Today I'm going to talk about my experience with hips -- they've been a matter of family bonding, in that Emily, Julie I are all having hip misbehavior.  

My right hip has been off and on painful for ...I guess a couple of years.  Not enough to do anything about, and I assumed that it was just women's old age bones.  I could see that different levels of exercise sometimes made it better for a while, but it never went away.  It was particularly bad at night...I'd wake up with real hip pain from staying in one position too long (I think).  

So a couple of weeks ago I did an exercise class with a substitute for our regular leader, and he ran us through a mini-boot camp.  It was super fun, and I ran through the obstacles forwards, backwards, sidewards...and was enjoying it enough to keep going.  But, within a day or so my hip flared up, so much so that I couldn't do one set of leg lifts that I've done easily for months.

When I met with my weekly trainer, Phil, I mentioned my hip, pointed to where it hurt, etc.  He plopped me on the ground and physically pulled/pushed on my legs for a few minutes -- got the stretch right in the hips...and MAN -- I got off the ground a new woman.  The following week he did it again, and threw in some hamstring manipulation too.  Well -- I'm here to say that I've been pain free ever since.  He also gave me a good hip stretcher that I'll pass onto anyone who wants to try it...I've been doing it every day, and also asked my yoga teacher to go over it so I got it right.  It's basically the yoga pose, pigeon.  Here's a link to a good description.

I know all hips are different, and I have no idea what might help Julie or Emily -- but this did it for me.  Happy stretching!