Muscles of the hip

How Tight Are Your Hip Flexors

Your hip flexors are an important muscle group. If they are tight – and therefore not moving to their full ability – your spine can become more unstable. The pressure is then added to your lower back as your muscles try to realign your spine.

Prolonged sitting – which most of us do on a daily basis – is one of the biggest reasons for short hip flexors and they can tighten up if your core muscles are not working well. Tightness of the hip flexors will make your back arch more; putting pressure on the spinal joints. It will also inhibit the core muscles of the stomach that support your spine, making it unstable and vulnerable to injury.

Tight hip flexors can result in a lot of pain and discomfort, which can have a massive impact on even the simplest everyday tasks.

Stretches and exercises that have been designed to relax, lengthen and strengthen your hip flexors, will form one important part in helping you help protect your joints and improve your mobility to prevent injuries from occurring.

Here are a few simple exercises and stretches we recommend to start to loosen up your hip flexors and improve your mobility.

Stretching: Hip Flexor Stretch:

1. Lie on your back on your bed
2. Shuffle to the edge so your left leg starts to hang over the side
3. Bend the right leg and lift it so you can take hold of your right knee
4. Bring it up towards your chest as far as you can and let the left leg fall down as far as you can
5. Relax in to this position and hold for 30 seconds, repeat 3 times on each side.

Exercise: Pulse Lunges:

1. Resume a lunge position and make tiny pulsing movements to activate your hip flexors. If it feels too much, don’t lunge as wide.
2. Repeat for 30 seconds on each leg for 3 sets
3. Reverse lunges with knee charge
4. Stand with your feet shoulder width apart
5. Take a step backwards with your right foot and lower into a deep lunge position
6. Shift your weight onto your left foot and drive your right knee upwards, until your knee is parallel to the ground
7. Repeat this movement for 3 sets of 10 repetitions on each leg