Today, I will share several exercises that will help you squat without hip pain.
Enjoy!
CLICK HERE to watch the YouTube video.
I had Alix demonstrate the exercises to solve hip pain during squats
1. Standing Hip Flexor Stretch
Begin in an upright standing position with your hands on your hips to help with balance. Take a step forward or back with one leg. Tighten your abdominal area. Bend the knee of your front leg, keep your front foot flat and push your hips forward slightly. Stand on the ball of your foot with your back leg, with your knee bent slightly. Look for a stretch in the hip and quad areas. Loosening up those two areas will help in solving hip pain from squatting.
Standing Hip Flexor Stretch
Perform one set of 2 repetitions with a 20-second hold. The intensity is light for this static stretch.
2. Hip Hinging From Knees
Start in a kneeling position with your hands on your hips and your legs hip-width apart. Tighten your abdominal area, bend through the hips and raise back up. Bring your upper body forward and then return to the starting position.
Hip Hinging From Knees
Perform one set of 5 repetitions. This should be done in a smooth, controlled movement with a good stop at the end for 1 second. The intensity is light. The purpose of this exercise is to train the body on proper hip hinging; we want the hips to move back and the upper body to go forward properly. Proper hip-hinging patterns help relieve hip pain from squatting.
3. Hip Bridging
Lie on the ground with your hands to the side. Relax your upper body. Bend your knees, tighten up your abdominal area and keep your feet flat on the ground. Push through the heels and lift your hips up. Stop at the top position, where your hips, knees and shoulders are in a straight line. Hold that position for a couple of seconds. Bring your hips back down, relax, and then repeat the movement.
Hip Bridging
Perform one set of 5 repetitions in a smooth, controlled movement with a good stop at the top. The intensity can be light to moderate, depending on your fitness level.
The purpose of this exercise is to activate the glutes and hamstrings, which helps decrease the stress on the front of the hip. It also provides a bit of a stretch in the front of the hip by bringing the hips up as it contracts the glutes and stretches the quad and hip areas.
4. Standing Back Arches
Begin in an upright standing position, with your legs underneath your hips and your hands on your hips. Push your hips forward with your hands and slowly arch through your low back and mid-back.
Standing Back Arches
Perform one set of 5 repetitions in a smooth, controlled movement, with a good stop at the end position. The intensity is light. The purpose of this exercise is to work on the mobility or movement in the low back area.
Often, when we sit too much, we lose proper movement in the lower lumbar spine that affects our squatting movement and puts more stress on the hips. If we have poor movement in the back, another joint has to pick up the stress and, often, that’s the hips or the knees. This is the importance of improving the mobility in the spine to decrease hip pain during squats.
5. Loaded Deep Squat
For this exercise, you can use a dumbbell, a kettlebell, or a plate. Begin in a standing position with a good wide stance. Grab the weight and hold it close to your body. Squat down as deep as you can. Place your elbows to the inside of your knees when holding the weight and keep the weight down so that it loads up into your hips.
Loaded Deep Squat
Perform one set of 2 repetitions with a 20-second hold. The intensity is light. The purpose of this exercise is to stretch the muscles around the hips statically.
When we sit or have had a previous injury, we lose proper movement in the hip, especially during deep squatting movements. With the loaded deep squat exercise, we are getting into the squatting position and adding load into it to stretch out the muscles around the hips and the tissues around the hips.
Give these five exercises to solve hip pain during squats a go. They are quick, easy exercises to help solve hip pain that you get from squatting.
If you want to decrease or even eliminate hip and lower back pain permanently, then click here to check out the Gluteus Medius Exercises program!
Take care!
Rick Kaselj, MS