Do you feel like you have tight hips? Do you stretch and stretch your hip flexors but feel no improvement? Strengthening over stretching may be the answer.
Tight hip flexors are a common complaint. Physiotherapists see many people who are constantly sitting for work, or athletes, complaining of tight hip flexors.
What Are Hip Flexors?
Your hip flexors are the muscles at the front of your hip. They are made up of three muscles – two of which join together to form the iliopsoas. The other is the rectus femoris, which is also one of your quadriceps muscles. Together they act to flex or bend your hip – bringing your knees to your chest is the primary purpose. Your hip flexors are in a shortened position when sitting down, and lengthened when extending your hip.
Why Isn’t Stretching Working?
Sometimes, muscles feel tight because they are overworked. The muscle is not strong enough to meet the demands of what you are doing. Imagine running 5km after not running for a while – your legs would feel ‘tight’ and sore the next day. Stretching might feel good but the best way to stop that feeling of tightness would be to train so that your legs get stronger. After training for a while, you could be strong enough to run 5K without feeling tight the next day.
The same applies to your hip flexors. If you strengthen the muscles in your hip, they may not feel as tight after exercise. If it seems like constantly stretching your hip flexors is not working, try strengthening them!
How Does Strengthening Help?
Strengthening muscles through their full range of motion is one of the best ways to improve your mobility. Strengthening will help the feeling of perceived tightness as discussed above, and it will build strength through the muscle’s full range. Eccentric strength exercise, where you slowly lengthen any muscle, is thought to increase the length of the muscle fibre (1).
Because your hip flexors are made up of multiple muscles, they need to be strengthened and stretched in multiple ways. The main aim of hip flexor strengthening is to be able to bend at your hip while your knee is either bent or straight.
How Do I Strengthen My Hip Flexors?
Lifting straight leg while sitting – Don’t be surprised if you feel a quad cramp at first!
Laying down hip flexion with band – This is a bit harder than #2
Hanging leg raises – A harder version of #2 and #3.
Standing kick outs – Use a wall or chair for balance at first!
