4 simple moves to loosen stiff hips

Are you sitting for hours every day? Or standing in the same spot for long periods? And when you finally move, you notice your hips aren’t necessarily quite ready to go with you?

Or maybe you’ve overdone an exercise and the resulting soreness makes it harder to move.

If you answered yes to any of the above, then you’re suffering from stiff hips and could use some targeted hip therapy. Get these four moves into your daily routine to avoid stiff hips — and keep on moving!

1. Find a comfortable way to perform the “number four” stretch. Pending any severe range of motion limitations, you can do this one standing or seated, depending on your flexibility. You’ll cross the ankle of one leg over the opposite knee to begin. If you’re really tight that might just be enough. Increase the stretch by attempting to press your knee down toward the floor.

2. Standing in a lunge position drop your body down as low as you can. Attempt to flex the back knee to the floor and then straighten while keeping your body at the same level. In other words, all the movement is in the back leg, the body isn’t going up and down. You’ll fee a strong stretch opening up the hip flexors.

3. Last, after having performed the stretches, use a foam roller (like this one) on each hip. Roll toward the hip you want to tend to and cross that same ankle once again over the opposite knee.

Alternatively, if you find you’re extremely tight try rolling first, then stretch and roll again at the end. Move around a bit after you’ve stretched and you should notice a big difference in the way your hips feel.