Fewer Painkiller Deaths in Medical Marijuana States Home Remedies for Hip Pain Are You Headed for Hip Pain? 10 Types of Pain and How You Can Get Relief Sign Up for Our Living with Chronic Pain NewsletterThanks for signing up!Sign up for more FREE Everyday Health newsletters.SubmitWe respect your privacy.After a long day at work, you might look forward to relaxing with friends or family, or maybe getting a good workout at the gym. But if sitting at your desk for hours makes your hip pain unbearable by day’s end, your plans might be limited to crawling to your couch to nurse your sore hip.Try some simple, quick exercises at your desk that will help ease hip pain.Hip Pain: Exercises That Help"When hip pain becomes a problem, you need to keep your core strong,” says Rochelle Rosian, MD, a rheumatologist with the Cleveland Clinic in Solon, Ohio.Working the quadriceps muscles on the front of your thighs, stretching your hamstrings (the back of your thighs), and doing squats can also help alleviate hip pain.
Each of these exercises only takes a few minutes, and can be done quickly and easily a couple times a day.Deep hamstring stretch: Stand up next to your desk, with your right leg stretched in front of your left (standing with your legs like open scissors).Put both hands on your right thigh, bend your left knee, and bend forward.Bend a little deeper at your middle and press a little deeper over your left knee until you feel a deep stretch in your right hamstring. Hold that pose between 10 and 15 seconds, and then switch to the other leg.Quadriceps stretchStanding beside your desk, bend your left leg back at the knee and bring your heel to your bottom. Keep your knees together and grab your foot with your left hand.Stretch the thigh more deeply by pulling your foot closer to your bottom, but stop at the point that it hurts.Repeat a few times until your thigh feels loosened; try to get your heel to touch your bottom.Repeat with your right leg.Wall sitsStand with your back against a wall, with feet slightly apart and about 16 inches away from the wall.
Slowly bend your knees until they are at about a 90-degree angle (no more) with your thighs, and you're sitting in an imaginary chair with your back leaning against the wall.Hold for 30 seconds, then slide your back up the wall to return to a standing position with your legs straight.Curling hamstringsStand behind your desk chair, resting your hands on the top of the chair for balance.Standing on your left leg with the left knee slightly bent, curl your right foot behind you.Curl your foot until your heel touches your bottom, then straighten the leg and put your foot back on the floor.Repeat between 12 and 15 times with each leg.Sitting hamstring stretchSitting in your desk chair, slide both hands, palm-up, beneath your right thigh.Pull your knee into your chest, and stretch your leg out in front of you.Repeat between three and five times for each leg.Taking a break every few hours to do these simple movements will keep tension from building and help keep you limber throughout the day.Do you really think that good office chairs do not cause hip pain?
If you do, the reality is going to surprise you. Chair manufacturers may sweet talk you all they want, but the fact of the matter is that even the most comfortable office chairs can make your hip area sore after a long day of work. Sounds a bit scary, doesn’t it! Well, office chairs cause hip pain mainly due to two reasons: the presence of a contoured seat, and the use of a wrong hip-joint angle. Let us understand what these two are all about.1. The presence of a contoured seatContoured or sculpted seats, like the ones that have the sides slightly raised than the middle, are not at all good for hip health. In most cases, office chairs that feature contoured seats have the ability to impart hip pain. This fact is not known too widely. And that is the reason why so many people make the mistake of purchasing a chair with a contoured seat in the first place, only to change it later again with another similar model. These people, without knowing what they are getting into, keep making the same mistake again and again.
The good news is, even if you own a contoured chair, you can adjust it to make it less severe for your hips. You can carefully fold a towel or take a pillow, and put it in the contoured region to make the sitting area flat or level. If money is not a problem, you can even go a step further and replace your contoured chair with one that has a flat seat. However, the latter option may not be too practical for many, since most good office chairs that have flat seats cost a lot of money.2. The use of a wrong hip-joint angleHip pain can occur if you rely on a bad hip-joint angle, too. Hip-joint angle is the angle your hip makes with your trunk when you sit on a chair. A bad hip-joint angle can not only cause hip pain, but can also lead to several other health issues. So what is a good hip-joint angle? One study found that the ideal hip joint angle is 135 degrees. Does that seem like a surprise? If yes, you are not alone. Most people expect the answer to be 90 degrees! Anyway, if you want to achieve the ideal angle of 135 degrees when sitting on your chair, the best thing you can do is notice the position of your knees relative to your hips.
If you find that your knees stay at a higher level compared to your hips when sitting, then you need to lower your chair a bit. It is truly fascinating that most people do not even consider something as important as hip-joint angle when sitting on a chair. Let alone that, many even do not bother to look at the various adjustments available in a chair before buying it. They just look at the price and style of the chair, and base their decision on that. If you want to have a healthy hip that does not annoy you with any kind of pain, you need to take your time to adjust your hip-joint angle. Remember that wrong hip-joint angle is not just associated with hip pain. A bad angle can harm your spinal discs, as well.Your office chair can certainly make your hips painful if you are not careful. But, as long as you maintain a good hip-joint angle during your sitting sessions and use a chair that contains a flat seat, hip pain should not be an issue.More by this AuthorChairsThe Pros and Cons of Owning a Leather Office ChairWhat are the advantages and disadvantages of using a chair having a leather finish?