Oftentimes, when you have tension in your iliacus muscle, it can affect the deep hip rotators in the pelvis and in your pelvic floor. This is because these muscles will play tug of war with the muscles in the front of the hip. Let’s learn how to release them!

First we’ll focus on a special muscle called the obturator internus, which attaches right to the inside portion of the pelvic bone. When you sit down and you put your hands underneath you, the bony part that sticks out is your sit bone. Right inside is of that spot is a little hole called the obturator foramen, which the obturator internus travels through and then attaches to the outside of the hip bone.

This muscle is important to address if you're experiencing any kind of pelvic floor pain or if you know that you have a lot of tension in your iliacus. Oftentimes, the iliacus and the obturator internus are tight together because they play a game of tug of war with each other.

There are a few methods that you can use to release the obturator internus, which are shown in this video:

1. From a seated position, you can place your hands underneath your butt and locate the sit bones. Curl your fingers around the inside of the sit bones and apply pressure to the muscles there that are feeling tender or tight.

2. Even though the Hip Hook isn’t necessarily designed to release the obturator internus, it can also be placed underneath the sit bones and used (similar to what you did using your fingers) to apply pressure to those muscles. Use your body to lean over the tip of the Hip Hook to control the amount of pressure with the platform flat on the ground first. Once comfortable, you can then press down on the handle of the tool to change the angle of the pressure to access the obturator internus muscle.

With either method, once you’ve found a tight spot it is important to remember to stay on that spot for at least 30 to 90 seconds. Continue to breathe and help the muscle relax over the pressure to help the muscle release.
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After releasing the obturator internus, it is important to remember that there are quite a few other deep hip rotator muscles on the back side of the hip that you can address with a small ball. Using the four inch Hip Flexor Release Ball can work, but using a smaller ball (like a lacrosse ball) may help get in there a little bit deeper to release this area.

Here’s how you do it:

1. While laying down on your back, bridge up, and place the ball underneath you. Placing the ball in the middle of the glute would be placing pressure more on the piriformis muscle, so for the deep hip rotators the ball will be placed a little bit lower (closer to where the crease of your butt cheek is).

2. Once the ball is underneath you, play around with straightening out your leg, rotating your body over the ball a little bit, and even rotating the hip in/out to find a position where you are applying the right amount of pressure that is comfortable for you to help release this muscle.

Similarly, apply pressure to the tender spots that you find for 30 to 90 seconds and remember to breathe as you image the tight muscles melting around the ball.
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As you are using the Hip Hook, these are areas worth investigating whether or not you have pelvic floor pain or not. Even if you are an elite athlete who's working on developing a better stride length or improving your ability to pivot, these deep hip rotators can definitely impact your performance.

We hope this has been useful for you! Feel free to reach out back out to us with any other questions by leaving a comment below.
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The Hip Hook is the world’s first muscle release tool designed specifically to release tension in the iliacus AND psoas muscles (your body’s main hip flexors). Using the Hip Hook just a few minutes a day can provide long-term pain relief to your hips, knees, and lower back.

If tightness in your hip flexors is at the root cause of your pain, the Hip Hook might just be the solution you’ve been looking for. Discover this for yourself in the book “Tight Hip, Twisted Core — The Key to Unresolved Pain” by Christine Koth, MPT.

Learn more about the Hip Hook throughout our YouTube channel and also at www.alethahealth.com.

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