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Exercises for Mobility and Functional Strength
If you embrace the adage about an ounce of prevention being worth a pound of cure, you'll want to review the following information about your pelvic region, including four simple stretches that, if performed daily, may spare you many of the strains, sprains, and aches that are often attributed to aging. 
There's no question that it's healthy to engage in exercise and activities that create and maintain muscle mass. Beyond warding off osteoporosis, regular exercise that builds up and sustains muscle can significantly decrease risk of diabetes type 2, as skeletal muscle acts as a storage reservoir for excess sugar that makes its way into your bloodstream. Put another way, the more skeletal muscle mass you maintain, the greater capacity your body has to prevent diabetes and other types of cardiovascular disease. 
As you age, all of your ligaments and tendons become more susceptible to injury. This is just a fact of life. Once you stop growing, you start degenerating; all you can control is the rate at which you degenerate.
There are many potential causes of hip pain and stiffness, and as anyone who has experienced significant trouble with a hip joint will tell you, inability to walk or even sit cross-legged without pain is a real killer of quality of life. 
For over sixteen years now, I've been recommending two basic stretches to the vast majority of my clients. Stretches to help keep the soft tissues in the lower and mid back regions flexible and well supplied with healthy blood flow. In my experience, no other stretches more effectively keep the trunk and pelvis healthfully limber. 
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If you have tight hip flexors, you can expect to have problems with your hip joints and lower back, if not now, then almost certainly at some point in the future. 
Most of the problems that you can experience in your lower legs are likely to originate from posterior compartment muscles, the two main ones being your gastrocnemius and soleus. Together, these calf muscles allow you to push off the ground with every step you take. Join more than 100,000 readers worldwide who receive Dr. Ben Kim's free newsletter
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