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Your Hips: Why Misalignment Matters and How To Fix It

6/2/2016

5 Comments

 
The pelvis or the hips are the foundation of the body. Your hips are the engine that drives your locomotor system: your legs. Your hips will determine how you move: how fast, how symmetrically, how smoothly. When one hip is in a different position than the other hip (elevated, rotated, tilted, twisted, or shifted) or one hip is functioning differently than the other hip (more/less stable, stronger/weaker, tighter/more mobile) this causes your legs to move differently.
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A small misalignment in how your hips are positioned or function can cause injuries and pain throughout your body.
Take running for example: if your right hip is less stable than your left hip, this might cause you to:
  • spend more time on your left (more stable) leg then the right leg during the stance phase of gait
  • get less hip flexion and extension of your right hip than your left hip
  • rotate your left shoulder forward to help with right hip flexion
  • collapse your right knee inward during the stance phase of gait because of instability of the hip
  • over-pronate your right foot and ankle during stance phase
  • lean your torso to the right during right leg stance phase

These changes in gait can cause stress, strain, compression, and shear on muscles, joints, bones, and other tissues up and down your entire body leading to injury and pain. You could end up with a stress fracture in your left foot, plantar fasciitis in your right foot, meniscus tear in your right knee, lower back pain, degenerative disc disease in your lumbar spine, shoulder or neck tightness, or many other problems. 

Hip imbalances will lead to problems whether you are running, or playing golf, tennis, soccer, or baseball, or gardening or vacuuming, or sitting at your desk at work, or driving your car. 

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Your hips are also the foundation or base of support for the upper body and torso. Your spine connects to your hips through your SI joints where your ilium connects to your sacrum. If your hips are imbalanced in any way (elevated, rotated, tilted, twisted, or shifted) it will cause compensation and imbalance in the spine and upper body. If your hips are unstable (often seen as swayback posture, a wide stance, or constant shifting) they are not acting as a strong base of support for your upper body and will force your upper body to overwork often leading to back, neck, or shoulder tightness and pain. ​​

This video talks about hip misalignment and demonstrates posture exercises that are designed to help correct hip alignment. These exercises are obviously generic and won't work for everyone. If you want personalized help and posture exercises for your specific imbalances and symptoms, contact me today.
Related videos/articles:
​SI joint pain: the true cause of back pain
How you stand is how you move
Bad posture equals bad form
Egoscue's secret weapon: the Supine Groin Stretch
Want to run faster? Fix your posture.
5 Comments
Sheila m stewart
1/22/2019 12:17:17 pm

Currently going to out patient PT for hip misalignment which has caused lower back and groin pain

Reply
Tori Raddison link
1/30/2020 10:13:47 am

I didn't think about how imbalanced hips will cause so many other problems like a stress fracture as you mentioned. My dad's hip is pretty unbalanced because his left hip is weaker than his right. How often should you do the exercises?

Reply
Matt Whitehead link
5/30/2022 11:24:02 am

Hi Tori,

I would always suggest doing ecises on a daily basis to help correct any imbalances. You know you are doing the correct ecises because you should be able to see and feel a difference every time you do the ecises and see changes each week in posture, alignment, movement, and how you feel (or your dad in this case). If these don't seem to be helping your dad, have him reach out to me for a free posture evaluation and I can help him figure out what is going on and what he needs to do to get pain free.

Reply
Sandra cicatiello
4/14/2020 03:44:51 pm

I have not been able to walk for a long period without my right leg getting weak , lazy and my knee buckling. I went to 3 neurologist , 2 physical therapist and a chiropractor. No one was able to help me. Since I started to do your exercises to align the hip , knees and feet I do feel like I am able to walk a little longer before my knee starts to buckle and my leg feel weak.
I will continue your exercises daily and keep you updated. Thank you for helping me !

Reply
Matt Whitehead link
5/30/2022 11:25:21 am

Yay Sandra!! That's great and I'm happy they are helping you. Keep it up!

Reply



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    About Matt Whitehead

    I'm an Egoscue Institute certified Postural Alignment Specialist (PAS) and Advanced Exercise Therapist (AET), certified personal trainer, PatchFitness performer, FiveFingers wearer, trail runner, mountain biker, dad, music lover, environmentalist, and wanna-be slam dunk champion. I will be providing you with the latest posture exercises to help you live, play, and be pain free.

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