How The Bar Method Exercises Help Students with Hip Conditions

I will be 63 in December and have had two total hip replacements, Mary Brauch, (shown right) a former marathon runner, emailed me this week. Mary is now training for a walking marathon and has discovered that The Bar Method, which shes been doing at home in Chesterfield, MO with The Bar Method DVDs, is helping to get her in shape for the event. It is very important to have strong legs with muscle (lean, strong) muscle, she wrote me. The Bar Method accomplishes that…I am addicted.

Most Bar Method students like Mary with common hip conditions like hip replacements and arthritis find that the non-impact, controlled nature of the workout offers them an ideal way to get strong without jarring their joints. Other types of hip conditions arent as easily adapted to the Bar Method workout as Marys. Still, they wont prevent students who have them from doing the workout provided they use a few simple modifications.

Hip Dysplasia and Labrum Tears:

One such disorder is hip dysplasia, a congenital deformity of the hip that causes the ball and socket not to fit together well, making it vulnerable to dislocation. Another condition is a tear in the labrum, a fibrous tissue deep in the hip socket. Students with either condition feel discomfort or instability when their leg moves inwards and upwards towards the center of their body. In order to take class in comfort, they should simply avoid exercises that move their legs in that way. In place of pretzel, which requires students to sit so that one hip is flexed and drawn inward, they can do standing seat. Instead of the butterfly stretch, a seat stretch at the end of class that requires students to cross one leg tightly over the other, they can do a figure 4 stretch, thereby allowing their legs to remain slightly open

Tendonitis:

Inflamed muscles and tendons, usually due to overuse, are another source of hip problems. The hip muscles that are most likely to get tweaked in this way are the rectus femoris, a thigh muscle that helps elevate the leg, and the iliapsoas, which is actually comprised of two big muscles that join to flex the hip. Dancers as you can imagine are known for getting tendonitis in their hip muscles from repeatedly extending their graceful legs upwards. One such dancer, a beautiful Rockette named Jacey who is now a Bar Method teacher in New York City, developed sensitive hips from all the kicks she performed over the years.

During flat-back, an intense Bar Method exercise that works the hip-flexors, Jacey has found that sitting on a riser mat eliminates the problem (shown left). This solution works for any student with easily irritated hips.

As Ive said in more than one blog, I believe that the overwhelming majority of students with limitations due to joint issues benefit from intense exercise as long as they can do it safely. The reason the Bar Method is a great fit for such students is, to put it in Marys words, because of the results…especially for people who should NOT do high impact but want a good, worthwhile workout.