Foam Roller Exercises that focus on Hip Opening and Stretching the Hip Muscles

The foam roller exercises and stretches that you will learn about in this article focus on the hip muscles. Many, many people have tight hips. Hip opening exercises are very releasing for most and bring about much needed healing in this area.

I approach foam roller exercises and stretches from the body-mind perspective. The body-mind connection is very strong and often there are metaphysical reasons for our physical pain. What actions we perform on our bodies, we perform on our minds and our souls as well.

'Prepare to meet yourself through your body. This body … this moment … this breath.' ~ Michael Lee

This foam rolling article is more about hip stretches, specifically hip opening exercises. I have discussed each individual hip muscle in other foam roller exercise pages. Please scroll down the page to get a list of each individual hip muscle to target specifically: the iliopsoas muscle, the gluteus muscle, the piriformis muscle, the adductor muscles and the abductors (Iliotibial Band and Tensor Fasciae Latae). Also if you desire, scroll down the page to jump straight to the exercise video and foam roller stretches.

I would encourage you to read Foam Rolling for an overview of body rolling on a foam roller. A simple technique for self myofascial release is accomplished by foam roller exercises. Self myofascial release is a great way to keep your muscles supple, elongated and free of stress knots. If you read Foam Rolling, I describe the body-mind-soul benefits of this activity.

The release of muscular tension when doing foam roller exercises often brings about emotional release as well, as you learn to focus on the areas of soreness and make the process of the foam roller exercises more meditative. It is another way for you to learn how to ‘feel it and heal it’ as I like to call it. Emotions do affect our bodies, so please see How Emotions Affect Our Body if you desire to learn more about this very important issue regarding body-mind-soul healing.

If you don't have a foam roller, or need to update your old one, I recommend the Premium Textured EVA Foam Roller from Power Systems. The one I purchased is the best I have to date. It is nice and cushiony on the outside, but firm on the inside for effective foam rolling. It also has a textured surface to stick to my yoga mat better. It is pricier than the cheap ones, but worth every penny.

Gender Differences in the Hip

The hip muscles hold more problems for women, in my observation, than men. It is their strongest emotional center. (The men have their own issues of the shoulders, their stronger emotional center, which I discuss in Foam Roller Exercises that Focus on Opening Your Shoulder). It is no wonder that women have more problems with their hips than men, because their bodies are structured differently.

Firstly, the pelvic bones of the female hips are wider creating more of an angle in the femur (thigh bone), from the hip to the knee. Because the male femurs are straighter, they are stronger and more stable at the knee than a woman’s.

Secondly, a woman’s hip muscles and tendons are more flexible then a man’s because a woman’s hips were designed to expand when giving birth. Because of this flexibility, women’s hips and knees are less stable and have more rotation in them then men’s.

The third way that women differ is their musculature in the leg is less strong, especially in the buttocks, quadriceps and back. Less strength in the muscles that support the joints of the hip, knee and ankle, make the joints less stable. This in turn makes women more prone to knee pain and hip pain and other problems.

And finally, if one throws obesity in the mix, and the fact that women carry more weight on their hips than men, it’s no wonder that women have more leg problems. All of these structural differences in the female hip and leg lead to higher frequency of torn ACL’s (anterior cruciate ligament of the knee), arthritis, injuries and fractures of the hip, knee or ankle. It spells a set up for ankle pain, knee pain and hip pain.

In summary a woman’s hips differ in the following ways:

• Pelvis is wider with knees coming together at more of an angle, creating less stability at the knee.
• Muscles are less developed, especially the thigh muscles, creating less stability at the tendons and joints.
• Muscles and tendons in the hips are more flexible to assist hip expansion during childbirth, so the knees and hips have greater rotation, creating greater instability at the knees and hips.
• Carry more weight on the hips, adding stress to joints of the ankle, knee and hip.

Meditate on the Meaning of Painful Hips in Your Life

Those of you who are consistent readers of my website understand that I love the use of metaphors, and the body metaphors are no exception. Please read What is a Metaphor and Why is it Important? to understand this concept more fully and the part that body metaphors play in our lives.

The hip contains many body metaphors that revolve around birth and creativity, pleasure and sexuality. The hip is a very emotional center, part of our core and our center of gravity (the center of gravity on the body is about 2-3 cm below the navel). A woman’s center of gravity is slightly lower than a man’s center of gravity. The hip is significant as an area involving our connectedness to others and the control or lack of control of others. As a center of our creativity, the hip is a metaphor for the birthing of ideas and all things involving pleasure.

