Tight hips rarely hurt at first, which is why most people never notice them slipping. Instead of pain, you get small changes in how you move. You stop squatting as low as you used to, and you lean to one side when you stand up from a chair. You start rolling onto your side to get out of bed instead of sitting straight up. None of that feels like a problem in the moment, so it goes unchecked for years. The good news is that you do not need an appointment to find out where you stand. Two simple tests will tell you a lot, and you can do both of them today on your bedroom floor. We run versions of these tests during in-home physical therapy Austin, TX visits, and Move Empower Concierge Physical Therapy starts most hip evaluations right here.
Why Your Hips Are Worth Checking
Your hip is a ball and socket joint. That means it is built to move in every direction. It should let you pull your knee toward your chest and swing your leg out to the side. It should also let your thigh rotate in and out. Daily life only asks for one of those directions, and that direction is forward. You walk forward, you sit facing forward, and you drive facing forward. The other directions slowly get used less and less. A joint that stops moving a certain way will lose that motion over time. The tissue around it shortens, and your brain stops asking for a range you never use. Catching this early helps, because motion you lose slowly tends to come back faster than motion you lose after an injury. One more thing is worth knowing before you test yourself. Your two hips almost never stiffen at the same rate, since you favor one leg getting out of the car and stand with more weight on one side. That is why comparing your right to your left tells you more than any single measurement does.
Test One: The Figure Four Test
Physical therapists call this the FABER test, and the letters stand for flexion, abduction, and external rotation. Those are the three motions it checks at the same time, which is what makes it such an efficient screen. Lie flat on your back on the floor or on a firm bed. Bend one knee and set that ankle on top of your other thigh, just above the knee. Your legs should form the number four. Now let your bent knee relax down toward the floor, and do not push on it. Stay there for a few seconds and let gravity do the work. Then switch legs and do the same thing on the other side.
What To Look For During The Figure Four Test
You are checking two things, and neither one takes any equipment. The first is how far your knee drops. In a hip with good motion, the bent knee falls fairly close to the floor, and the thigh ends up not far above level. If your knee stalls out high and just hangs there, that hip has limited motion. The second thing is the difference between your two sides, and this one matters even more. Have someone take a photo from the side, or reach down and measure the gap from your knee to the floor with your hand. A clear gap between your right hip and your left hip is the strongest signal that something is worth a closer look.
Test Two: The Mirror Squat
Stand in front of a full length mirror with your feet about shoulder width apart and your toes pointing forward. Squat down as far as you can while keeping both heels on the ground. Go slowly, and watch yourself the whole way down and the whole way back up. Do it three or four times so you can spot a pattern, because one odd rep does not tell you much. If you do not have a big mirror at home, have someone record a short video from the front and another one from the side.
What To Look For During The Mirror Squat
Your body will tell on itself if you watch closely. Look at whether your hips shift toward one side as you lower down. That is the most common finding, and it usually means one hip moves better than the other. Check whether one knee caves inward while the other one stays in line. See if your heels want to lift off the floor as you get lower. Notice whether your chest tips far forward, and watch for your low back rounding under near the bottom. Pay attention to depth as well, because stopping well above parallel when you used to go lower is worth writing down.
What Your Results Actually Mean
Not passing these tests is common, and it is not bad news. Limited motion in the figure four position usually points to tight tissue at the front and side of your hip. That tissue responds well to the right kind of work. A hip shift during a squat usually means one side is stiffer, and your body is quietly working around it. Neither finding tells you there is damage inside the joint. What they do tell you is where to aim your effort, and that beats stretching everything you can think of and hoping something helps.
Can A Test You Do At Home Really Be Trusted?
This is a fair question, and the research here is reassuring. Physical therapists have tested the figure four position three different ways, and one of those ways used a simple ruler measuring from the knee down to the table. All three methods gave excellent consistency from one measurement to the next, according to a 2016 measurement study. The best results came from a tool called an inclinometer, which you probably do not have in a kitchen drawer. The ruler method held up very well, and that one you can absolutely do yourself. Measure from the outside of your knee down to the floor on both sides, and write both numbers down. Then check them again in a few weeks to see whether the gap is closing.
Simple Things That Help Right Away
You can start on this before anyone tells you to. Get up and move every thirty to sixty minutes when you sit for long stretches, because hips get stiff in whatever position you park them in. Spend a couple of minutes a day in a half kneeling position. Put your back knee down and your front foot forward, then shift your weight ahead gently to open up the front of the hip. Add movement in the directions you have been skipping. Stepping sideways is a good one, and so is rotating your leg in and out while you lie on your back. Give all of this three or four weeks of steady effort before you judge it.
When It Is Time To Have A PT Take A Look
A few results are worth getting checked rather than working on alone. One is a clear gap between your two sides that has not budged after a month of steady effort. Another is pain in the front of your hip or deep in your groin during the figure four test, especially when that pain pinches rather than stretches. You should also get it looked at if your low back or your knee started bothering you around the same time your hips got stiff, because those often travel together. The same goes for a hip that catches, clicks painfully, or feels like it might give way under you.
The Extra Tests A Physical Therapist Can Run
Home tests give you a good picture, and a full assessment fills in the rest. Your PT will measure each direction your hip moves on its own. That tells you whether the limit sits in rotation, in bringing your leg out to the side, or in extending it behind you. They will also test the strength of the muscles around your hip, because a joint that feels tight is sometimes a joint working overtime to stay stable. Then they watch you do the things you actually do every day, including stepping up onto a stair, getting off your own couch, and walking down your own hallway. Doing this at home means those tests use your real furniture instead of a gym step.
What Treatment Usually Looks Like
Most hip mobility plans pair hands on work with movement you do yourself. Manual therapy loosens the tissue and the joint directly, which opens a window where new range becomes available to you. Guided exercise is what makes the range stick, because tissue holds onto motion you actually use. Dry needling helps when one muscle stays locked up and will not let go. Cold laser can settle down an irritated area so you can move it more comfortably. Acoustic pressure wave treatment is another option we bring with us, and most people call it shockwave therapy. It suits stubborn tendon and soft tissue trouble around the hip that has been hanging around for months. Your physical therapist picks from these based on what your assessment shows, so nobody gets run through the same routine as everybody else.
How Long Improvement Usually Takes
Most people see a change in their test results before they feel a change in comfort. In the first two or three weeks, the knee in the figure four position tends to drop a little lower, and the gap between your two sides starts closing. Around week four or five, the squat usually looks straighter in the mirror and the shift toward one side gets smaller. Everyday comfort often shows up after those things, which surprises people who expect it first. Retest yourself every couple of weeks and keep writing the numbers down, so you are looking at real evidence instead of trying to remember how last month felt.
Hip mobility responds well once you know which direction is actually limited and put your effort there. The team at Move Empower Concierge Physical Therapy brings the full assessment to your home. We measure every direction your hip should move, then build the plan that opens up the ones that have gone quiet. Schedule a FREE discovery session with us today.