It's one of the fitness industry's biggest misnomers.
"Tight hip flexors" are very rarely tight. Ninety-nine times out of 100 they are, in fact, weak. At least, that was the lesson I learned many moons ago when I was laid flat out on my osteopath's massage table.
The pain and discomfort I felt nagging away at the top of my thighs and radiating around my hip crease when running, exercising or simply sitting idle at my desk was caused by years of underuse.
Chances are if you decided to read this, you're familiar with this same nagging feeling. You've likely tried every hip flexor stretch in the book and, I'll bet, the problem is only getting worse.
Fortunately for you—and for me as I found back in my osteo's clinic—there is a very simple solution. I'm calling them standing hip flexor contractions. Let me break them down.
Why do my hip flexors hurt?
Technically, the hip flexors aren't one muscle but a group of muscles connected to the upper thigh that let you flex your hip and lift your knee toward your chest.
- The primary hip flexor muscles, the iliacus and psoas major, work in harmony to stabilize and flex the hip.
- The rectus femoris of the quadriceps assists with hip flexion and knee extension.
- The sartorius—incidentally the longest muscle in the human body, running from the hip to knee—helps flex and externally rotate the hip and flex the knee.
Assuming you haven't caused any actual damage to these tissues, prolonged sitting in the same position can cause tension to build throughout the hip joints and surrounding muscles, ligaments and tendons, leading to nagging discomfort and pain.
Without regularly stress-testing the hip flexors with exercise, they can quickly become weak and vulnerable, making them liable to strains or soreness when you are active.
How to perform standing hip flexor contractions
Whenever I feel this nagging discomfort return, I remember to practice a few standing hip flexor contractions to isolate the muscle group and rebuild their strength.
Here's how it works:
- Stand and raise one leg, bending your knee, until your thigh is parallel to the floor.
- Use your hands to help raise your leg into position.
- Contract your glute muscle on the side of your standing leg to aid with balance.
- Place one or two hands on top of the raised knee.
- Press down firmly while driving your knee into your hands.
- Maintain this tension in the hip flexors for a count of 10 seconds.
- Slowly lower your foot to the floor and repeat.
- Aim for 3-5 reps per side.
The beauty of this simple exercise is it can be done anywhere. Often I find myself using it while brushing my teeth in the morning or before bed.
Lately, I've also realized a modified version of it, which I'm calling "seated hip flexor contractions", can be performed while sitting at my desk—addressing the root cause of the tightness and discomfort at source.
