Stretching keeps the muscles flexible, strong, and healthy, and we need that flexibility to maintain a range of motion in the joints. Without it, the muscles shorten and become tight.

A very effective hip stretch, although it might be a bit hard to start is this position right here, where we simply get one leg over top of the other leg.What I like to focus on is getting nice high upper body posture and then I like to focus on getting my leg into this position.

What I like to focus on, is almost within a sense is taking my hip and pushing it backwards and bringing my knee forwards so that I get almost a separation between the hip, the quad and the low back. If I can get myself into a nice position where I am just sort of pulling my leg this way and taking the other part that way, I get a nice separation in the hip.

A lot of you are going to find this is a very, very hard position to get into. But, I guarantee you that if you simply persevere and you look at it as a six-week to three-month process, you will be sitting there like this over time and your hips will be significantly looser.

That is what we want to think about. How do we get out hips looser over time because they take a lot of pressure with the amount of sitting we have been doing. Local Physiotherapists

Presenter: Kinesiologist, 

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To stretch the large gluteal muscles of the bum this is a very effective stretch. What I like to do is lie on my back, support my neck, I like to bring the knee up into the chest. And what I like to do is I like to fire up all my bum muscles, and here I like to suck in my stomach, and from here I do a gentle pull in.

And the other variation of that is just to fire up all the muscles all around it and then hold and then do a slight push with your leg against your hands. This is a very effective stretch for stretching out the gluteals.

Bring it in, let it relax, bring it in, and let it relax, and the whole time keeping this whole area slightly contracted 10, 15 percent, you’ll find it a very effective tool for just loosening up the gluteal muscles in the ass.

Now Health Network Presenter:Kinesiologist,

Stretching helps prevent muscle and tendon tears. Those are probably your two main injuries that will occur from not stretching.

Other things it will do is make sure that you maintain good range of motion in your joints. If your joints are limited through tight tissues, then you’re also going to make sure that you maintain joint health, as well.

A physiotherapist can help you stretch properly. Having done the appropriate assessment, they can actually put you through the moves, the stretches that you need to perform to get the maximum benefit from that position to release the tension in the tissues that you’re after.

Hip flexors are usually a significant cause of problems. Because we spend a lot of our time sitting, hip flexors tighten up. That tends to tilt our pelvis forward, and that automatically pulls our hamstrings tights.

So with just one tissue tightened, you’re affecting tissues on the opposite side of the body. If you just treat one side, you’re going to have a problem with the opposite side. You need to see a physio, somebody who’s got a professional eye who can see what needs to be balanced on both sides of the joint.

If you’re looking for a stretching program or somebody to help you with learning how to stretch properly, then a physiotherapist is the person to see.

Presenter: Philip Edwards, Physiotherapist, Toronto, ON

Local Practitioners: Physiotherapist