Rotation is a huge part of athletic performance.
Golfers rotate. Tennis and pickleball players rotate. Baseball players rotate. Throwing athletes rotate. Even running requires coordinated rotation through the hips, pelvis, and trunk.
The hips play a major role in allowing all of that to happen.
One of the things I commonly find when assessing athletes is a significant difference in hip rotation from one side to the other. One hip may have plenty of internal or external rotation while the other side is much more limited.
You can still play your sport that way. Your body just has to find the missing rotation somewhere else. And sometimes, the lower back gets asked to do too much.
Your Back Shouldn’t Have to Make Up for Your Hips
The lumbar spine is designed to move, but it doesn’t have nearly the rotational capacity of the hips and thoracic spine.
When a hip isn’t contributing enough rotation, the body compensates by asking for more motion through the pelvis and lower back.
Now think about how many times an athlete repeats that movement. A golfer may take dozens of full swings in a round. A tennis player may hit hundreds of forehands and serves. A baseball or softball player repeats the same rotational pattern every time they throw or swing.
Eventually, all of those repetitions add up.
This is why I’m interested in hip rotation when an athlete tells me their back gets tight during activity, hurts afterward, or feels worse the next morning.
Research in golfers gives us a good example. Golfers with low back pain have been found to have less internal rotation in the lead hip than golfers without low back pain. Other research suggests that limited hip rotation may cause athletes to compensate with additional movement through the lower back.
It doesn’t mean every case of back pain starts at the hip. But if your sport requires rotation and your hips aren’t giving you enough, something else has to.
Better Movement Means Better Performance
Golf is one of my favorite places to demonstrate this because performance is so easy to measure.
I’ve worked with multiple golfers who had significant differences in hip rotation from one side to the other. As we improved their hip mobility and addressed the postural and movement asymmetries behind it, we saw something pretty cool.
They hit the ball farther.
That’s what makes asymmetry worth paying attention to. It isn’t only about preventing pain. Your body also has to transfer force efficiently through the hips, pelvis, and trunk to perform at its best.
So if one hip always feels tighter, one direction of rotation feels easier, or your lower back consistently takes the beating after your sport, don’t ignore it.
Your back may be doing work your hips aren’t giving you.
Find Out Where Your Rotation Is Actually Coming From
You don’t have to guess which side is limited or wait until your back forces the issue. A hip and spine assessment will tell you exactly where your rotation is coming from and where it should be coming from instead.
If you’re an athlete in the Johns Creek, Alpharetta, or Cumming area and your back is doing more work than it should, book a discovery call with our team and let’s find out what your hips owe your back.