Hip Flexor Tightness
The Hip Flexors
Everyone muscle in your body holds some sort of tone, or level of contraction. Think of it like a volume nob on a stereo. When the volume gets turned up, the muscle contracts harder. Turn the volume down and the muscle can relax. A ton of "tight hip flexors" are because the volume is turned up too high and you don't know how to turn it down.
Why Would the Volume Be Up So High?
You guessed it, tightness! See why stretching hasn't been helping you? Because it isn't a stretching deficiency. You have to teach your brain how to turn the volume down.
Movement Evidence
For this hip flexor deal we are talking about, take a band and attach it to a pull up rack near you. Put tension on the band and place it under your low back (just below your rib cage). Take both arms and legs up toward the ceiling. Slowly lower one straight leg toward the ground at a time trying to keep the band pinned to the floor. [note: check the video for details on this]
If the band slips out from your back, it shows us that your anterior chain muscles (like your abs) can't control your spine as well as it could. Because the spine isn't controlled well by those other muscles, you will have a tough time turning the hip flexor volume down. Anterior chain strengthening is a new important thing for you. Your hip flexors don't know how to lengthen while the spine is being kept still.
Will This Help Me if I don't Have Tightness?
Need help with your lower back and hip mobility?
Follow our program, which will show you exactly what to do and how
Need help with your lower back and hip mobility?
Follow our program, which will show you exactly what to do and how
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Comments
Thank you for the video Ryan! I would like to get your opinion on my take of this video. I think your test is a great tool but I wonder if re-doing the test is the best way to train to allow the hip flexors to relax... Perhaps training the movement without the band under the low back and getting in to more of a neutral spine and incorporating breathing into the movement would be more effective? I would think you would run into the problem of training core strength without as much of an emphasis on actual core stability as you would train rectus abdominus dominance with lumbar flexion rather than the core as a whole in neutral spine. Holding your breath as you descend would seem to train more of an "all or none" bracing strategy as you do all that you can to hold onto your lumbar flexion as you drop the legs rather than just enough tension for the task at hand. Just my 2 cents.
Hey Andrew,
You make great points and there are likely many ways to skin the cat. A low threshold strategy could be used to help someone with thigh hip flexors as well, and I'm sure many people have been helped that way. If someone needs actual abdominal strength though I don't think a lower threshold strategy will be as effective. Perhaps you could build strength first and then incorporate breathing, etc.
Thanks for sharing your 2 cents!
Ryan
Perfect timing! I treating a patient right now and my usual strategies didn't seem to work, so I'm going to try this one. Thanks again!
Being an athlete all my life and having endured multiple knee surgeries due to blowing out ACL's in both knees, I later started to develop a hip issue in my right hip due to the years of wear and tear.
These days I'm stronger and faster than ever and still competing in sports!
This site fb.me/7iW9sE50u/#/_EXERCISES_FOR_HIP_FLEXORS/ gave me the ability to perform at my highest level as a coach and regain the athletic ability I had lost over the years from wear and tear
Hi,
I have an exaggerated lumbar extension aka Lumbar lordosis kyphosis. It have no pain but however wanna fix my posture, do you have any advices? Im used to hold hip stretches for extended periods of time but it seems to improve a little then come back to the original posture. I would like to know more about it as Ive done a lot of exercises such as plank /glute bridges/ swiss ball exercises for hamstrings but it seems to help only temporarily.`
Yann
what is an alternative to this for someone who has severe sciatica and hx of microdiscectomy? I have this issue of my hip flexers doing all the work and not my core and every time i try to re-build my core i end up in a flare up with my back making me not want to do any type of movement that might make the pain worse.
Is there a link to fix the straight leg raise you mentioned towards the end of the video? Thanks!
Love this post. Mostly because it agrees with my treatment theory about abdominal stability and hip flexor tightness. I have encountered many posts online that disagree on the topic about hip flexor tightness, abdominal weakness and lower back pain. Sometimes it bothers me so much, even though I chant to myself that everyone has their own treatment perspectives. Great test, and easy to do at home.
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http://bit.ly/2IppAuM
I hope can be useful for you too 🙂