7 Ways to Prevent Hip Injuries

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Some 300,000 Americans fracture their hips each year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). These injuries can be extremely dangerous and debilitating. About 1

in 5 of those who fracture their hips will die within a year, according to a recent study. 

To avoid hip fractures, follow these tips for healthy hips. Make sure to consult a physical therapist if you are experiencing pain, discomfort or instability during exercise.

Physical therapists can help you with your pain signals for overstretching, overexertion and exceeding your range of motion, says Keelan Enseki, chair of the American Physical Therapist

Association’s hip special interest group and the director of clinical practice innovation at University of Pittsburgh Medical Center Rehabilitation Institute. “If you try to push through

that, you’re going to cause problems.”

Whenever you are in a stretch and the pain increases as you spend time in it, you should stop, says Urvika Choksey, M.D., medical chair of the Yale New Haven Hospital integrated hip

fragility fracture program. Another sign you need to pull back on an exercise is when you feel a deep or shooting pain, Enseki says. When patients come in who have been doing one exercise

such as running or dancing their whole lives, the answer may not be to give up the exercise. Sometimes a cross-training approach works best, for example, running fewer days and alternating

running with other types of exercise.

“Do gentle yoga that opens your hips to improve strength and flexibility, but stop when your body tells you to,” says CoreBarreFit cofounder Fred Devito. “There’s a natural point during a

stretch where your body just stops,” he says. Any further push from there should be what your body does naturally by breathing into a stretch. Breathing into a stretch means simply holding

a stretch at your natural stopping point, but exploring whether your body stretches a little further while you take deep breaths.

Try other hip- and joint-friendly exercises, too, such as swimming, cycling, walking and tai chi, says Tamara Huff, M.D., CEO of VIGEO Orthopedics.

throughout the week

Don’t do any one exercise as your only workout. Based on a recent study, exercises that combine balance, joint motion and strength resistance may be more effective at preventing falls than a

single-focus exercise program. “Walking is good, but it’s not enough for reducing hip fractures,” Choksey says. “You want to also include some resistance training and some stretching.”