Stand Tall, Move Free: Improving Hip Mobility to Decrease Low Back Injury Risk.

“I simply do not have enough time to stretch or warm up. I barely even have enough time to workout!’

When I was in my late teens and early twenties, I had one goal in mind when working out: building muscle. Like every other early twenty something, juggling classes, relationships, and internships were enough in my day let alone adding an additional 15–20 minutes to a workout to warm up and improve mobility.

It wouldn’t be until my clinical career as a physical therapist that I really began to realize the importance of joint mobility (particularly spinal and hip mobility) and the noticeable association with those experiencing low back pain. I have treated thousands of clients with low back pain and the ones that improved the quickest were the ones with better joint mobility. These individuals would typically perform prescribed movements better and recover faster.

In the case of low back pain, a condition 84% of the general population will experience sometime in their life and nearly 1 in 4 will experience chronically, which is pain lasting greater than 3 months (Roach, et al. 2015). It is important to recognize and implement mobility activities to protect, reduce, and recover effectively as possible. You still may be thinking “Ok, but I don’t have enough time to do a bunch of stretches. What is the ONE movement to focus on.”