So today is the third video in our hip osteoarthritis series. So let's get right down to it. What exercises should I be doing now that I have hip osteoarthritis? Stella can tell you more about it... 

Well, watch this video to learn how to improve your hip osteoarthritis with a natural solution, exercise.  Now could you do me a favor and go ahead and subscribe to my channel and click the bell so you're notified of all of our content. It'd be great if you could do that. 

What exercises should I do with osteoarthritis of the hip?

Well by the end of this video you'll know the best  exercises to do for your hip. The natural solution of exercise is one of the best things that you can do.

My name is Stephen Dunn, I'm a physical therapist. I've helped thousands of people with this condition over my 23+ year career as a physical therapist and I look forward to helping you as well.

Now I will say these exercises are being built into a sequence based on some stretches and some release work and some other exercises. So if you find those other videos and do those first it would help the whole series go better.

All right, so we're gonna do three exercises from laying on your back and we are gonna use props for this. The first prop we're going to use is called a pilates flex ring or a magic circle.

Now that's a very specific prop that we're going to use. If you don't have one of those, it's okay. We're going to also use a small ball and a theraband that's actually like a thera-loop we'll call it.

6 Best Hip Pain Exercises for Immediate Relief

#1 Magic Circle Adduction Squeeze

With the pilates ring, we're going to first start off with a little squeezing the ring between the knees. Now we're gonna take an inhale Cheryl and as you exhale tighten your abdominal muscles and squeeze that ring together.

Now we're strengthening those inner thigh muscles, the adductors. We're going to start with a set of 10 and we're going to progress up to 3 sets of 10.

#1B Ball Adduction Squeeze

Another option is a ball between the knees. This 4” gold ball, it can be a volleyball, it can be a basketball between the knees. It can be a paper towel roll, a pillow between the knees. Those are just some different options and things to use. 

Good... two more Cheryl and I have no idea how many that is but we're going to say that's number 10 and relax from there.

#2 Magic Circle Abduction Squeeze

There are a couple ways to use the magic circle for the next exercise. You can just drape it around the knees like that or you can actually step into it like it's a pair of shorts. We're just going to drape it around the knees like that for now.

Take an inhale Cheryl, as you exhale open the legs. So now we're strengthening the outer hips. The hip abductors...

#2B TheraBand Adduction Squeeze

In the last video, we did this laying on your side and lifting the leg with the two-pound weight. Now we're doing them together with a little different resistance with the band. Two more of those Cheryl and last one, good and relax from there.

I'm going to show you another option and again if you have a TheraBand it can be just tied together in an actual loop. There we go.

Let's take an inhale and as you exhale we're going to open the legs from the hips. So again, it's the same thing we we're just doing, just showing it with a different device. That's it. All right.

#3 Bridge

The last one we're going to do now is a bridge. We're going to put the little ball between the knees. It can be the little ball, it could be the basketball, whatever it is. I'm going to have her squeeze the ball as she lifts her rear end in the air, strengthening the hip extensors or the glutes.

Inhale, lower and then exhale as she lifts. The last video showed each exercise being done individually. Here they're being done together, in unison, both sides and so pay attention to see if you can notice a difference between the right or the left glute.

Pay attention when you're squeezing or opening if you can notice the difference between any of those motions. Start with 10 reps and we're going to build our way up to doing three sets of 10 reps over the course of the next one to two weeks.

All right. Now we're going to move to some standing exercises.

#4 Magic Circle at the Wall

So now we're doing a glute medius strengthener with the magic circle. So you're going to take the magic circle and place one end touching the wall and the other end is going to go right in that crease of your hip. You're not leaning into it to hold it, it's just kind of wedged between you and the wall. 

You want to stand completely upright, equally weighted on your feet. Take an inhale, stand up nice and tall and as you exhale just laterally shift your hips into the magic circle. Inhale, allow it to come back and exhale... shift, pushing the circle.

So I'm only trying to move my pelvis towards the wall and keeping my head and feet right where they started and you should start to feel this exercise on the outside of the hip. That's the outside leg. You want to do this about 10 times.