Opening the hip and the hip muscles are significant for releasing emotions of control, and opening oneself for the birth of new ideas, pleasure and new creations. The seed of our creativity, figuratively and literally starts at the pelvis and hip. If we release control, we are free to express all aspects of our human creativity and our hips should move and flow without pain or issues. The same is true of our sexuality – just one aspect of our creativity. If we except ourselves as creatures designed to enjoy the pleasures that our sexuality brings us, we should not have issues with our pelvis or hips.

However, this is usually not so. Most likely, a lot of us feel like our creativity is stifled as we are forced to conform to others desires, whether it be our bosses demands, the needs of our children and our significant others, our parents, or whomever. Does the metaphor of being ‘joined at the hip’ bring new meaning now? Being joined at the hip depicts being unable to get away from someone, ever! Maybe we should exercise the 'hip check' instead!

Instead of freely using our creativity to express ourselves we may feel trapped and helpless as we attempt to control our own lives and stay in control of ourselves as separate and unique entities. Yet we struggle between wanting to be needed – the concept of co-dependency, versus the need to be independent and unique individuals. Often our hips reflect this battleground.

When we desire control we end up fighting for it. Fighting to take back control from others. The harder we try to take back control or to control others, the tighter our hips become, and the worse we feel. We tense our pelvic floor muscles and hip muscles and attempt to hold it all together with our hip adductors. (See article on hip adductor muscles). But we can never, ever control others. We can only adapt and change our own response to others as they attempt to do the same thing to us when they attempt to control us!

Your mind is your own entity. As an adult, we can change our perceptions of who controls us. We can begin to understand our own emotional responses to others and make a choice to respond in healthy ways that heal our body-mind-soul. See the 90-second cure in How Emotions Affect Our Body to learn today, how to manage strong emotions in a healthier way.

This may be a stretch of one’s metaphorical imagination, but where do you suppose the slang term to be 'hip' came from? Or the word, 'hippie?' The word 'hip' means to be trendy, setting new ground, beyond convention, a new creative expression. The term 'hippie' was derived from the word, 'hipster' and hippies were given the term because they were totally beyond convention, even establishing a totally new way of life. Interesting, isn’t it? Shall we strive to be more like hippies?

Now, back to the issue of control, as it relates to pleasure and sexuality. When women exert control, it is often through withholding sex. It is a way to fight back and re-gain control. It also entails withdrawing inward, with closed bodies and tensed, closed hip muscles.

We close ourselves to the demands of others as a self-protective measure, and hold this tension and these emotions in our pelvis and hip muscles. Or we forcefully charge forward, believing that we can handle everything, be all things to all people and meet all the demands that others bring to us. Both of these emotional responses, withdrawal or charging forward, will tighten and close our hip muscles as we try to hold it all together. When we neglect to care for ourselves, our body-mind-soul suffers and is manifested in our hips.

Learning to release control and the emotions of anger, withdrawal or helplessness that is associated with control or lack of it will bring us health and healing of the body-mind-soul. Holding on too tight to control and the emotions that it elicits will bring us ill health. We need to learn to open our hips and let go of control. It is only by releasing control that we will be able to be renewed and refilled with the creative expression that enriches our human experience. Learning foam roller exercises, specifically for hip opening is one great way to learn to open your hips and release control.

Sexuality issues surrounding the hips and hip pain are a topic most likely outside the scope of this article. Impotence, lack of desire and other sexuality issues may be a result of many things, like guilt, anger, depression, mid-life transition and so forth. Depression is anger that is turned inward, against the self and the pleasures and creativity that life can afford. It often surrounds the idea that we do not deserve pleasure and self-fulfillment, or even that pleasure is a sin and to be avoided.

Or if you are a victim of sexual abuse you may have an altogether different view of sexuality that gives you an altered view of love and pleasure.

If your intuition, your 'inner knowing' tells you that self-fulfillment and sexuality are issues for you, I encourage you to seek the help of a professional who can help guide you through your healing process. If you are a self-healer you may try the foam roller exercises and stretches first, but have someone available if your emotions become overpowering.

Hip Pain

Lower back pain and hip pain go hand-in-hand. Prolonged sitting on your job at your computer is a set-up for shortened, tight hip flexors (iliopsoas), the piriformis, and the iliotibial band (IT Band) and all hip muscles. The iliopsoas is often a cause of back pain that you think is coming from your back, when instead it is coming from the hip flexor connected to your spine. Tight piriformis muscles are also a frequent cause of lower back pain. The erector spinae and quadratus lumborum, the muscles of the lower back also become shortened and tight from sitting too long. Just click on the name of the muscle in this paragraph to see my discussions on each individual muscle and the individual issues surrounding them.

