How to Fix Hip and Back Pain on One Side

This video, I'm going to show
you how to fix hip and back pain on one side. Stay tuned. Hey, everyone. Doctor Rowe
coming to you from SpineCare in Saint Joseph, Michigan. In this
video, I'm going to go over easy exercises that can give
instant relief for one-sided hip and back pain. What usually
causes this is because of muscle tightness and weakness.
So, to make getting relief easy, I'm going to break the
video up into two separate parts. In the first part, we're
going to focus on improving pain-free range of motion in
the hip and the back. Just get everything loosened up. In the
second part, we're going to focus on strengthening the
muscles to help support that area and hopefully get rid of
it for good. As a bonus, all of these exercises can be done at
home. They require no special equipment and you may find give
quick pain relief even within seconds.

So, let's get started
and fix that one-sided hip and back pain right now. In the
first part, I'm going to go over three different exercises
that may help improve pain-free range of motion in the hip and
the back. These exercises work by helping to loosen muscle
tightness and joint stiffness and you may find they give
instant pain relief even within seconds. This first one is
called the 90-90 stretch. I really like this one
because it's going to help improve hip mobility by
targeting external and internal rotation. This one I'm going to
start off on a floor.

Have one leg in front of you, knee bent
at 90 degrees. The other one is going to be off towards the
side, knee bent at 90 degrees. So to begin with, what we want
to do with this front knee is try to take it down towards
floor as much as possible. If you do have a lot of muscle
tightness like glute tightness or just hip arthritis, you'll
probably find that you can't get the knee down towards the
floor. Do the best you can. What you can do to improve
range of motion is to actively take this knee downward as much
as you can until you feel a very deep stretch, a
comfortable stretch not to the point of pain, hold that for 20
seconds, release it, and then repeat it three times.

With
each repetition, you'll notice that the knee goes down just a
little bit more until maybe you touch the floor. From there,
I'm going to take my hand off to my side, have my arm
straight at my elbow. Let's crawl up with our hand right
here until we have very good upright posture or the best
that we can. In this position, you should already start to
feel a very deep stretch across both hips, into the glutes,
across the pelvis, and also into the back. I'm going to
take this one to the next level by straightening my arm and my
elbow like this and then pivoting forward through my
waist, through my hips, lowering my downward towards
the floor. We don't want to round the back with this one
but just keep it straight, pivot forward. The more that
you go forward, the more that you're going to feel a deep
stretch intensify across the hips and the back. I try to
hold this one for 20 to 30 seconds. I just relax and then
repeat this one three to five times and with each repetition,
challenge yourself, build into it just a little bit more.

To
take this one to even the next level and target a little bit
more off to one side, we can put different motions in there
to the muscles and the joints just a little bit differently.
So, let's say I have a lot of left-sided hip pain or back
pain. What I'm going to do is just rotate, kind of twist
through my waist right here towards the opposite side. The
more that you go over, the more it's going to open up those
hips in the back and it usually feels really really good. So,
give that a try for 20 to 30 seconds and if you feel like
it's helping, throw in another rep or two.

You can also rotate
towards the side of pain and see how that feels. It helps,
throw more reps in. You can also do a leaning motion. So,
with this one, what you want to do is lean away from the side
of pain. So, let's say I have a lot going off to my right side.
I'm going to stabilize on the other side.

I usually like to
grab right at the ankle, put my arm overhead like this and then
just tilt my body straight away from the side of pain. What
you'll notice is it opens up the back just a little bit
differently. I really feel it from my lower back going down
into my hip. This hits a muscle called the QL or the quadratus
lumborum, a big instigator of both back and hip pain but go
through all of those motions.

