How to Stretch Tight Hip Flexors

The Hip Flexors are a group of muscles in the hip which primarily consist of the hip and rectus abdominis muscles, these muscles contribute to the action of flexing your hip joint, flexing your trunk forward, pulling your knees upward and helping to stabilize your lower body, the common cause of hip pain particularly in the front is due to tight hip flexors, tight hip flexors also pull the pelvis into an interior pelvic tilt position, increasing the lower body curve and arching your back which is a common cause for low back pain, causes of hip flexor tightness include sitting for an extended period of time.

It is commonly seen in runners with week glutes and repetitive use and also for sports that require repetitive kicking, a physical therapist can be seen in order to evaluate your condition as well as assess the link of your hip flexors, this can be found to the use of a Tomas test, in order to perform this stretch, kneel down with one leg, with the other in a flex position, the hip flexors with a knee on the floor will be stretched by moving the leg into a more extended position, in order to increase the amount of stretch, try moving the arm on a same side that is being stretched towards the opposite side.

This simple stretch can be performed by placing your arms around your hips and extending your trunk until you feel stretched in the front of your hips, be careful not to over extend which can result in pain in your low back, this stretch can be performed by flexing one hip on to a chair with the opposite limb extended out, make sure that your toes are in line with your knees and lean forward to feel a stretch, this stretch will target both your hip flexors as well as your glutio muscles, make sure to perform these exercises up to three times a day, one to hold for up to twenty seconds, you want to perform them after sitting for more than an hour and also perform them if you feel tightness or pain in the front of your hip.