Dr. Mahendra Kumar

One part of the human body is essential for the efficient functioning of another. The hip joint provides support to your overall body weight while you are at ease or in motion. Suffering from medical problems pertaining to the hip can impede free movement; walking, running, stooping, sitting or even lying down will cause immense pain and discomfort in such a situation. While certain bodily disabilities come with old age and are in most cases unavoidable; some others can actually be controlled through physical exercise.

Take a look at a few stretches to improve your hip mobility:

1. Stretch like a pigeon: This yoga loosens up muscle tension in and around a person's hip. Your right leg must be stretched behind while the upper part of your body bends over a folded left leg in front. Your head rests on your coupled hands. This stretch improves the shape of your hip as well.  
2. Try to be an eagle for hip firmness: To align your body in the perfect eagle pose; you probably need to be a conjurer; that is the kind of flexibility the posture requires. Be a half-chair making your hands intersect above your head while your left leg crosses the right one. The pressure is on your hip making it strong. Your body has to be in one single line. 
3. Sit in the chair pose: Crouching on your haunches with your torso inclined to the front is a good way to better hip mobility. This exercise also relieves you of back pain. It adds potency to the muscles of your upper thighs thus giving a well- rounded hip extra support.  
4. Stoop in the downward doggy pose: The downward doggy pose helps you concentrate on the fullness of your hips. The back muscles are stretched and the problem of a small, rickety hip is dealt with through this yoga. Your legs should be erect at the knees and should be stretched apart depending upon the width of your hip. The rest of your body should bend in a forward arch while your spread hands touch the ground.  
5. Try out the benefits of World's Greatest Stretch: World's greatest stretch involves a series of stretches that not only accentuates your hipline making your hip muscles adaptable to stress but also tones muscles in other parts of your body. It is a three- fold exercise. The second step is the most difficult where your body is balanced on a half folded right leg and you're required to touch the ground with your right elbow.

Human back is an amazing example of biological engineering. It provides the basic framework on which the skull, Ribs, Pelvis, and shoulder bones are attached. Can we imagine the human shape without a backbone? We would have looked like a gunny bag filled with some putty like material and would have had no shape of our own. It would have been impossible to lift or carry any object from one place to another.

When we speak of back, we usually mean spinal column which is extending from the back of the skull to pelvis in a graceful yet extremely strong double S shaped curve. This natural architectural masterpiece of human skeleton consists of 33 blocks of bones called vertebra. They are given different names according to the region of the spine they belong to.

In the neck, they are called cervical vertebra.

In the upper back (Chest) they are called Dorsal vertebra.

In the lower back, they are called Lumbar vertebra.

In the tail bone, they are called Coccyx

The vertebrae are hollow structures. The hollow of all vertebrae put together makes a long tunnel through which the tail of the brain (spinal cord) runs. The width of the spinal canal is almost equal to the thickness of a finger.

Vertebra resembles a house in shape and functions.

As a house protects its residents, so does the vertebra protects the spinal cord.