If you feel like any of them
are helping out a little bit more. At that point, throw more
repetitions in and when you're done with one position, always
switch the position of the legs right here and repeat to hit
them both in all angles. So, here's an exercise that you can
do standing. It's perfect if you're stuck at work and need
quick pain relief. It's called the ballerina. For this one,
I'm going to start with very good upright paw whatever side
that you're having pain. Let's say I have a lot of left-sided
back pain going towards my hip. What I'm going to do is take
the painful side's leg, put it over the other one just like
this. Toes pointed straight ahead. The hand on the
non-painful side is going to go right on the hip. What I'm
going to do with the other hand is put it overhead just like
this. So, it kind of looks like a ballerina. The movement from
here is very easy. What I'm going to do is tilt my body
away from the painful side and press my hip towards the
painful side at the same time.

When you do this, you're
going to feel a deep stretch forming in the lower back going
down towards the hip. This hits a muscle called the quadratus
lumborum or the QL, a big instigator of one-sided back
pain including hip pain. I like to hold this one comfortably
for about 20 seconds. Just do nice, slow, controlled
breathing also. From there, just relax, take a breather,
and then repeat this one three to five times. With each
repetition, try to stretch into it just a little bit more. How
I like to take this one to the next level is using a frame to
really pinpoint the stretch just a little bit more. So,
what I'm going to do is put that painful side, flush up
against that door frame and what I'm going to do is press
into it with my hands so it's a stable anchor point and at that
point, now, I lean away from it.

It just allows me to have a
little bit of a deeper stretch into the back into the hips.
So, give that one a try. If you think that it helps out a
little bit more, you know, go with that one but for this, I
do try to do it on both sides because you want to keep them
in balance. So, with this next stretching exercise, we're
going to focus on a couple more muscle groups that are big
instigators of one-sided hip and back pain. It's going to be
two separate movements. The first movement is called the 3D
hip flexor stretch.

It's going to focus more on the front of
the leg, the hip flexors including the psoas muscle.
This one, we need a sturdy chair, one without wheels but
you can also use a staircase. So, whatever side that you're
having pain, let's say I'm having a lot on my left side.
I'm going to take the non-painful put it up on the
chair like this. Let's keep the back painful sides leg straight
at the knee and then just put it behind us just a little bit.
Make sure that your foot is flat.

What we want from there
is very good upright posture. Take your hands, put them right
on your hips. The first movement very easy. I'm just
going to lunge forward with my body weight. Really moving
through my waist through my hips. The more that you go
forward, the more that you're going to feel a deep stretch
forming in the front of the back leg. That's hitting that
psoas muscle and those hip flexors. Hold this for 20 to 30
seconds. You want to do nice, slow, controlled breathing
also. From there, just relax and then repeat this one for
three to five times and with each repetition, build into it
just a little bit more. From here, we can take it to the
next level by hitting it at just different spots with
different movements. So, I'm going to go back into that
original lunge position but this time around, I'm going to
put my hands in front of me kind of like a genie position
and then I'm going to rotate my body away from the side of
pain.

It will hit the hip and the back just a little bit
differently. So, give that one a try. You can also rotate
towards the side of pain and I also like to do what is known
as a lateral lean. So, I'm going to go back into that
original position, put my hand at 90 degrees, I should say, my
elbow at 90 degrees on the painful side and then, I'm
going to tilt away from the painful side with my body
moving through my waist through my hips. That hits that QL,
that quadratus lumborum muscle that we were talking about
earlier. So go through all of those positions and if you feel
like one just offers you more relief it's really hitting that
tight achy spot at that point throw more repetitions in and
the second part we're going to focus more on the glutes and a
muscle called the piriformis so what I'm going to do is sit
right at the edge of my chair or your stair whatever side
that you're having pain this time around let's say it's my
right side what I'm going to do is bring that leg up rest my
ankle over the other side's knee so when you look down, it
should look like a figure four.

So, this is known as a seated
figure four or if you're into yoga, a seated pigeon pose. So,
what we want to do is try to take this knee downward as much
as we can but we're not going to press into it. Don't crank
into it. What you want to do is just actively press down as
much as you can until you feel a very deep stretch forming
over the glute, over the hip, and also into that piriformis
muscle. It should feel really deep to the glute at that
point. One, we feel that, what I'm going to do is have very
good upright posture and then I'm going to pivot forward
through my waist through my hips.

