4 Everyday Habits That Secretly Destroy Your Hips After 40 (And How To Fix Them)
You may not appreciate your hips as much as you should. They’re actually one of the biggest weight-bearing joints in your entire body—and they work really hard for you. Daily wear and tear can challenge them, resulting in lost strength and even deterioration. We spoke with Dr. Rahul Shah, board-certified orthopedic spine surgeon at Premier Orthopaedic Associates, who shares five ways to save your hip health.
The hip joint connects your pelvis to your thigh bone. It keeps your body stable and provides complete mobility.
“Hip health is a lifelong commitment. It begins when someone is born in order to ensure the hips are not deformed or dislocated for any reason,” Dr. Shah explains. “As one gets older, several issues can affect the hip, including trauma or infection during late childhood to early teens. After childhood, the hips can become stiffer and can become more affected with arthritis if one’s weight is significantly increasing. Additionally, if one has an autoimmune disease, sometimes the joints in the hip can also be affected.”
Because of the extent of their responsibilities, it’s important to care for your hips. Dr. Shah shares the most important ways to do so.
How To Protect Your Hips as You Age
Strengthen Your Hip Muscles
In addition, Dr. Shah encourages you to build strength in your hip muscles.
“Strengthening of the hip muscles will improve the loads that the hip joint sees and works to shield the hip joints from taking extra loads,” Dr. Shah shares.
Maximize Your Overall Health
Optimizing your hip health starts with what Dr. Shah refers to as, “whole health optimization.”
He shares, “By avoiding smoking, optimizing nutrition and avoiding obesity, as well as stretching with hip stretches, one can work to simultaneously improve the muscles by controlling hip movements and ensuring that they are working optimally, as well as decreasing the loads applied to the hip, which can work to accelerate hip degeneration.”
Focus On Posture
Standing up straight isn’t just for aesthetics.
“By aligning the posture of the lower back and hips and ensuring that they work in harmony, the forces that go across the hip/pelvis/lower back can be optimized,” says Dr. Shah.
Avoid a Sedentary Lifestyle
Many daily routines can negatively impact your hips—even ones you may not consider. For instance, if you work a desk job, chances are, you likely sit all day and slouch forward over your laptop, which can compromise your hips.
“Everyday habits outside of those mentioned above (increasing obesity, poor nutrition, smoking, etc. which all serve to either increase the loads across the joints or weaken the structure of the joint) include prolonged sitting and stooping forward,” Dr. Shah says. “Both of these habits work to increase the wear and tear the hip experiences over time and work to potentially weaken the muscles around the pelvis.”
