Hip Flexor TLC
Hip flexors are a group of muscles that tend to be underappreciated and ignored until you realize that you’ve abused or injured them. If you’re interested in maintaining good posture and preventing lower back pain (um, who isn’t?!), you need to break that pattern. Give your hip flexors a little TLC before they act out and force you to. The human body is impressively resilient, it really doesn’t take much effort to improve your physicality, and when you put in the effort you will feel a world of difference.
If you did’t gather from the name, hip flexors control hip flexion, which is a very important job! They allow you to pick up your knees, walk up stairs, bend your torso forward, and so on. They connect the top of your femur (the largest bone in your body) to your lower back, your hips, and your groin. If you have ever pulled, strained, or torn one, you know EXACTLY where they are, and just how much you use them!* They are a collection of anterior hip muscles that include your: rectus femoris, iliacus, psoas, iliocapsularis, sartorious muscles, pectineus, and adductors.
Why are hip flexors a common problem area? Most often because of our sedentary lifestyle. There are a lot of great things about modern day living, however sitting at a traditional job 40+ hours a week, or in commuter traffic, or on your couch, are not any of them. The truth is we sit a lot - much more than the human body was intended to. A multitude of studies show that our modern sedentary lifestyle is arguably as big a threat to our health as smoking, poor diet, and the like, but less obviously so… In my previous post I highlighted the importance of thoracic spine mobility and how a sedentary lifestyle taxes our thoracic spine. Similarly, sitting for long periods of time also taxes the health and mobility of our hip flexors.
When you sit for prolonged periods it keeps your hip flexors in a shortened state (these muscles are elongated in a standing position but are shortened in a seated position). This prolonged shortening of the muscles results in loss of flexibility over time and ultimately a tight, decreased, range of motion. Eventually, when you go to stand and walk you may not be able to bring your hips back to a true neutral position, which can lead to developing muscular imbalances, and lead to a chronic anterior pelvic tilt.
Example of tight hip flexors leading to excessive anterior pelvic tilt (top). Example of neutral pelvis (bottom).
Excessive anterior pelvic tilt, or posterior pelvic tilt, are problematic for our spinal health and posture. The ability to maintain neutral spine and pelvis is crucial for maintaining pain-free movement in both life and dance. Normal rage of motion for the hips should allow for 20 degrees of hyperextension past neutral, with an anterior pelvic tilt of no more than 5 degrees for males, and no more than 10 degrees for females.
No one likes to admit they have tight hip flexors, especially fitness fanatics or dancers! But lets be honest - we pretty much all do. The first time I realized that my own hip flexors were tight, well, I actually didn’t… I was on a ballroom coaching and every time I went into my standard dance frame I felt a tightness and “pull” in my mid- and lower- back. This limited my range of motion and prevented me from producing a dynamic topline. I thought I had back pain for weeks when in fact I had tight hip flexors, causing the limited range of motion, and deferred pain in my back. I felt improvement in a matter of days by incorporating more hip flexor stretches into my routine, and I was very relieved to learn it was officially not a back problem (shoutout to Dr. JD Hasenbank for identifying this)!
Since hip flexors have an important task and influence so much of our movement quality - basic maintenance will serve you amazingly well. Below you will find videos of my favorite hip flexor stretches that I hope you find helpful. With all mobility work - perform gently and do not over-do it. As always, let me know how you like them, or if you have any additional questions, in the comments below!
1/2 Kneel Hip Flexor Stretch
Front Foot Elevated Hip Flexor Stretch
Rear Foot Elevated Hip Flexor Stretch
Yoga Plex
Please Note: All BNB videos are produced to help share options for good stretches, mobility drills, exercises, etc. If you choose to perform any of these you agree to do so at your own risk.
*I strained my left hip one Sunday when I decided it was a good idea to do a 90-minute hot yoga class (I was trying to see what all the rage was about) followed by two hours of dancing at the studio…
By the end of the day I knew I had overdone it.
By the next morning I was physically assisting my left leg with both hands to lift it in and out of my car. It was super sexy… Just kidding. ;)
-Marielle
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