I have a pair of female athletes who are somewhat immobile in their hips. They can both squat to parallel or below with good technique and no pain discomfort. When we do our dynamic warm-up the walking knee hug causes their hip to “tighten up.” If I am stretching them out on the ground, even a glute stretch by bringing their knee to the opposite shoulder causes this “pinching” discomfort.
Any ideas on what’s locked up to cause this immoblility? Any help would be appreciated. Thank you.
Probably glute medius (and possibly minimus) compressing the head of the femur into the acetabulum. Try to get something like an old (soft) tennis ball and have them get on it foam roller style roll it in a half-moon pattern around the backside of their greater trochanter (hip bone). You can also actually use a foam roller to get the bulk of the glute med but you can get more specific with a ball.
This happens to me…when I do knee to chest stretch my hip pinches… when i squat deep it pinches. When I stand and slowly flex each hip, my pinching one can’t come up as high. Glute med is often the fix in that case.
Ok, I’ll try that. I know when I have them do certain glute stretches they say it really pulls. We’ve been doing some hip ROM drills and I think that may help to loosen the tightness up a bit, but I don’t think it’s an answer to the problem.
Make sure they include areas around the trochanter as well as up to near the iliac crest to get the rest of the muscle.
By the way, if you’re doing the knee to the opposite shoulder stretch on the ground as seen in GPP DVD or the AthletesNation DVD, that does pinch some peoples’ hips. Everyone is different. Some individuals just need less adduction and more external rotation (of the femur).
If they can sit in a full squat position I’m curious why you are trying to increase hip mobility further?
How is this going to increase their performance?
Well, one of the athletes in her full squat position has somewhat of an excessive forward lean so I’m sure it’s all linked together. I have noticed that a kneeling hip flexor stretch between sets of squats shows some improvements in the later sets. My reasoning behind more ROM exercises were to try and loosen up the hips, but from all of this, it would seem that the locked glutes would definitely play a role in this.
This is the first semester I have worked with these athletes. I was told their coach was somewhat against squating and cleaning and more into conditioning…so yeah. Now there are about 5 athletes with lower back issues and basically they are just not strong so the back issues don’t surprise me. However, I think we are in a good direction addressing all of these issues now.
Well, I would just have her/them sit in a full squat position while holding on to a base of support to help keep more of an upright posture. This will help activate/strengthen the psoas (not active till above 90 degrees of hip flexion) which will in effect loosen up other hip flexors. Specifically, the rectus femoris. Sitting in a full squat also stretches the glutes and lower back (therefore, don’t want to be in too upright of a position, you want some kyphosis in the lower back which is natural during the full squat). Activating the psoas, loosening up the RF, lengthening the spinal erectors (which I’m assumming will help you out here although not definitively as you didn’t mention tightness here) will all help to loosen/wake up the glutes.
And unless you have hurdlers or some other specific case I don’t see the need for more hip mobility.
Excellent. Careful on the psoas stuff though as he shows it. You can get psoas with a ball too (laying on it in cobra pushup position) which is safer than sticking a theracane into it. First things first though.
I feel sorry for their boyfriends.
I got neg repped for my post… ouch… hurtful.
Thanks Drew, that will help. Appreciate it!
The problem is addressable to an anterior hip joint subluxation and anterior/rotated innominate.
A specific manipulation/mobilization and then corrective stretching can be a solution.
See a chiro and then do specific stretching (pnf is better) for quadratus lumborum, psoas, adductors, TFL, piriformis, quads.
AIS stretching can be a successive step for enhance mobility.
I just stumbled upon this thread. Anyways, are you trying to say that hip impingement may simply be caused by a tight glute med. ??
If so, would you suggest that rather than hip impingement being caused by an overgrowth of the bone in the hip, you would say that the cause is rather a misalignment of the hip?
I am saying sometimes it is exacerbated by muscles excessively forcing the head of the femur into the acetabulum.
Mortac’s suggestion would be the first thing most would suggest, and will proabably reduce symptoms. In my experience though, that pinching sensation has come from a weak psoas on that side, and then adductors and sartorius get nicely balled up due to picking up the slack. I am assuming an anterior pinch.
I would also try some STM on adductors and sartorius after you had a look at the posterior side as Mortac suggested. The symptomatic side will be painful in them areas upon touch, but not on the other side. Free them up, and obviously check for psoas weakness.
a number of the guys at elitefts.com use this warmup for tight hips and glutes.
http://www.defrancostraining.com/ask_joe/archives/ask_joe_08-10-03.html#question04
Weak or Crazy tight or both? I find they get crazy tight, then a long time in being tight causes them to be Weak even once relaxed.
Also, the TFL gets crazy tight. Even tight thighs n hammies left untreated cause all sorts of issues.
Best i found, check all muscles that have anything to do with the hip area - and treat. If its attached to the hip, check and fix.