Swivel Hips alternative

I'm an Air Traffic Controller and as such spend most of my working day sat down. One of my other hobbies is road cycling (read. another seated position) and as such my hips are in a horrendous state with regards to mobility.

 

I have a tough time performing the swivel hips without my bum coming off the ground, to the point where I'm hardly rotating my hips. As such, I don't feel any pull or stretch in the hips and if I force it I tend to feel it more near the knee joint. 

 

Is it acceptable to replace the swivel hips mobility drill with a targeted hip stretch until such a point as I can perform a significant enough swivel hip movement?

 

Thanks in advance.

Keep doing Swivel hips as required during your workouts and preform the stretching as part of your warm up and during any down time you may have.

 

Your current range of motion will get better as you continue to do your workouts.

 

When you have the chance read the following previous thread.

 

Finally conquered Swivel Hips

Thanks for the reply Rayne-William. Should I keep my bum on the ground and put some pressure on my legs to force a stretch in the hip?

Do the best that you can. Keep your glutes as close to ground as possible.

You could post a video too which would help us give you some more stretches/possible things to work on. With the small amount of info I have now I would recommend using a lacrosse ball to work out the whole glute/hip/leg area regularly. This would be my view even if swivel hips weren't involved in this question, but it should help at worst a little assuming you haven't incorporated it already.

I would also suggest doing big sets of 50-100 swivel hips where you allow your butt/hips to leave the ground.  Just get the motion back into the body.  Your last ten, though, should keep the hips and glutes as flat as possible.  This way you can really feel the difference between the two motions, and you can do this virtually every day if you wished.

 

As for stretching, I'm a big fan of a modified hero pose.  It's a kneeling position where you keep your knees together but feet apart, resting your bum inbetween your heels.  I started using a stack of pillows, because I couldn't reach the floor, and over a few months I got all the way down.  Watch TV or read a book like this instead of sitting on the couch.  You can also do the same with the butterfly stretch, as it targets more the external rotation.

 

Good luck on reclaiming your hips!

It sounds like you need to do a lot of mobility to get your hips moving. Try setting a goal of 30 minutes a day. Stretch many different angles. Also some self massage of the knots in the muscles will help a great deal.

Thanks to all for the replies. I'm going to work the hip and glute area with a lacrosse ball and perform a dedicated stretching routine for all my sticking points twice a week. Hopefully, I will be added to this post within a year announcing my success.