Problem with Standing Hip Circles and snapping hip

Hi everybody!

My name is Stefano, I've been practicing Foundation One and Handstand One for 4 week and this is my first post on this forum.

My general mobility is very poor and I've been working on it for just 3-4 months, but I'm enthusiastic of the results I'm getting from most of the strength and mobility exercises from both F1 and H1 (lot to do on Swivel Hips though).

Yesterday while working on F1 I noticed an issue I'm having during SL/PE1-im, Standing Hip Circles: something in my hip "snaps" laterally while I'm moving my hip on both sides, specially on the right side. To be 100% clear, thinking of a 360° movement, when 0° is hip in the front and 180° hip in the back, I feel the snap at 90° and 270°.

During the first 2 weeks of doing this exercise I thought it was normal, even though not pleasant, but now I'm starting to feel a light pain on the side of the hip, something that totally looks like a bursitis or snapping hip syndrome firing up.

I tried to do hip circles with a shorter ROM, but it didn't seem to work unless I was raising my heel while circling around, or using a very short ROM (making the whole exercise worthless).

Only during last 10 days I've been adding more and more hip mobility exercises and foam rolling during warmup sessions and days off, in the extent of getting into a deeper squat and fixing my hip problems, and I carefully avoided foam rolling on IT Band because I've been reading that it's a better to roll on the TFL and Gluteus than ITB.

But I kinda feel this is not enough to solve this problem with Hip Circles and avoid any kind of inflammation in the future…

Should I keep doing hip circles or stop them until I solve this snapping hip problem in some other way (foam rolling to lengthen the TFL, stretching, trying to improve my overall hip mobility)?

I really want to stop this inflammation on the very beginning cause I don't want to lose ANY workout!!

Thank you in advance for any advice,

Stefano

The snapping in this instance is not good.

If you can post a video in the form check section of this forum. Often folks generate the rotation from the shoulders, and you should feel like you are generating it from the hips.

You can also try doing these with feet hip width apart for awhile.

I'm kinda afraid of doing this movement now because I fell a little inflammation in the area, but I'm treating it with ice and tomorrow morning I'll post a video of the form as you suggest. In the meanwhile, thank you very much!

No hurry! Wait for the symptoms to go away first!

As you've only done Foundation for a month, heed Cole's words carefully. 

Cole Dano said:

No hurry! 

As frequent as you think you'll want and need to workout, halve that, or perhaps reduce it by a third. Also, with the hip circles start your hips out wider and not closer together. I still can't get my feet together as in the video (as I fall over) and am not sure whether that's mastery, but work on it little by little to bring the feet in. By 'little by little' I mean every cycle make an adjustment or when you feel it necessary,. But yeah, if you're hurting don't force it.

All right then, I'll wait for the symptoms to go away and then I'll post a video… luckily today I only have F1A in schedule and it's deload week, so not too much pressure on the side of the hip for today.

The idea of keeping feet hip width apart while doing hip circles sounds very good too.

I'll keep you posted, thank you very much guys!

After laying off for a couple weeks, or however long it takes for the pain to subside, start out slow, don't use as much force to swing the hips around.  Depending on what it is, you may feel yourself pushing up against the previously injured area, but if you take it slow and don't inflame it again you will probably get back in the swing of things.

Thanks dynamo! I will start out slow, I'm justing skipping that IM for a couple of sessions just to heal the little pain I'm feeling and then I'll try to get back into it maybe with feet hip width apart as suggested. Let's see what happens.

Thanks everybody! I'll post a video to form check forum as soon as I can practice it again!

I had the same problem, however focusing on keeping my feet facing forward instead of letting then turn out seemed to solve it for me.

I always keep my feet together and facing forward, but yesterday as I tried to do it with feet shoulder width apart I started to realize that maybe I tend to face my hip a little bit on one side, specially while completing the second half of the movement. I have to test it more accurately as soon as my inflammation goes away, and I'll also post a video to check the form… 

It's amazing what a mirror can do. I was doing these this morning and watching myself and comparing to the video. It's only my second week but I was able to correct my form as I was naturally using a wider stance. With the feet close together this is a significantly more difficult mobility exercise. I also noticed some instability in my ankles that I didn't know about as my balance was not as good in the closer stance. Hoping to see an improvement with these.

Definitely back off and check your form as others have suggested, esp. if the snapping is painful, etc. But what is more interesting is what a wonderful discovery this might turn out to be for you. To explain: I experienced some snapping and trouble spots on this one too. I long had hip tightness problems that resulted in tightness at the knee, but couldn't figure out how to find and treat those areas. Once I felt the snapping on this mobility exercise it was like a light a light bulb went off - it clued me in to the exact problem areas (on one hip especially). To resolve it, I would stretch those areas and put a lacrosse ball into the tight spots and work them out (ala Kelly Starrett). Not only did the snapping go away, but my knees got better too. I guess my point is don't just back off and hope it resolves itself; I think that is too passive. You may need to be proactive in working out some knots, and will be better off and have faster progress as a result.

That is EXACTLY what I'm working on now. I found I often have tightness in my left TFL and (consequently) on my IT band. I'm working on it with foam rolling and lacrosse ball and I've been noticing some kind of improvement (less snapping).

I'll continue working on it and post my future notes and video.

Thank you very much for your reply!

Stefano

Stefano Olla said:

That is EXACTLY what I'm working on now. I found I often have tightness in my left TFL and (consequently) on my IT band. I'm working on it with foam rolling and lacrosse ball and I've been noticing some kind of improvement (less snapping).

I'll continue working on it and post my future notes and video.

 

Thank you very much for your reply!

Stefano

I have had positive results doing standing weighted oblique stretches (SL PE 3 iM I think?) before hip circles coupled with hip flexor stretches in my warm up and cool down.

Thank you very much for your suggestion, I'll give those stretches a try!