Should tight hips make you question your mental health? Here’s what the experts say. Composite: The Guardian/Getty Images View image in fullscreen Should tight hips make you question your mental health? Here’s what the experts say. Composite: The Guardian/Getty Images Call the doctor Well actually Do we really ‘hold tension’ in our hips? The idea is popular in wellness circles, but experts say there’s no evidence that trauma uniquely affects the hips. Here’s what causes hip tightness and what can help
Prefer the Guardian on Google I n yoga classes, on TikTok and throughout other wellness spaces, you’ve probably heard the saying: your hips hold tension. These joints have a reputation of being emotional storage units of sorts – but is it true that they are affected by old traumas and painful memories?
Pain and muscle tension hit harder when you’re going through a difficult time. But should tight hips make you question your mental health? And what can you do to reduce hip tightness? Here’s what you need to know.
When you sense muscle tension in your body, it’s probably caused by one of two things.
The first possibility is not clearly related to stress and involves muscles resisting stretch even when they’re relaxed. Stiffness like this is a mechanical property that reflects how your tissues are built and used.
The other possibility is that your muscles and nerves are engaged in some low-level activity more often than they need to be; this does often happen when people are under psychological stress.
Neither of these causes map cleanly on to what people actually feel, nor the anatomical location of the problem. For instance, when people refer to “tight hips”, they may be feeling pain, an unwanted pulling sensation or stiffness – and the sensation may be coming from the buttocks or the back rather than the hip.
But there is no particular predisposition for a stress-tightness link in the hips. In fact, the evidence linking mental strain with musculoskeletal tension is strongest for the muscles of the shoulders , jaw and pelvic floor . “There’s nothing special about the hip,” says Greg Lehman, a physiotherapist, chiropractor and biomechanics expert who teaches clinicians about pain science.
People who have experienced trauma, especially in childhood, are more likely to have chronic pain and tend to be more sensitive to pain in lab tests. But again, there’s no evidence this is more true for the hips.
Unpleasant sensations in the joint can arise from anatomical issues. For example, people with very shallow or very deep hip sockets tend to have more pain, says Abby Cheng, a sports medicine doctor who specializes in hip disorders at Washington University School of Medicine in St Louis.
Another anatomical cause is irritation in the tendons or their fluid-filled cushions on the outside the hip, called tendinitis or bursitis. It’s especially common in middle-aged and older women .
Other causes are harder to pinpoint. Cheng and other clinicians believe that hip and back pain can be caused by muscles in the front of the hip that are shortened by sitting, as well as other imbalances in muscle strength and length. Having said that, studies haven’t conclusively linked short hip muscles to pain, and many other factors that accompany a sedentary lifestyle may contribute to hip discomfort in desk workers, says Lehman.
View image in fullscreen Man with hip, back, spine and sciatica pain at home. Photograph: m-gucci/Getty Images Overall health may…