#4B Ball at the Wall

So if you don't have the magic circle you can also use just a small ball. Same thing, you want to put the ball in between your hip and the wall and just gently kind of push your hip into the ball. And that works very similar to the magic circle and that strengthens this outside leg.

#5 Bent Knee at the Wall

So another strengthener that I have for that outside leg is just stand with your shoulder touching the wall and the leg as close to the wall.

Bring it up and push that knee into the wall and as you're pushing that knee and shoulder into the wall you'll again start to feel the work on the outside of the hip. This is the hardest of all three.

#6 Side Steps with Theraband Loop

I knew you would miss that... So now I've taken the TheraBand and I placed it around my ankles. From here what you're going to do is you're going to step and bring it in.

Step over and bring it in. This is actually working both hips. So you'll take it over about three or four steps and then just take it back, stepping over and stepping in. Hold on to a countertop with this one.

So comment below and tell me how this video has helped you. Tell me how any of my videos on hip osteoarthritis has helped you or taught you something that you can do to help your day-to-day life. 

Yeah the book's about back pain but everything in it is very beneficial for someone who's experiencing hip arthritis, especially chapter number four. That's a fantastic exercise routine to do for someone with hip arthritis.

If you live in Austin, Call 512.215.4227 to book an appointment with one of our physical therapist. Stop by the studio and take one of our Pilates Reformer classes or our GYROTONIC® Tower classes. That's it for today guys and me and Stella are off. 

Y'all have a fantastic day.

So what do you do now that your doctor has diagnosed you with hip osteoarthritis? Are you looking for something other than the medications and the surgeries and procedures that your doctor's offering?

Well, watch this video to learn a natural solution to hip osteoarthritis and that's with exercise. Could you do me a favor and subscribe to my channel and hit that bell so you're notified of all of my content. I put out content on physical therapy, pilates, health, and wellness and would love your support of my channel, thanks a lot.

So what exercises should I do now that I know I have hip osteoarthritis? Well watch this video to learn a couple stretches to do and a few exercises to do as well to keep that hip mobile and strong as possible.

I've helped hundreds and hundreds of patients with this condition over my 20 plus year career as a physical therapist and I look forward to helping you as well. So the first thing we're going to do are three stretches and then we're going to do three exercises.

Stretching Exercises for Osteoarthritis of the Hip

Piriformis Stretch

The first three stretches and the one that I think is the most important is the piriformis stretch. So Cheryl, go ahead and bend your one leg up, both legs up and cross one leg over the other, whichever one is your tight one. So for her, she's picking the right one.

Now in that position, she's crossed the right leg over her left leg, I want you to reach through and grab on behind your left thigh... yeah, and you're pulling with both hands towards the chest. Now what I want you to do is take some deep breaths, inhale and exhale and we're going to hold this for 10 big breaths.

10 big breaths and I say that because it's real easy to do about two or three or count to 10 or 15 but we really want to hold it for longer and get into a deeper stretch here. Now a couple of options you can do is you can have your foot up against the wall to help take the pressure off of the arms and do the same stretch in that situation.

You can also hold on with your knee bent and holding on to right here, so just some other options but Cheryl, yeah that's another option. My arms are longer than hers, works for me, didn't work for her.

Now I'm going to say we're at about breath 10 here and we're going to go ahead and switch sides just so that you can see the difference. So we start with the right leg on the ground, left leg crossed at the knee, left ankle, pull the right leg back and we're going to hold for 10 big breaths, softening into the stretch.

Now the piriformis muscle is deep in the buttocks. It's underneath the glute maximus and it sits right on top of the sciatic nerve but what it does when it contracts is it rotates your hip outward and many people spend many most of their time with that hip in a rotated outward position.

So this is just a stretch to get into that piriformis muscle that gets really short and tight with most of us as we age and it affects this hip arthritis that we're talking about. All right, take a break from there Cheryl.

Internal Rotation Stretch 

Now the next one we're going to do is an internal rotation stretch and so I want to have you bring your legs a little bit further apart like this and what I want you to do is bring this knee towards this opposite ankle. Yeah, and you should feel a stretch. You may feel that in your piriformis you may feel it into the front of your hip.