When we sit too long at work, without taking stretch breaks, we are succumbing to the control of our job, and saying that it controls our health and us! Don’t fall into this trap. You will be a much better employee in the long run and be way more productive if you take 'health breaks' and get up out of your chair every ½ to one hour for just one minute to stretch, get your circulation going again and empty your mind for a short while!

Hip pain is a real problem for a lot of folks, especially women. The foam roller exercises and stretches in this article will help you in opening your hip and stretching your hip muscles. The exercises will help you manage your hip pain or prevent it if you do not yet have hip pain. The exercises will help you release your emotional issues surrounding your lack of creative expression in all things in your daily life and heal your hip and/or back pain. They will help you learn to go with the flow, release control and learn to let go of the things that do not really matter. If you desire to have more creative energy, including sexual energy, you can do these foam roller exercises to open your hips and say affirmations that will invite all creative energy in. So 'swing your hips' and get started!

Affirmations for creativity and creative energy.

• I release control to God/the Universe and I feel free.
• My life is filled with creativity.
• I am born of creativity.
• I give birth to new ideas and 'I swing my hips!'
• I give birth to new ways of thinking.
• I give birth to health and healing!
• Creative energy fills me.
• Sexual energy fills me.
• I am a sexual being.
• I enjoy the pleasures that all of life brings.
• A favorite from Louise Hay: "Hip, Hip Hooray! There is joy in everyday!"
• I am a 'hippie' and I am free!

Personalize and Adjust the Foam Roller Exercises for Your Hip Muscles

As with all foam roller exercises you can adjust the amount of time you spend on each area. As you roll, stay as long as you like in one position, if your left side is tighter than your right side. Just make sure you do both sides equally to maintain your balance.

Really notice your body and how it feels when you do the foam roller exercises for the hip muscles and the hip stretches. Open your heart to the message your hip area brings.

B-r-e-a-t-h-e as you sink into the sore spot. If it is too painful that you cannot breathe, ease up on the stretch or pressure. The deep breathing is the signal to your body that you are in the relaxed state and eventually the muscle will release as long as you are able to deep breathe. Feel the pull and the hip stretch as you sink into it. Breathe more deeply as you sink farther into the stretch. Let go. Let the tension go, let the stress go and let the muscle release. When the muscle releases, so may your emotions, your need to control. Let go of this need. Open yourself and your hips to let your creative energy in. Let Creativity flow in as your stretch to open your hips and open your creative core!

Just remember that foam roller exercises may bring up feelings you did not expect. The emotional response is unique to you and may be 'weird,' frightening, confusing or just different. Embrace the emotions by just staying aware of them, and if you feel safe, move into them to feel them fully. Thank your body for its message and sit with the emotions along with the pressure on the muscle until they are released. Eventually over time, as the physical and emotional congestion is cleared, the foam roller exercises will bring you great feelings of release and therefore peace and calm.

Foam Roller Exercises to Open the Hip and Hip Muscles:

I will give the foam roller exercises in two parts:

First I will give you a brief description of the movement in writing for those of you who function best with your left, detail-oriented brain.

Second is a short video of the movement. There is no voice-over on the video, so as you watch, I will force you to use your right brain, the sensing, feeling part of your brain. The right brain perceives images and spatial relationships. It is the part of the brain that you most often close down, in our left-brain, detail and language-oriented culture. (See Improving Your Body Balance is Improving Your Life Balance for more explanation of right brain vs. left-brain functions). No voice-over will also aid you in going inward when you do your foam roller exercises.

Feel free to vary the foam roller exercise in any way as your intuition moves you! Do not perform these exercises if you have more than moderate pain in your back or hip joints!

• For these foam roller exercises you will need a 36-inch foam roller.
• For the first foam roller exercise, lay on your back on the floor. Place the foam roller at a comfortable spot under you hips.
• Grasp the foam roller on each side.
• Bend your knees so you feel the pressure on the top of your hip bones.
• Slowly roll your hips first to one side, then the other, touching your knees to each end if you can.
• Hold the twist on each side for as long as you desire as you breathe into the hip opening stretch.
• As you roll side to side, this is a great cross friction type of massage of the muscles of the hip. It feels great!
• For the second foam roller exercise, start in the same position as the first, with your knees bent and the pressure of the foam roller on the top of your hip bones.
• Gently drop your knees, while still bent, as you roll your knees in small circles.
• Roll the other direction.
• Do NOT do this foam roller exercise if you feel any pain in your hip joints.

