Hip pain can prove to be quite debilitating at times, and you may find that it gets in the way of you doing your day to day activities.
The problem that people have is that the options that are offered for dealing with hip pain aren’t always idea. Sure, you can opt for hip surgery, but that is very invasive and has a lot of risks involved with it.
Then, you have the option of taking prescription narcotic pain relievers to help you with the pain, but that doesn’t really fix the condition, but rather covers it up.
Lets take a closer look at how you can use methods, like yoga, to help you relieve your pain without resorting to any invasive procedures and addictive prescription medications.
Understanding the Cause of Your Hip Pain
The first thing that you must do is understand why you are having hip pain. Sometimes, the source of the pain may not really be as clear as you would like for it to be.
Many times, it is caused by your hip flexor and some type of issue that is going on with it. Your hip flexor is actually the group of muscles that helps you move your knees, stand, sit and walk. But, what actually makes you have the pain?
Your hip flexor can often times be shortened and tightened, especially if you spend a lot of your time sitting down.
Those that work in an office may have a lot of trouble with this, and may find themselves having a lot more pain than someone that stands up for the majority of the day.
The key is to stretch this muscle often so that you can ensure that you have the flexibility that you need in order to prevent the hip and back pain that can be associated with your hip flexor.
How Your Hip Flexors Work
Hip flexors are made up of a group of muscles, and they include the psoas major, psoas minor, illiacus muscle, sartoris, quadriceps, muscle tensor fasciae latae, pectineus, adductor longus/brevis and the gracilis.
Since there are so many muscles that make up this group, it is easy to see why so many people suffer from pain in their hips.
All of these muscles work together, but if they aren’t working together properly you will have a lot of issues with your overall posture, and you may have stiffness and other concerns that cause you a great deal of pain in your hip region.
Treating Hip Pain Effectively with Yoga
No one really want to throw out all of their chairs and stand up all day, because that would just be absurd. You can actually gain a lot of flexibility and really benefit your hip flexors by doing some yoga poses that are made to target the hips.
There are so many different yoga poses for you to consider, but some of the most common that work well for hip pain include the Warrior I, Warrior II, Triangle, Lunge and Pigeon.
These exercises target the muscles in your inner and front thighs, knees and hips. That can give you overall better feeling in your legs and hips as well.
What if You Don’t Know How to Do Yoga?
If you have never done any yoga exercises before, then you will probably not even know where to get started. Some of these exercise names may seem like foreign language even.
If you don’t know how to do yoga, then you may want to take up a class or get a video to help you get started.
If you don’t want to do all that, you can even look up simple how to steps online that will walk you through each of the yoga poses. It really isn’t difficult, if you take the time to practice it.
What Do You Need to Get Started?
It is a common misconception that you need specialized equipment to do yoga. It isn’t the case at all. In fact, most people have found that they were able to practice yoga in the comforts of their own home.
So, what about a yoga mat and the other equipment? Yoga mats can really be helpful to you, because they will allow you to get the support that your body needs while practicing yoga, but they aren’t essential.
Don’t put it off just because you don’t have a yoga mat- because you don’t have to have one to do effective yoga exercises.
