Post 22: Et Tu, Hips?

As my fitness levels have increased, I've been incredibly worried about my knees giving out.  I've had issues with my knees since an unfortunate snow football injury during college, and they've never really gotten better.  Since most of my activity involves pounding my knees because I'm a super heavy runner (I need some tips on my form) and because basketball involves jumping, twisting, running, and sudden stops, I basically lay in bed at night thanking God that my knees are just sore enough to make getting in and out of bed difficult, but not so bad that I can't do the activities that I need and love.

In the past week or so, an old friend from even before college started to rear its ugly head.  I have long suffered with ridiculous tightness in my legs, and most of my pain is the result of my hip flexors.  In case you aren't an anatomy and physiology buff, here's what I'm talking about specifically:

These skeletal muscles are responsible for pulling the knee upward.  Due to (or perhaps the cause of) my complete lack of flexibility, these muscles have become tighter and tighter over the years.  There are times where they are so tight and sore that I literally scream out if something touches them and puts any form of pressure.  These hip flexors don't help my knee issue because when they get tight, they tend to pull upwards on my knee, causing things to get even more out of whack.  When they aren't busy pulling my knee up, they have a tendency to pull my hip down and out of where it is supposed to be.  Evidently, this is what they are currently conspiring to do.  Over the past week, my left hip has felt like it is becoming further and further out of the place where it is supposed to be.  There are certain ways that I move my leg that make it feel like there is bone grinding on bone.  I've printed a list of exercises to help with it, but almost all of them involve lunges, something that my weak knees don't really allow me to do.  I think that I probably just need to suck it up and go see a chiropractor, but based on previous experiences, I'm well aware that one visit to the chiropractor usually evolves into needing to come twice a week.  With mortgages on the mind, twice weekly copays aren't really something I'm excited to jump into.  With that said, I've got to do something pretty soon.  Between the knees and the hips, I'm starting to walk with a noticeable limp when I stand up.  Eventually everything kind of stretches into place, but I'm still never really comfortable.  It also doesn't help that I don't have an ass, so I feel like I'm sitting directly on the sore bone.  I come from a long line of people with hip issues (and by long line, I mean my dad), and I'm really hoping that I don't have to get a new knee and hip like he did this past year.  Has anyone else ever had hip issues or hip flexor tightness?  If so, do you have any less knee-stressful stretches or exercises that I could do to loosen up?  Let me know!

Your hippie hipster,

Jeff