Health Fitness & Exercise Stretching and Yoga 5 Easy, Everyday Hip Stretches for Anyone Who Sits All Day Improve your hip flexibility and relieve lower back pain with this five-stretch routine. By Karen Asp, MA, CPT, VLCE Karen Asp, MA, CPT, VLCE Instagram Twitter Website Karen Asp is an award-winning journalist and author specializing in fitness, nutrition, health, animals, and travel. She has over two decades’ worth of experience writing for leading print magazines and digital brands, including Real Simple, Better Homes & Gardens, O, SELF and more. Karen is a certified plant-based nutrition educator, certified vegan lifestyle coach and educator, and ACE-certified personal trainer and fitness instructor. Real Simple's Editorial Guidelines Updated on January 17, 2023 Fact checked by Isaac Winter Fact checked by Isaac Winter Isaac Winter is a fact-checker and writer for Real Simple, ensuring the accuracy of content published by rigorously researching content before publication and periodically when content needs to be updated. Highlights: Helped establish a food pantry in West Garfield Park as an AmeriCorps employee at Above and Beyond Family Recovery Center. Interviewed Heartland Alliance employees for oral history project conducted by the Lake Forest College History Department. Editorial Head of Lake Forest College's literary magazine, Tusitala, for two years. Our Fact-Checking Process Share Tweet Pin Email Hips don't get the care and attention they deserve. After long hours of sitting all day, every day, without the time spent stretching or strengthening them, your hips can turn into unhappy campers—and this could spell trouble down the road. Caitlin-Marie Miner Ong When you're inactive for long periods—think sitting at your desk, commuting, or watching TV for hours—the muscles that move and stabilize your hips can get tight (or, more technically, short). A large muscle group called the hip flexors—which originate in your low back and cross over your hips and are largely responsible for hip flexion (any knee-to-chest movement)—can tighten and constrict when they aren't stretched, strengthen, and utilized (or moved) frequently enough. When the hips get tight and neglected, you can actually develop low back pain, says Marty Matney, LAT, ATC, an athletic trainer in Seattle and chair of the National Athletic Trainer's Association Council on Practice Advancement. Matney adds that many other smaller muscles that act on the hip can become tight from inactivity too. The body mechanics are complex, but when your hip flexors are tight, it affects pelvic and spinal alignment, and the lower back may take on more than it's able to, and boom, back pain. If hip tightness gets left unchecked and worsens, you can experience changes in the movement and function of your hip joint as you walk, which can lead to painful hip osteoarthritis. (In the worst case, you may need surgery.) So how do you know if your hips are tight? There are some telltale signs, Matney says: having trouble going from sitting to standing, followed by a few difficult steps; walking in a slightly bent position or having trouble going up or down stairs; and feeling sore in the front of your hip or low back. Knee pain might even result, largely because that tightness causes changes in your gait. The solution is simple: Break that cycle of inactivity and move, which will help increase hip flexibility and mobility. The benefits? "With more hip flexibility, you'll have easier transitions from sitting to standing, walking will be easier, and you'll have less pain in your hips and low back," Matney says. 6 Easy Exercise Moves to Help You Eliminate Annoying Aches and Pains The Best Daily Hip Stretches To make those hips and surrounding muscles a little happier, do the following five-stretch routine, created by Matney. Hold each hip stretch for 20 to 30 seconds and repeat on each two or three times (don't forget to breathe deeply), completing the whole sequence two or three times a day. 01 of 05 To Stretch Hip Flexors: Lunges Caitlin-Marie Miner Ong Start by standing with feet together. Step right leg back until heel is flat on floor; then lift up on ball of right foot. Keeping back straight and head up, lower heel down slightly until you feel a stretch in right hip flexor. Hold. Release and switch sides. 02 of 05 To Stretch Hamstrings: Single-Leg Standing Hamstring Stretch Caitlin-Marie Miner Ong Standing with feet together, place right heel on floor and flex right foot toward you. As you do this, slowly lean forward from hips (hands can be on hips if you prefer) until you feel a stretch in the back of right leg. Hold. Release and switch sides. RELATED: 5 Simple Hamstring Exercises (Plus 2 Great Stretches) to Strengthen and Lengthen the Backs of Your Legs 03 of 05 To Stretch Outer Hips and Glutes: Figure 4 Stretch Caitlin-Marie Miner Ong For this hip-opening stretch, lie face up on your back, knees bent, and feet on floor. Place right foot on left thigh, right above left knee. With left hand, grasp right knee, pulling it gently toward chest and then left shoulder. Hold. Release and switch sides. 04 of 05 To Stretch Inner Thighs (Hip Adductors): Side Lunge Stretch Caitlin-Marie Miner Ong Stand with feet wider than shoulder-width. Keeping left foot pointed straight ahead on floor, shift weight to right foot until you feel stretch in inner thigh. If you don't feel it, widen the legs a little. Hold. Release and switch sides. 05 of 05 To Stretch Outer Thigh and Hips: Standing IT Band Stretch Caitlin-Marie Miner Ong From standing position, cross right leg over left leg, left hand supported by wall or desk. Keeping right leg and back straight, push right hip out. If you need to bend left knee, that's okay. Hold. Release and switch sides. How to Stretch Your Lower Back and Feel Less Stiff Was this page helpful? Thanks for your feedback! Tell us why! Other Submit