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Writer's pictureChristi Sullivan

Part 3 of Open Your Hips and Get Out of Back Pain

Updated: Jul 10, 2023


How do the adductors add to back pain? The adductors not only have one job of bringing the leg to the midline. They also aid in hip flexion and extension. Plus, in this variation of the stretch I'm going to help you get to more of the hip rotators that sit high in the groin, hip crease region. Think opposite side of pigeon. The hip rotators are local stabilizers and work with the anterior and posterior pelvic floor muscles. Weak or over facilitated (over working)muscles can create back pain. This is a common source for people experiencing back pain. The conventional set-up is trying to make a 90-degree angle at the knee. This is NOT ideal! Just take a moment to feel why it is not a good place to be and why allowing the feet to float inward is better. When you try to line the feet right under the knees you are placing undue extra pressure on the inside of the knee; the head of the femur must also make an adjustment which very uncomfortable b/c we are jamming it. When we allow the knees to float inward, the pressure comes off the inside the knee and head of the femur finds a better place to be. The sitz bones do not head towards the feet; instead they head towards the back of the room. This keeps the low back from rounding and keep the stretch on groin. To increase the stretch of this area rotate the shoulders and the hips to the right and move the hips back towards left foot; repeat other side. We can then capture other angles of the groin but the anterior (front) portion of the deep hip rotators. If you are not able to keep the sitsz bones going straight back towards the wall you may need to come down to your elbows to achieve this motion. You lose the emphasis on the groin when the hips head towards the feet and for most it hurts. Hopefully, this helps you find some relief. Whenever we release a muscle when need to turn on or activate the muscle that is was working for and in a general setting I always head for glute max to get them working again and glute bridge is an excellent exercise. I do have a you tube video dedicated to activating glute max. Check it out! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p2EZw1HaMek

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