ&usg=AFQjCNHWJ-dpWM9O8dFORlQ64yJjKLNudA&sig2=NXWZIBk99VeKFWShUOe0VA&bvm=bv.59026428,d.b2I)

The PT has been one who constantly pushes me to strengthen not only the affected muscle, but, all leg and hip muscles. He's included some abdominal muscle groups as well.

The thing that I learned, after doing daily walking, is that I needed to do some strength training as well, to be able to do more of the aerobic types of workouts. So, take it easy, and stretch, and do at least a little strength training.

BTW, I tried bicycle, rowing, and elliptical, in order to not stress the piriformis. It didn't help. The only aerobic exercises I could do was either swimming or just walking in the pool.
:bigsmile:

kgailloux

Thank you everyone for your suggestions. I will definitely be looking into getting some new runners and will start doing those stretches!
:flowerforyou:

Lesa_Sass

Google dynamic and static stretches for runners. Also, make sure your shoes are one size larger than your dress shoe. I did not know about that for many years and had quite a bit of pain in my hips knees and ankles before I was fitted for the correct shoes.

If that does not help, you may want to go have some blood work done and see if you possibly have any kind of inflammation issues.