2 Exercises for Tight Hip Flexors
There is no doubt that the hip flexors are probably the most unappreciated group of muscles in the human body. Without your hip flexors you wouldn’t be able to walk, run, bend over, and do a bunch of other daily activities you most likely take for granted.
The most important muscles that make up the hip flexors is the illiopsoas, which is the illiacus and psoas muscles combined.
Without this major hip flexor muscle a lot of the sporting activities and other daily tasks you do wouldn’t be possible. Without these muscles working together hip flexion would be impossible.
Hip Flexor Tightness
When these muscles become tight it can cause a host of problems in your body. For one, it can cause chronic pain in your lower back area.
In fact, a lot of people suffering from lower back pain right now probably have tight hip flexors. When your hip flexors tighten up they become shortened, which leads to pain and discomfort in areas such as your lower back, groin area, and thighs.
How to Release Tight Hips
Over at https://hipflexorsinfo.com, it states that “the best way to release tight hips is to do certain stretches that lengthen the shortened muscles”.
Below you’ll find a few of the best hip flexor stretches you can begin doing to improve your hip flexion and get rid of pain.
Piriform Stretch
The piriform stretch works by lengthening the major muscles in your hip flexors. To do this simple yet effective stretch follow the steps below:
- First sit down on the floor with one of your legs stretched out in front of you.
- With one leg stretched out in front of you make sure the other leg is positioned in a bent angle with your knee upwards to your chest area.
- Now gently engage your glutes and begin to rock forward and backwards. You should be putting most of the pressure on the outstretched hip.
This rocking motion utilized in this stretch will help reduce pain in your hip area by stretching out your hip flexor muscles. Repeat this stretch a few times each day for the best result.
Lunges
Doing lunges is one of the best exercises to stretch out your hip flexor muscles and increase range of motion. There are different variations of the lunge but the one below is the standard version. To do this simple lunge exercise do the following:
- First get into a standing position.
- Now take a large step in front of you with one of your legs.
- Put the leg stretched out in front of you in a 90 degree angle and keep the leg behind in an upright position.
- Now go ahead and take your time lowering your body until it almost hits the floor.
- Hold this position for at least 10 seconds before releasing.
Switch to the other leg and repeat this exercise a few more times. To help improve the effectiveness of this stretch engage your core as you slowly lower yourself down.
Conclusion
These 2 hip flexor exercises are a great way to get rid of tight hip flexors and increase the range of motion in this area.
After a while any pain and discomfort you were feeling due to your tight hips will be gone.