I'm not trying to round
my back into this one. Move through your waist. The more
that you go forward, the more it's going to intensify that
stretch and it usually feels really really good. So, I try
to hold this one for 20 to 30 seconds. I come back up and
then repeat it up to five times with each repetition going to
it just a little bit more. So, with this movement, you can
also do rotation and that tilt like we did earlier. So, just
pivot forward again, put your hands in front of you like
this, you can rotate away from pain or you can rotate towards
it. Anything that feels better, throw more repetitions in at
that point. If you want to focus a little bit more often
to the lower back hitting that QL muscle, what you do is just
have very good upright posture and then what you do from there
is just tilt away from the side of pain.

That'll help open up
the lower back. So, go through all of those motions if any is
pinpointing that pain and just hitting that spot of tightness,
stiffness, whatever a little bit more throw more repetitions
in and I do recommend doing this on both sides to keep them
in balance. In this part, we're going to focus on getting rid
of hip and back pain for good by strengthening the muscles
and soft tissue that support the hips, the pelvis, and the
back.

This is called the figure four bridge. It's a great daily
exercise that you can do in bed or on a floor. So, what I'm
going to do is start off lying flat on my back. If you're
unfamiliar with the bridge, it's a very back-friendly
exercise that's going to target a lot of muscles. So, what I'm
going to do is get in that position first. Have your knees
bent, feet flat, take your hands, put them on your hips.
You're going to tighten your core muscles, squeeze your
glutes, lift your hips upward towards the ceiling until your
body is in a nice straight line from your knees to your hips to
your shoulders.

You should feel a ton of muscles firing the
core, the lower back, the glute the legs. We're going to take
this one to the next level by taking one leg up off the bat
or the floor and then putting the ankle over the other side's
knee to form a figure four. In this position, you should feel
a ton firing on the glute right here that is driving upward
towards the ceiling and on the other side, you should feel a
deep stretch forming in the hip and also over that glute and
the piriformis. So, it helps strengthen and lengthen at the
same time. I try to hold this one for about 5 seconds. From
there, a going to relax, take a breather, and then I'm going to
repeat this one up to 10 times with each repetition, build
into it just a little bit more and whatever you do on one
side, always switch to the other side to repeat.

You can
also focus on the hips a little bit more by doing what is known
as a clamshell bridge. So, I'm going to put my feet together
and then I'm going to take my knees and drive them outward as
much as I can until I feel a very good activation of the
inner leg muscles and also into the hips. From there, the
movement is very similar. We're just going to put our hands on
our hips and then drive our hips upward towards the
ceiling. This one will just put a little bit more focus on
those glutes and across the hips. Five-second hold, you're
going to relax and then repeat this one up to 10 times and
with this, if you feel like you have a little bit more energy,
you can throw in another set or two.

So, here's another really
easy hip and back strengthening exercise that you can do daily.
It's called the hip hiker and it's going to put a bit more
focus on the quadritus lumbarum and the glute muscles and alls
we need is a staircase for this one so every time that you go
upstairs throw in a couple reps it probably will add up over
time I'm going to start by putting one foot up on a stair
the other is going to go right off to the side the movement
pretty straight forward take your hand put it on your hip
and then drive that hip upward towards the ceiling as much as
you can you'll feel a deep activation across the hip into
the lower back it's going to hit that QL muscle.

You want to
hold this one right here for about 5 seconds. From there,
just relax and then you're going to repeat this up to 10
to 15 times. With each repetition, drive that hip up
just a little bit more and then when you're done on one side, I
do recommend switching to the other and repeating and if you
feel like you have a little bit more energy, throw in another
set or two. If the exercises help, please support the
channel by giving this video a like and maybe subscribing too.
If you have any comments or questions, please leave them
below. I'll get back to you as soon as I can. Thanks for
watching!.