My favorite foam roller exercises shown below are the hip stretches that I have created to open the hip, because the seat of my creativity is in the hips. Nothing in my body aches more than my hips. The creative energy is very, very strong, from many years of "not having a voice." My story is told in My Thyroid Cancer Experience. In fact these next foam roller exercises are not rolling on the roller at all, but are hip stretches that use the foam roller as a prop to further open the hip. The following photos show progressive, held poses, meant to be a series of moves of hip stretches, each one deepening the hip stretch.

The first hip stretch on the foam roller I call the Foam Roller Arch Stretch. Lie on your back on the floor and place the foam roller under your hips. Stretch out your legs straight, and touch your feet on the ground forming an arch. If this is uncomfortable, you can bend up one leg and do the hip stretch on just one side at a time. Hold this pose for 10-20 seconds and really feel the hip stretch through the front of your leg at the top of the thigh. This pose stretches the hip flexor, the iliopsoas.

The next series of hip stretches on the foam roller I call the Foam Roller Crossover Twist. Start with the foam roller under your hips at a comfortable place and bend your knees. Lift one leg at a time and and twist as you cross over the leg to touch the floor on the other side if you can.

This hip stretch sequence I call the Foam Roller Bridge. As you go through this series, try to do each pose with your hips on the foam roller, then do the same pose by lifting up your hips off the foam roller. This additional move will strengthen as well as stretch your hip.

This series of hip stretches I call the Foam Roller Iliopsoas Stretch. It stretches the psoas part of the hip flexor in the lower back. It will help relieve hip pain as well as back pain. In the final picture, try to pull your legs toward your body as much as you can. It is OK if you can't straighten your legs all the way. The stretch is supposed to be in the lower back, not the back of the legs.

The next two hip stretches are a real hip openers, hip adductor stretches and ones to hold for creative and sexual energy. It is the Bound Angle Pose on a Foam Roller and the Wide-Legged Pose on a Foam Roller. Again, the foam roller is under the hips, at a position where it is comfortable for you.

The Half Lotus Stretch on a foam roller, is exactly the same as the sitting half lotus. This stretch just changes the angle of the stretch and adds the support of the ground while your hips rest on the foam roller. This pose and the next will really stretch the piriformis muscle, deep in the hip.

When you do this piriformis stretch on the foam roller, pull your straight leg as far towards your body as you can, to deepen the stretch as much as possible. You can also grab your bent leg and pull it towards your body to deepen the stretch.

Perhaps the most hip opening stretch of all is the Pigeon Pose. This pose pictured is modified, to bend forward at the waist, as far as you can go.

Foam roller exercises and exercise stretches are a great way to stretch your body and 'stretch your mind' and heal your body-mind-soul. It is the metaphor of creating space in your life, by creating space in your body!

May your path to self-discovery be enhanced by these foam roller exercises and hip stretches and may your journey towards body-mind-soul healing through self myofascial release begin!

Related Foam Rolling Articles that You May Enjoy!:

• Foam Rolling Your Way to Body-Mind-Soul Health!
• Myofascial Release ~ The Self-Emptying of Body-Mind-Soul Kenosis
• Using Your Foam Roller for Developing Intuition.

Foam Roller Exercises for the Lower Body and Lower Back:

• Lower Back (Lumbar Spine).
• Iliopsoas (Hip Flexors).
• Piriformis and Gluteus Muscles (Hip Muscles).
• Iliotibial Band (IT Band) and Tensor Fasciae Latae (TFL) Muscles (Side of the Thigh).
• Adductor Muscles (Groin Muscles of the Inner Thigh).
• Hamstring Muscles and Quadriceps Muscles (Thigh Muscles).
• Gastrocnemius Muscles (Calves) and Anterior Tibialis Muscles (Shins).

Foam Roller Exercises for the Upper Body and Upper Back:

• Upper Back (Thoracic Spine).
• Shoulder Muscles that Focus on Opening the Shoulder.
• Trapezius Muscles.
• Latissimus Dorsi (Muscles in the Side and Back).
• Pectoral Muscles that focus on Opening your Chest.
• Upper Arms ~ Biceps and Triceps.
• Forearms ~ Brachioradialis, Wrist Flexors and Extensors.

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