Where do you feel that? Over here. Okay, all right, so that's your TFL, the tensor fasciae latae. Now what I'm going to have her doing while she's doing the same big breaths there, 10 of them is I'm going to have you very gently telescope out into my hand.

So you're kind of reaching very gently away and then relax and then very gently reach away and hold that for a moment and relax for a breath we'll say. Exhale, reach out. So she's just giving me a little nudge, a little push and we're creating a little more space in here. Good and let's do another one of those.

So with here we can do 10 breaths and relax and go on into the other side. So here we can do 10 breaths holding that position but after a couple of reps, breaths, excuse me, I want you to start thinking of that reach out, it's a telescope out through the femur.

Yeah and so that's just going to create a little more space in the hip joint and again what is arthritis? It's an inflammation of the joint space.

So if we can create some separation, some space in there it's going to only be helpful and can you tell the difference between those two Cheryl? Drastically... Yeah, which one is tighter? The left one is her tight one, she's kind of her left side is her chronic side.

All right and give me one more big push away, lengthening, lengthening, lengthening and in the GYROTONIC(R) world, we call this the fifth line and relax. All right so now let's bring the feet together, knees together. So we did a piriformis stretch.

We're going to call that the internal rotation stretch because we're going into internal rotation but it really kind of stretched a muscle called the TFL (tensor fasciae latae).

Lower Trunk Rotation

So here we're just going to do a rotation stretch, both legs together. Now, this is a lower trunk rotation. It's actually not a hip rotation but as you rotate this way it stretches up to the upper, lower rib cage, excuse me, and then we're going to go back and up and over to the other side.

We're going to just kind of make this more of a movement stretch than just holding it for those 10 breaths and then come up and over and we're going to do it back and forth 10 times. That's it and why are we stretching the pelvis whenever this is about hip arthritis?

Well if we just focus on the hip we're going to miss a few things. So we're actually creating a little mobility at the lumbar spine here, the sacrum, and the hips as well, but the hips have less motion emphasized here than say the last stretch we just did.

Now can you tell the difference with going side to side with that one? Uh-huh. And same I didn't ask, but in the piriformis stretch, was it also tighter on this left side in the piriformis stretch, the first one? Actually my right piriformis.

All right, so here we go. That's great, I'm glad that was their answer because it was not the side that hurts it was her opposite side that was tighter from compensating and just day-to-day life. Okay, so there's our three stretches, so that is three stretches.

Now we're gonna go into three exercises. Now with the exercises, we're gonna use an ankle weight. I'm gonna put a two-pound weight on her. Let's see how hard this is or easy it is for her and we're gonna go on the left leg because that's her weaker side.

What we're gonna now do and with that being her weaker side, that's gonna be the side that she's gonna have a more chance of developing osteoarthritis in the long run. Now what I want you to do Cheryl is laying on your side and face that way.

We're going to do, we're going to basically just flip in quarter turns here. Now in that position, the top leg is going to be straight, the bottom leg's going to be bent. We're going to put that leg under you a tiny bit. So, from here we're going to think of a little space here in your back so that you're not compressed in your lower back and you're going to lift that left leg into the air.

You're not going forward and you're not going back and remember that little pistoning idea that we talked about a little while ago. You're going to think of a little piston and reach out of your heel. Now she's doing 10 of those, that's already three. Stop at ten Cheryl.

She's got a two-pound weight on her this is an adjustable five-pound weight. Right now it's set as three pounds and these three pounds are in the weight constantly but it also has two additional one-pound weights that could be added to it to make it a three or four or a five-pound weight.

Okay, now what I want you to do Cheryl, is roll to your stomach and as she rolls to her stomach we're going to do hip extension so hip extension you're going to raise the hip, the leg in the air with the knee straight, contracting the abdominals and we're going to exhale as you lift. That's it.

We're going to do 10 of these and we're going to really have you at home start doing sets of ten, two sets, three sets, building your way up to three sets of ten over the next week or two and we're only going to show you on one side today but I will have you do these on both sides for symmetry and paying attention to how the two might be different and how they might feel different with strength.

