One common thing we see is tightness within the hip rotators (typically more with turning out/external rotation versus turning in/internal rotation). This can happen when there is too much tightness/activation within the deep hip external rotators. These muscles are located on lower portion of the back of your hip/butt. People who constantly clench their bottoms can develop tightness in these muscles and it can influence people to walk with one or both legs turned out.
When these muscles are tight, the head of the femur (ball part of the hip socket) can become pushed forwards in the socket, and now instead of only having pain because of tight muscles on the back of the hip, there is pain from the head of the femur pushing forwards onto the labrum, joint capsule and hip flexors. You can see how this would lead to being uncomfortable and cause limitations in motion.
One easy way to work on reducing this tightness is to improve hip mobility into the back of the hip socket which frees up space in the front of the socket.
If the tight muscles are pushing the head of the femur forwards constantly, the back of the socket can become more tight. Therefore as you are improving mobility in the back of the socket, you are returning your hip back to where it likes to be.
Another thing you can do to improve this is simply focusing on relaxing the muscles on the back of your hip— relax your bottom!
Not only do you want to improve mobility in the back of your hip socket, but you also want to improve strength through this new range as well.
Here are a few exercises for mobility and strength:
1. 90/90 breathing with hip shifts
Lie on your back with you knees and hips bent at 90 degrees. Your feet will be flat on the wall.
Don’t move your feet, but pull your feet down the wall as if you were scraping mud off of the bottoms of your feet. Your foot will stay in the same place on the wall, but your hamstrings on the back of your thighs will activate
Then reach your left knee towards the ceiling while your right knee is pulling towards the floor. You should feel your right femur (hip/leg bone) moving back into the socket.
Hold this position and breathe 3 times.
Then move to the other side.
Repeat 2-3x/side
2. Curtsy Lunge
Standing on your right leg, move your left leg to reach behind your left into a lunge.
You will be lengthening the outside of your right hip. Think about the ball of the socket almost pushing out to the right back side of your hip as you step behind.
Then return back to the starting position.
Repeat 8-12 times/side