By Karen Calara, MSPT, CSCS
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You know that feeling: the unrelenting soreness and tightness in your hips after a good match, or the twinge you feel in your upper hamstrings as you lunge forward for the ball dropping from just above the tin.
Stretching the muscles around your hips is important to prevent low back problems and muscle strains.
Basics for Static Stretching:
1. Do a light warm-up before you stretch to make the muscles more supple. General rule: break a light sweat.
2. Hold stretches for 30 sec, and perform the stretch at least 1x/side.
3. Slowly ease into the stretches and hold without bouncing.
4. Maintain good posture.
5. Stretch before and after you play.
Buttock/Glutes and Hip Rotators Stretch:
1. Lying on your back, bend both knees, keeping your feet on the ground.
2. Cross your right ankle onto the left knee.
3. With both hands or towel around the left thigh, slowly pull the left leg towards your chest. You should feel the stretch in your right buttock.
4. You can increase the stretch by using the right elbow to gently press the right thigh away from you.
5. Switch sides.
Trunk rotation stretch: alternate stretch for glutes and low back:
1. Lying on your back, bend your right knee and bring it up towards your chest to 90 degrees bend at the hip. Keep your left leg straight.
2. With the left hand on the right knee, slowly bring the right leg across the body.
3. Keep the shoulders down.
4. Switch sides.
Sitting V stretch: Adductors/inner thigh
1. Sitting down with your legs outstretched in front of you in a “V” position.
2. Slowly open the legs into a “V” as far as you feel comfortable that your low back will remain neutral (slight curve in the low back).
3. Maintaining neutral spine and chest lifted, slowly lean forward. Reaching forward will intensify the stretch, but you must keep good spinal alignment.
Runner’s lunge: hip flexors (This can be done with the back leg up or the knee down)
1. Take a large step forward with the left leg.
2. Keep your feet straight, the pelvis squarely facing forward, and torso upright in neutral spine. Your back foot can be up on the ball of the foot or flat on the ground.
3. Slowly lower the body down, but not forward. The front knee should be close to 90 degrees and over the heel. Do not move forward past the toes.
4. Tilt the top of the pelvis backwards, tucking the buttocks in slightly. You should feel the stretch in front of your right leg.
5. Switch.
Hamstring stretch: standing
1. Facing a bench or chair, place the right foot on the bench or the seat of the chair.
2. Keep the right foot vertical, the left foot straight on the ground, and the pelvis squarely facing forward.
3. Tilt the top of the pelvis forward slightly.
4. Lean forward slightly. You do not have to reach for your foot. You should be the stretch starting high on the hamstrings.
5. You can also turn the right foot in and out to isolate the stretch more to the inner and outer hamstring muscles.
6. Switch.
Karen Calara, MSPT, CSCS, is the Executive Director at BioSports Northwest in Seattle, WA. She is a licensed physical therapist and Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist. Calara specializes in sports biomechanics, gait analysis and custom orthotics, functional rehabilitation and sports specific training. She lectures on these topics around the Pacific Northwest and New England. An avid racquet-sport player, Calara is learning to play squash.
(Photos by Karen Calara. Model: Liz Lambert, squash player, Boston, MA. Special thanks to the Boston University Men’s Crew Team for the use of the boathouse!)
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