All right now, the last one we're gonna do, that's it and now what I want you to do is take the bottom leg and keep it straight and take the top leg and there's gonna be two options. The option is in there just lifting the bottom leg now, yep.

That's one way. Another way, let me just show you because I want you to do whichever one's a little harder for you. This is another option here and then lifting the leg from there. Which one of those is a little harder for you? This one. All right so let's do that one.

Do this one, excuse me, that's it so this is your adductor. So we went from the ABductor to the extensor to now the ADductor which is the inner thigh and the inner thigh is actually a big muscle but it's usually weaker than the ABductors. It's kind of interesting big bigger muscle but is typically weaker. So here we are two-pound weight, ten sets, I'm sorry, ten reps.

Start with a set of ten, do three sets of ten as you progress over the next week or two, and do the strengthening exercises after the stretches. We'll be back with another video real soon to show you the next round of exercises. So comment below and tell me what you learned from this video and what you can implement immediately.

Live in Austin, Texas? Well, come try our Pilates reformer classes or privates or our Gyrotonic tower classes or private sessions. They're great for those tight hips and weak hips. Be on the lookout for my next video in my hip osteoarthritis series.

Now that you've seen your doctor and had the results of your imaging, what is hip arthritis? Watch this video to learn what osteoarthritis is and what options you have for treatment.

Could you do me a favor and subscribe to my channel and click that bell so that you're notified of all my content when it comes out. We provide content on physical therapy, Pilates, health, and wellness. 

So what are the signs and symptoms of hip osteoarthritis and what can I do about it? Well by the end of this video you'll have a better understanding of what you can do about it and what arthritis is. 

My name is Stephen Dunn. I'm a holistic physical therapist and I've helped hundreds of patients with this condition over my 20 plus years as a physical therapist and I look forward to helping you as well. 

What is Hip Arthritis? 

Well first of all arthritis means joint inflammation. So we're going to look at the pelvis here for a moment. We've got a pelvis and we've got a hip joint over here and we've got a hip joint here and basically, arthritis is a situation where the space of the hip and the acetabulum of the pelvis the hip bone here, the space where they have come together is irritated and inflamed. 

It's painful and tender and it's creating bone on bone and there's very little cartilage that's in between the space so there should be a little bit of space between there.

I'm going to exaggerate that space so you can see it and imagine that it's compressed and then as it's compressed you go to move... it creates pain, it creates crunching and sounds that are like that doesn't sound right and that's the condition of osteoarthritis and those are the symptoms that you'll see. 

You'll have difficulties getting up from a chair after sitting for long periods, you'll have difficulties getting out of bed after you've been sleeping, stiffness with walking. You can also have the hip refer pain to the groin, to the buttocks, even to the knee.

So the hip osteoarthritis is not always causing pain directly at the hip, so something to think about. There are many types of arthritis but osteoarthritis is the most common and it basically inflames and irritates the joints.

Treatments Options for Hip Arthritis

So what are the treatment options when you have osteoarthritis at the hip? Well, the primary goal is to enhance mobility and create mobility so that you're able to walk and get around, get in and out of the tub, in and out of the car, and things like that. 

When you're having trouble bending over to put your socks on when you're having trouble doing those things I just mentioned, it's time to start looking into getting some help.

Now if you go to the doctor they're going to prescribe medications, they're going to talk about surgeries like hip replacements or hip resurfacing. One of the best things you can do is do exercise and the person to see for that is a physical therapist,  doing stretches and doing the things to create space in that joint to not have it so compressed but create that space. 

We want to create space in the joint that's what we really want to do. So these are just some things to consider as you're on your journey into the osteoarthritis range. You got procedures like injections, you got medications, you got surgeries offered by the doctors.

You have exercise and you have specific programs from the physical therapist to get you as mobile and active as possible.

So comment below and tell me what you learned from this video about hip osteoarthritis and we'll see you in our next video in our series on hip osteoarthritis.

Thanks for watching guys. See you soon. Call 512.215.4227 to learn more.