Struggle with tight and stiff joints?
A lot of my clients complain of tight joints. Saying that they stretch and stretch and, while they may feel better in the moment, never seem able to get long lasting relief. Does this sound familiar?
This is not only due to the inability to actually move through these ranges in day to day activities, but also the lack of variability in movement to be able to express these motions. For example, if we only bend our hips forward and back (flexion and extension) all the time, but never learn to rotate our hips (internal and external rotation), move the leg out and in (abduction and adduction).
Frequency Rather than duration for mobility.
With our more sedentary lifestyle we often don’t move frequently enough. We would be much better off having small movement breaks in our day to encourage movement. This can be as short as 30-60 seconds in a movement you struggle with and doing it 3-5 times a day, instead of doing a laborious 30 minute routine, to get similar feelings.
Joint motion increases Synovial fluid.
Studies have shown, range of motion exercises stimulates the production of synovial fluid, which contains micro-nutrients which helps to protect the articular cartilage and also helps to transport nutrients to cartilage. [1]
Synovial fluid is a thick fluid with a egg-white like consistency, that lubricates and decreases friction in joints. The production of synovial fluid is maintained by regular movement of the joints. It is essential to keep this movement, as we age the production of synovial fluid decreases.
Flexible people still feel very tight!
I see a lot of dancers, yogis and seasoned pilates practitioners that are extremely flexible in their hips, that still complain of tightness in and around their hips. This is due to their focus on getting flexible, and focusing their time on the very end range of motion. They often miss the control and ability to access all the range of motion by themselves. This will not nourish the joints and musculature in all ranges of motion.
Don’t try and work on just your end ranges and big stretches to get better hip mobility!
People will often go to extreme ranges to feel a big stretch to gain mobility. This requires them to be aided with equipment, tools, bands to get into and out of the position. Only working on those extreme positions, doesn’t teach the body to have control of those mid ranges and increase the variable movement.
I would recommend making sure you have control of those midranges first, then progression getting into, and out of those ranges.
Express the ranges at different speeds
We need to start slow but then we need to be able to get into deeper ranges at faster speeds to be able to use them during every day activities. Examples of different hip movements at speed include drop lunges, side to side jumps controlling the pelvis that comes over the landing leg, rotation based medicine ball throws controlling rotation of the hips.
It is essential to access these ranges under different forces, that one day we will need to like when we are running after our kids, when we slip and fall or when we need to duck from swooping birds.
Try these hip mobility exercises to start with to achieve smooth moving hips!
Meet Colin
Colin Trigellis-Smith is an osteopathic practitioner who helps his clients move better with personalized treatment plans that relieve stiffness, increase range of motion and improve mobility.
