How To Stretch The Hips Video

The hips are a good place to start a massage. Get expert tips and advice on massage and other treatments in this video.

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Raise the knees
Pull leg toward you as you stretch
Gently rotate the leg
Perform stretches for 1 or 2 minutes

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Malu works for Retreat Massage Therapy as a massage therapist. She is well versed in techniques that are particularly helpful for athletes.

MALU LUJAN: Okay, so we are going to be stretching the hips and I am going to show you two techniques, one with the person laying on their back and one with the person laying on their stomach. The first technique, you ask your person to raise their knees up - so I am going to have you raise your knees, Sally. There you go - and she is going to cross her right leg over her left, but you can also do it for them if they are really tired. Let me get you tucked there. Okay. This is actually a yoga stretch and I am basically her--her left foot is flat on the table and this stretches the low back and the hips. It feels wonderful. And you just go as far as it is comfortable for that person. They will feel a little sort of strain in here. And sometimes it is a little bit uncomfortable if your hips are tight. That tells you that you are doing something that is really working for you. So that is the technique of stretching the hips with the person laying on their back. Now, we are going to show you with them laying on their stomach some techniques. Okay, so these are some techniques for stretching the hips with the person laying on their stomach. And what you want to do is just raise the foot up and their knee is flat on the table, and you are going to just gently rotate--I am going to ask Sally to just take a nice breath and exhale everything and relax. Sometimes they kind of want to help you, and anything you can do to get them to act like cooked spaghetti is really helpful. See how her hip joint is moving around when I do that. So do it about three times in one direction and then about three times in the other direction. And the other way that you can stretch the hip joint is just a gentle stretch. So take a nice deep breath, Sally, and exhale everything. And you can stretch their hip this way. This takes tension off of the lower back, the buttock muscles. It is a good way to stretch the IT band, everything that extends out from the hip, and it is a very good way to relax the hip joint. So those are some techniques for working on the hip joint. The stretches you tend to do for, you know, a minute or two, maybe three minutes. You do not have to spend a lot of time on it. You just want enough time for the person to relax into that stretch and feel like they got a little bit of tension relieved from the stretch.

How to Stretch the Hips Video

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