Hey, this is Jennifer Dean from JenniferDeanwellness.com where I've made it my mission to help women
just like you to live a life of health, happiness and self-love.
You're joining me today for a workout to release tight hips.
So I know how frustrating it can be when your hips feel really tight and your low back feels
really tight and stiff and you feel like you've lost a lot of mobility.
Perhaps you're wanting to go out and be active every day but you find it so hard to do because
you have a very small range of motion.
So what I'm going to show you today is three moves to help you release those hips and these
are things that you can do on an every single day basis and with continuation hopefully
they'll start to feel much better within the next couple of weeks.
So I'm using a couple of different props for this workout today.
I've got a small therapy ball but you could also use a tennis ball or a lacrosse ball.
I've got a foam roller and as you can see mine is chopped off so if you have a full-length
foam roller that would be better and also a chair.
So I think let's just get started.
We're going to come up and bring our ball with us and come on over to the wall.
So for our first move we're using the ball.
It could be a tennis ball, a lacrosse ball or one of these massage balls that I've got
and we're going to be working into the side of the hip.
So what I want you to do is put the ball against the wall at about a low hip height
and then press the side of your glute muscle into there.
So you'll find there's this soft fleshy part of your bum and that's exactly what we want
to be pushing into the ball.
Then just bend into the knee and start to roll around a little bit and all I want you
to do at the beginning is just to explore how this feels rubbing into the side of the
hip and I want you to find this really tender spot where you're holding the most tension.
As soon as you find it you're going to know, you're going to be like, oh my gosh, that's
that place that I'm trying to find.
So once you've found that then really focus on drawing small circles around just in that
area.
It's kind of like you're dancing or shrugging up against the wall and let's reverse those
circles, put as much pressure into the ball as you can comfortably handle.
Well I've got pretty tight hips so this is very tender for me but it's such a good one
because it's actually helping us release the fascia which is the connective tissue that
wraps around the muscle.
When you go and get a professional massage that's what they're doing, they're releasing
fascia and then when you're stretching later on which we'll do in our second exercise you're
going to get even more benefit from it.
So once you've done circles in both directions just pause for a moment and I just want you
to lean into that ball and take some really deep breaths.
When we stretch we need to send oxygen into the muscle to let it relax so fill up with
an inhale and send that exhale directly into the side of your hip and then hold onto the
ball and just step away from the wall.
So for this one you can do it for up to three minutes just really digging in there, getting
into the side of the bum and then make sure that you do do the other side as well.
So let's move on to our next exercise we're going to use the chair.
Okay so now that we've rolled out into the side of our hips and we've released some of
that fascia we're going to stretch our hips.
Start seated on the chair and then I want you to pick up your left leg and just cross
it over placing the ankle above the knee.
Now like I mentioned I do have quite tight hips as well so I'm not going to force my
knee to come all the way down to parallel because it doesn't feel so good.
So if your knees angle a little bit high that's okay.
Over time it's going to melt open a little bit more as you become more flexible.
Let's pull the toes back towards the shins so we're flexing the foot and protecting
the knee and then place the hands on the front of the chair.
Lengthen up through your spine as much as you can then keep your hips down so you're
sitting on your sitting bones but start to lean your spine forward to me as though you're
reaching your breastbone forward past your leg.
When you can't go any further you'll feel that increase in stretch.
Just pause right there and then pop the arms onto the shin and then just relax the head
and the shoulders.
What I don't want to see is you're trying to collapse down like this but say nice and
lift it up through the spine and just let gravity melt that leg down into the stretch.
For today this is just a demonstration so let's just hold it for two more breaths using
those exhales to relax the muscle and then bring the body back up and place the foot
down onto the floor.
We'll come over to the other side so pick up the leg, cross the ankle, lengthen the
spine and then lean forward until you feel that deepening of the stretch.
It shouldn't be achy, it shouldn't be shaky, just go to where you feel a little bit more
resistance but that you could comfortably stay.
We're then going to pop the hands onto the leg and just relax through the shoulders,
relax through the neck.
So when you're stretching you want to find that first point of resistance then stop there
and use your breath to relax the muscle.
Once you no longer feel the stretch you can lean in a little bit more but you never want
to push past the comfortable position.
And then let's bring the spine up and place the foot down.
So with that move you can hold on to that for anywhere from 30 to 60 seconds and if
your hips are really tight I would recommend going right side, left side and then repeating
right side, left side.
Okay let's move on to our third and final move, we're going to use our foam roller and
the mat.
So you're laying onto your back and you've got the soles of the feet onto the roller,
the knees are together.
First let the knees open out to the side in a butterfly stretch, they're falling down
towards the floor.
Then we're going to push the legs to straight, the roller will roll away from you, roll the
legs into internal rotation, turn them back open, pull back into butterfly stretch and
then bring the knees up together.
Let's do that again slowly so open the knees out to the side and then press the roller
away to straighten your knees, roll the inner thighs inwards, roll them open, pull the roller
back in and close the knees together.
Just keep on moving with this, I know it's a little bit more choreography but if you
just relax, don't rush, the legs will do what they're supposed to do.
What's really nice here is that we're letting the groin open, we're letting the hips and
the pelvis relax and we're moving our thigh bones around in slightly different positions
than they would normally be as you walk and sit in your everyday life so this is really
relaxing for the hips.
Let's just take this one more time and then once the legs press out to straight you can
stay there and they want you to keep the legs in external rotation so that means the inner
thigh points to the ceiling and the feet point out to the side.
Place your arms down by the side with the palms facing upwards and take a nice big breath
in and a nice long exhale and just relax your spine against the floor.
Keeping your eyes closed you can bend your knees out to the side back into that butterfly
stretch and we'll pause again here, take another big breath in through the nose and a long
exhale through the mouth and then fold the knees together and draw the knees in towards
the chest melting the low back onto the ground.
Carefully make your way up to seated and then that's the workout done for today.
So I would recommend choosing at least one of these moves to do everyday but preferably
putting them all together in the sequence.
For this last move on the foam roller you can do that for as long as you want, it feels
so good but perhaps 10 to 15 repetitions in the morning once you get out of bed or in
the evening would be ideal.
So thanks so much for joining me today, I hope that you enjoyed the workout.
Please subscribe to my YouTube channel and then come on over to jennifereadinewellness.com
where every week I'm releasing new content to help you feel fit, feminine and fabulous
after 40.
I can't wait to see you there.
