When you think of someone who looks old or moves like they’re old, what comes to mind?
Slouched, bent forward posture with a forward head?
Difficulty with balance?
Stiff and creaky joints?
Hips and knees that won’t straighten?
If you sit for several hours a day but don’t give your hips and spine the opportunity to stretch into their full range of motion, then congratulations…you’re on your way to wearing that “old” badge.
Yeah, you know that feeling…when you have been sitting a bit too long and those first few steps have you moving like Grandpa Joe or Granny Mae.
If you’re an athlete and you can’t rotate the hips (think golf, tennis, etc.), where are the forces going to be transferred….yup…the low back.
If you’re a runner and your knees are hurting, check the hips as guarding and tightness here will affect the alignment and joint mechanics of the entire lower body during your gait cycle.
Now that you have a taste of how lacking mobility & flexibility in the hips can affect the function of other joints, the question to ask yourself is this:
“How can I keep the hips moving so that I can keep moving?”
Since I don’t think anyone is ready to prematurely be called old or worse yet…feel old…I’m going to share a free 15 min series of Pilates hip mobility exercises that you can do using a foam roller that are great to keep you on that path to the fountain of youth. These can be found inside the Free ProBalanceTV Portal under the category “Mini Workouts.” This15 minute hip flexibility workout which is set in real time so you can exercise along with the video and let me know what you think.