You’ve probably read it online or heard it from your doctor: If you have hip pain, you should exercise. Exercising improves the strength and flexibility of the muscles, ligaments and tendons in and around your hips. This helps improve your body’s structural support for the hips and improves their range of motion. However, it can be challenging to decide which exercises to do and how to safely do them.

Whether you have bursitis, tendinitis or arthritis, it’s important for you to get in some amount of exercising if you want to reduce pain in your hips. Take a look below for some examples of exercises to avoid so you don’t make your pain worse and exercises to try that should help reduce your pain.

Hip pain exercises to avoid

• Standing exercises — Exercising while standing puts additional strain on your hips that could make your pain worse. Aim for exercises that have you sit or lie down. You could even exercise in the water to help support your body weight and reduce pressure off the hips.
• Weight-bearing exercises — As standing puts additional strain on your hips, so does using weights or devices that impose resistance requiring you to bear more weight. Adding additional weight to the hips can make your pain and stiffness worse rather than helping to make it better.

Hip pain exercises to try

• Butterfly stretches — This exercise stretches the muscles running along your inner thigh that are connected to the function of your hips. Sit on the ground and place the bottoms of your feet together in front of you. Keep your back straight and gently push down on your knees until you feel your groin and inner thigh stretch. Hold this position for a few seconds and release. Repeat three to five times.
• Hamstring stretches — Sit on the ground with your legs out in front of you. Bend one leg up toward you at the knee and place the bottom of your foot on the inside of the thigh of your other leg that’s still flat on the ground. Lean forward while trying to keep your back straight. You should feel the muscles along the back of your thigh stretch. Switch legs and repeat two or three times with each leg.

Visit Rehab Access for hip pain treatment

Are you tired of hip pain getting in the way of your ability to enjoy physical activities or have fun with your friends and family? Our physical therapists at Rehab Access can guide you through exercises and use other techniques to help reduce your hip pain. Contact our team today for more information about hip pain treatment or to schedule an initial appointment.