How to Fix Tight Hip Flexors (Build Strength and Mobility)
Yo what's up its Coach E here from
Precision Movement and today we're gonna talk about how to fix tight hip flexors so the hip flexor muscles are in this area right here and they work to do this
action hip flexion so bringing the knee closer to the chest okay
the muscles involved the most important muscles involved in hip flexion are the
iliopsoas and those originate from the spine the lumbar spine and then insert
down into the femur and the rectus femoris which inserts into from the or
originates from the pelvis and inserts down right down into the knee it's one
of the quadriceps muscles and a secondary hip flexor that's pretty
important is the tensor fasciae latae and that's just out to the side a little
bit right around here and it goes from the pelvis into the iliotibial band
which then runs into the knee now if you've got pain in the tensor fasciae
latae which is more on the side then visit the video that i'm gonna link to
right now you'll see the little card to come up here on youtube and go watch
that video because if you've got pain in the tensor fasciae latae this video is
not going to be as relevant to you okay you might want to come back here
afterwards now if you do have tightness in the hip flexors where it feels like
after you get up from sitting it's like oh you got to kind of straighten up and
it's really tight and tense in here then this is the video for you so let's start
off talking about why the hip flexors get tight in the first place and I
alluded to that already the reason why is because of all the sitting that we do
okay we're in this crouched position the hip flexors are shortened and because
we're supported the hip flexors don't have to work none of the muscles have to
work so the muscle is not only shortened but it's weakened okay and that's a
recipe for chronic tightness when a muscle is short and it's weakened and
atrophies because you don't use it and that muscle will get tight because the
brain thinks okay this must if it's so weak but I still needed to do
stuff at the very least I'm just gonna make it tight so it won't just rip and
pull apart and still provide some stability to the joint okay
and in this case especially with the iliopsoas it's contributing to stability
of the lumbar spine as well as the movement of hip flexion it's a two joint
muscle and stability of the lumbar spine is very very important if that lumbar
spine isn't stable then that's when disk problems ligament issues can occur you
get low back pain so the hip flexor is the iliopsoas gets tight to contribute
to that stability of the lumbar spine so that's another reason why the hip
flexors might be tight and it's gonna be addressed with one of the exercises that
I'm gonna teach you here today so how are we going to go about loosening these
tight hip flexors well I talked about it in the intro static stretching is not
the answer because if we're just gonna go down and do your typical hip flexor
stretch trying to loosen these guys up we're not addressing the one component
the strength component okay the muscle is weak and a weak muscle the brain
likes to tighten it up so unless we strengthen that muscle the brain is
never gonna let it go okay so we can do all the stretching all the static
stretching we want and we're not going to build any strength so we might get
that length but it's only going to be temporary you're never gonna get any
lasting relief from the feeling of tightness okay so we're gonna both
lengthen and strengthen and we're not only going to strengthen the hip flexors
in their motion but also at their end ranges so that we can build that end
range and achieve length and looseness for the long term okay so let's start
off we're gonna do three exercises today and then I've got some more info for you
afterwards but let's start with the three exercise the first one is a
dynamic mobility exercise I call it the bgj quad stretch so if you've ever done
Brazilian Jujitsu then you'll know this movement is very familiar for for you so
you start off sitting down let's start with your left hand on the ground we're
gonna do eight reps per side you place your right foot flat on the ground
and you bridge yourself up so my hips are off the ground and I'm just gonna
drive my knee forward towards the ground like that okay and I'm gonna bring it
back under control switch and I'm not going to go fully with this side cuz I'm
still rehabbing a meniscus injury I gave to myself in the summer okay so go on
side to side breathing going slowing under control if you could touch the
knee down to the ground do it and you can see you're getting a full stretch in
the iliopsoas and in the rectus femoris as well which is awesome because we're
hitting the two major hip flexors okay so it reps the side back and forth under
control breathing and you're gonna dynamically lengthen the hip flexors
okay which is awesome but it's not enough we
got to do more next up we're gonna do the half kneeling lunge stretch and this
is an e re sequence and it's a level one ERE sequence okay so ERE stands for
end range expansion and this is how we're increasing the length of the hip
flexors so you're going to start off get into the half kneeling position so get
kind of 90 degrees at the knees and the hips here so you make like a box with
your legs and from here you want to do a posterior pelvic tilt okay otherwise
you're just gonna be straining your lumbar spine into extension
so posterior pelvic tilt hold that so keep the abdominals on the glutes on
