Running Without Hip Pain

Running is hard on your joints. Many runners, even the experienced ones, don't run correctly or strength train correctly for joint pain prevention. I've had my share of joint pain: the occasional pinched feeling in my ankles, weak knees, and ancient feeling hips. As a result of my own pain I've done some research into the causes of this pain and ways to prevent it. Here are some quick tips on improving hip strength and reducing hip pain.

The number 1 way to prevent ANY running injury is to add miles slowly. I cannot stress this enough. If you have a particular distance goal in mind find a training rhythm for that distance as recommended by a professional and stick with it. Keep in mind that most training rhythms include at least 1 day of full rest a week, and stagger miles (don't run the same number of miles everyday, run more or less miles in order to push then recover and allow for different focus points such as speed versus endurance).

Running stance is important for preventing hip injuries. The abs and lower back are important in keeping a good stance. Standing up tall and keeping the abs engaged will help keep the pelvis forward and allow the hips to move freely without added stress.

Pay attention to the way you run. Does one leg dominate over the other? Is your pelvis aligned straight in front of your body or is it tilted to one side? Focus on making each step feel the same as the one before it and on making both sides of your body feel the same. This may require you to run in a way that feels slightly awkward compared to what you're used to but you may have trained yourself to run in poor form and retraining yourself may feel awkward at first.

Doing exercises to strengthen and stretch the hip flexors and pelvis will greatly reduce your risk of hip injury and pain.

Forward and side lunges are both good stretches for the hips, as is sitting in butterfly position.

Side leg lifts are a gentle way to improve hip strength. Lay on your side with legs straight, hips, knees, and feet stacked. Support your head with your hand. Keep your abs engaged as you raise your top leg as high as is comfortable. Do 12-15 reps on each side.
Variate this with bended knees. Keeping your feet touching at all times, raise the knee of your upper leg as high as is comfortable.

A good abdominal exercise for stabilizing the pelvis is to lay on your back, abdominals engaged. Bend your knees at a 45 degree angle. Lift one leg off the ground and bend your knee at a 90 degree angle. Raise your leg until your calf is parallel with the ground. If this is easy for you then you are not fully engaging your abdominals! Lower your foot to the ground and do the same with your other leg. Repeat for 12-15 reps per leg, being sure to engage your abdominals and keep your pelvis centered.

KEEP YOUR HIPS HEALTHY!!