Exercises to Ease Hip Pain

If you’ve been suffering from hip pain, the chronic ache can sometimes seem like more than you can bear. Unfortunately, many who are diagnosed with arthritis report experiencing hip pain.

Whether your pain results from arthritis or some other issue, you’ll want to seek treatment to see what can be done to help. In the meantime, consider adding some exercises to your daily routine to help ease your pain.

Home Exercises to Help Ease Hip Pain

These safe and effective at-home exercises have been shown to lessen hip pain over time.

Knee Lifts

While lying on your back, extend your arms and legs flat against the floor. Keeping one leg straight, bend the other at the knee and lift that knee toward your chest, using your hands to help pull and increase tension. After holding the stretch for a count of ten, gently lower your leg to the floor.

Repeat with the other leg.

Run through this cycle upwards of ten times or until the stiffness in your hips begins to ease.  

Bridges

While you are still on the floor, take time to do a few bridges. Bridges can not only help ease pain and stiffness in your hips, but they also can help strengthen the muscles surrounding your joints. 

Still flat on your back, draw up your feet until they are flat on the floor, your knees bent at an angle. Turn your palms so that your hands are now flat on the floor. Lift your pelvis gently so that your lower back rises. Hold this position for at least a count of five before releasing, slowly lowering yourself back to your starting position.

Repeat this cycle up to ten times.

As your body becomes more acclimated to this exercise, you can increase the amount of time you hold your bridge. 

Butterfly Stretches

Named for the unique shape your body takes when you participate in this exercise, butterfly stretches are well-known for helping ease hip pain.

To complete a set of butterfly stretches, sit on the ground with your back straight. Draw your feet inward so that your knees point out and fall to the sides, while the soles of your feet touch.

Scoot your heels as close to your body as you can manage before gently pumping your legs up and down, perhaps even pressing with your elbows to increase the stretch.

Aim for twenty-five pumps before extending your legs to ease the tension.

Leg Swings

Leg swings are a great exercise for opening the hips and easing hip pain.

Be sure to stabilize your balance first by holding onto something stable, such as

• A counter
• The back of a chair
• A ballet barre

Once you’re standing in front of your brace, rest your weight on one foot. Lifting the other foot from the ground, begin to swing it side to side like a pendulum. After approximately a dozen repetitions, switch legs.

Before you’re finished, however, you’ll want to switch your stance so that you are now standing parallel to your brace. Once you’ve turned your body, swing your leg from front to back rather than side to side.

After a dozen reps with each leg, feel free to take a rest.

Contact AOA Ortho

Exercises are a good start but are not always sufficient to ease hip pain.

AOA Ortho provides innovative therapies to help reduce pain caused by arthritis and orthopedic conditions. Learn about our services and treatment offerings here. 

We look forward to serving you.