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I’ve always known that I don’t have the best hip mobility, but it wasn’t until I had kids that I realised just how tight my hips are, because I found myself having to sit on the floor a lot more to play with them.
I can’t sit cross-legged. In fact, I can’t get anywhere close to sitting cross-legged. My knees are so comically far from the floor that I have to lean back and support myself with my hands, and people assume I’m joking about how inflexible I am. Unfortunately, I’m not.
When I revealed this lack of flexibility to my physio during an appointment about a different issue, they felt obliged to try and help, and recommended I do the windshield wiper stretch every day to try and open up my hips — my hips were actually too tight for the 90/90 stretch, which is one I aim to build up to.
I’ve been doing the windshield wiper exercise every day since, and from what I can tell, it’s helping. I still can’t sit cross-legged, but maybe one day…
How to do the windshield wiper stretch
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The windshield wiper stretch is done while lying or sitting on the floor, so if you’re doing it on a hard surface, it might be more comfortable to roll out a yoga mat first.
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Lie on your back with your arms stretched out to the sides to form a T-shape, stabilizing your upper body.
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Bend both your legs so your knees are at a 90° angle and bring your feet up towards you, spreading them apart.
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Let your knees fall to the right side so the outside of your right thigh is resting on the floor.
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Hold the stretch for 30 seconds, then take your legs over to the other side. You can also sit if you prefer.
When I do the stretch, the opposite hip tends to rise off the floor because of how tight my hips are in general. So I gently push it back down to deepen the stretch. You should feel the stretch on both the right and left sides of the hips
Note that there is also an abs exercise called the windshield wiper, where you swing your extended legs from side to side. This is not that — if you feel the burn in your lower abs, you’re doing the wrong move.
Benefits of the windshield wiper
The windshield wiper is a very approachable stretch that even those, like myself, with the tightest of hips, can do to try and boost mobility.
I feel like after doing the stretch every day for a week, a little progress has been made in reducing my hip tightness, and it’s an easy stretch to do, so it’s not hard to make time for it each day.
Along with being a good stretch to do in general, it’s also great for warm-ups before your workouts or runs — I’m a keen runner, and it’s one I’ll add to my routine to do before interval sessions, and tempo runs in particular.
If you’d rather do a dynamic stretch than a static one, which is usually a good idea when warming up for a workout in particular, you can keep driving your knees from side to side, rather than holding on each side.
You can make the move a little more challenging by sitting up, getting toward the position for the 90/90 stretch.
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