a little bit and then you're gonna drive your hips forward until you feel the
stretch in the hip flexor which is in the front right in this area
once you're there hold it for a bit get your alignment breathe and the first
motion I want you to do is to try to scissor your legs together so I'm trying
to bring my slide my knee forward but it's not actually going to move and this
is gonna engage the hip flexors okay so I do that contract hold it for one
slow 360 breath expand the ribcage in all directions and then gradually
release okay next what you're gonna do is we're gonna spread the floor apart
okay so I'm gonna drive this foot forward and drive this knee forward
nothing is going to move but that's gonna activate the opposing muscles okay
so I'm gonna spread the floor gradually increase the tension and relax and
that's one cycle okay let's do a cycle on the other side so start off post your
pelvic tilts get the glutes on and then you can drive forward so this helps you
to get the hip flexors and not strain the lumbar spine from here the first
motion first activation is the scissors to activate the hip flexors so you
gradually activate strong contraction and once you're there you'll hold that
contraction with a slow 360 breath and then gradually release and then opposite
contract the glutes try and drive the knee slide the knee backwards and hold
it with a slow 360 breath okay and that's one cycle on the other side and I
would perform two to three cycles on each side okay you can do that on your
own time finally the third exercise so we've worked dynamic mobility we've
worked strength at the end range of at the lengthened fully lengthened range of
the hip flexors Italy so as the rectus femoris now we're going to work strength
at the shortened range so we're building strength throughout that range of motion
which is gonna allow the neuromuscular system
to see or we've got full control and strength throughout the range we don't
have to be so tight anymore okay so with this technique call it the
front support hip flexion it's very simple I get in front support or like a
push-up position and all you want to do is you want to start off in good
alignment it's a nice tall long spine okay and from here you slowly flex the
hip keeping that alignment get to end range and then we keep driving the knee
up activating the hip flexors through a slow 360 breath so I'm keeping that
activation on not just letting my knee hang out here then I slowly bring it
back under control and switch sides keep activating the hip flexors squeezing
those muscles keeping alignment and breathing place it back down under
control okay so that was one rep per I would do anywhere from three to six reps
per side now one thing that people might bump bump into during this exercise is
the feeling of an impingement of the hip okay now if that happens a little tweak
that you can do just to get more iliopsoas action and less impingement on
that hip is to slightly abduct and externally rotate the hip okay so
basically instead of going straight up you go up and to the side a little bit
okay and that might help you get away from impingement of your hip alright so
those are three exercises that are not your traditional hip flexor static
stretching and now that you've watched this video you understand the mechanisms
behind and the reasons why I've chosen these exercises as opposed to a typical
static stretch all right so this routine you could do this everyday it's
totally cool and that's just going to get you faster results whenever we're
trying to reprogram the neuromuscular system and do activation exercises as
opposed to like muscle building or max strength then frequency will help us
expediate the process and get results faster okay now the hip flexors are just
one muscle group and like I alluded to before there's lots of different
compensatory mechanisms that could be contributing to hip flexor tightness one
of them was sitting that's a habitual posture that we're in too much these
days yeah another one is back pain if you've got back pain that might root
cause all their muscles to tighten up such as the hip flexors the TfL the TfL
pain if you've got that that might be compensating for hip flexor weakness
okay if the iliopsoas isn't functioning properly or if it's weak then another
muscle group has to jump in and contribute to get the job done to get
whatever movements it is that you're after done the TfL is a prime candidate
so like I said before check out that video I have on TfL pain which is gonna
give you a little more on that specific topic now if you're looking for movement
longevity you want to keep doing doing the things that you love then I invite
you to check out the presentation that I've got a link for you at the end of
this video and in the description which is on the neglected muscle groups of the
hip and how to train them to restore mobility and balance okay with typical
gym exercise like squats lunges deadlifts we're working the quads glutes
and hamstrings predominantly and those muscles all get
very strong if that's most of what you're doing then you're sure to have
muscular imbalances of the hip that are gonna lead to compensatory pain issues
down the road so if you like to train you like to lift heavy then definitely
you need to check out this presentation or if you play sports and you want to
keep doing those things now and for decades from now then check it out as
well okay so that's all I got for you today
hope you enjoyed that video and hope to see over at the presentation
