Do you ever notice that your hips feel tight? Or maybe you notice its uncomfortable to squat during a workout, to pick up your child, or even to grab a pen off the floor something doesn’t feel right?
We’ve noticed these patterns can be an unknown culprit:
-Long periods of sitting
– Protection mode
-Forward head posture
1) Long periods of sitting
If you think about it, we sit quite a lot with our current lifestyle. For instance, you sit on the bus/car to go to work (~30 min), sit at work/school (~7-9 hours), sit to on the bus/car to go home (~30 min), sit to eat dinner (~30 min), sit on the couch to watch tv (2-3 hours).
Based on this lifestyle, its ~11 hours of sitting! Wow. If this sounds like you, then we can implement other ways to combat this sitting habit. Here are some actionable tips!
Drink more water -> leads to more bathroom breaks -> increases movement
Utilize a sit /stand desk
Walk to and from work
Find our Psoas stretch video here (https://www.facebook.com/Linne...)
2) Protection mode
Or it could be an emotional response because your body is in protection mode. Why? When trauma happens, we naturally gravitate towards the protection posture (imagine getting beat up by a gang of people and instinctively you hunker down to try to protect yourself). When the brain/body learns that the environment isn’t safe, it essentially “turtles” to protect itself. If left in protection mode for too long, it memorizes (neurologically) this pattern until taught otherwise.
Some ideas to help process stress are to:
Journal daily
NET: neuro -emotional technique helps to find and release stress (https://www.netmindbody.com/)
3) Forward head posture
Or maybe its from FORWARD head posture.
Yes, yes. Even a “text neck” can lead to tight hips. Why? Well try it.
Drop your head forward. Notice how your shoulders follow by rounding
forward. Then the back slouches and with all this weight going forward
it rolls your pelvis too (which is where the hips live). This can offset
hip mobility and lead to muscle imbalances.
Be proactive by doing a Posture exercise:
Find a blank wall. Place your heels (barefoot), buttocks, shoulders, and head against the wall and hold for 30 seconds 3x day. This will work/turn on your posture muscles. I prefer to do this at the beginning of my day.
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Chiropractic care helps your body to find balance. This can influence
how the body uses energy to adapt to stressors that may be from physical, chemical, and/or emotional. A balanced body leads to feeling better, looking better, and improves the body's ability to bouncing back from everyday stress.
Our goal is for you and your loved ones to be get well and stay well! What is your goal?