#7 Hip Flexor (Psoas) Muscle Stretch: Simple Stretches with Children
Hello! My name is Amy Sturkey. I am a
pediatric physical therapist with about 33 years of clinical practice. I'm here
with my co-instructor. This is Andrew, and he is four years old. And we're working
on hip flexor stretches. I have a lot of clients who are tight across their hip
flexors, and so I tend to stretch them. One of the ways I stretch them is I get
up on my hands and knees.
I get up on my hands and knees like this,
and I put up one leg. Can you get up on your hands and knees? Yep.
And then I try to get them to come forward as far as they can. Can you
come forward. Uh-huh. Perfect. Let's get your leg right here
forward. I like that just stretch across that hip.
I tend to have my clients hold that stretch for a minute and a half. For the
purposes of the video, I'm not going to have him hold it that long.
I use a
timer called Countdown. It's a visual timer that kids really seem to like to
be able to figure out how long they have to hold a stretch. That's perfect. The
other hip flexor stretch I tend to do is: I'll see…let me do it first, sweetie. Hop
on up. As I…
come over here on this side. Over here.
I put down on the floor with one leg forward
one leg back, and then I stretch across this hip. So let's see how close we can
get Andrew to doing that. Was that a sneeze? All right, come on down
to your hands and knee for me. Come on down your hands and knees. Uh-huh. I'm
going to have one leg in the front one leg in the back.
Whoa Mama!
Actually let's do it the other way so we have the other leg one leg in the front.
Whoa Mama! One leg in the front, one leg in the back. All right, and are
you able to stretch up with your hands up in the air?
And we hold that position 10,
9, 8,
7, 6,
5, 4,
3, 2,
1. It's a beautiful stretch across the hips. For some kids, I just put a bench in the
front, and they push up off the bench.
For Andrew, this is a good stretch too.
Those are two easy hip flexor stretches. I hope these are helpful for you, and
we'll look forward to seeing you next time. Thanks a lot! Bye-bye!
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