In this video, I'm going to show you how to fix your hip
flexor pain in a very easy to follow, step-by-step guide.
Stay tuned.
Hey, everyone. Doctor Rowe coming to you from SpineCare in
St. Joseph, Michigan. In this video, we're going to go over a
big overlooked cause of lower back pain which are tight hip
flexors, notably the iliosoas muscles. If you're unfamiliar
with the hip flexors, they're a group of muscles that lie on
the top of your thigh towards your groin and they function to
flex the hip. That is the movement of bringing your knee
towards your chest. When these muscles become strained and
inflamed, they can cause a lot of pain and discomfort over the
top your thigh, towards your groin, even pain that will
travel deep into your pelvis, towards your buttocks, and
lower back. Since these muscles are very deep, you really can't
massage them out. Instead, to get pain relief, we need to
focus on mobility exercises that are going to engage and
lengthen these muscles and then more importantly, focus on
strengthening them and I'm going to show you how to do
this in a very easy step-by-step guide. To get the
best results, go through all of the exercises and also in
order. As a bonus, all of the exercises can be done at home
require no equipment and you may find get quick hip flexor
pain relief even within 30 seconds. So, let's get started
and fix that hip flexor pain right now for good. So, let's
start by warming up the hip flexors. This is a really
important step because it's going to loosen up the muscles
and just make it a lot easier to do the other exercises in
this video. One of the easiest ways to do this is with the
progressive lunge. Very easy to do. So, start standing with
very good upright posture. We want to keep our back as
straight as possible during this exercise. So, we don't
want to round into it like this. To help out, take your
hands, put them together kind of like a prayer position,
put your hands against your chest. You want to tighten your
core that is taking your belly button towards your spine and
then squeeze your glutes. It'll just help support the spine a
little bit more. The movement from here is very easy. You're
just going to step forward with one leg and then lunge your
weight forward. The more that you lunge forward, the more
that you're going to feel a deep activation into the psoas
and the hip flexors on the other leg, the back leg I
should say. The key with this though is that we're going to
progress into it. So, don't go directly right into the full
lunge. Just go down enough where you feel those muscles
start to fire and then you're going to hold this comfortably
for about one to two seconds. You're just going to relax and
then you're going to repeat it on the other side. On the next
repetition you're going to notice that you have a little
bit more range of motion because those muscle fibers are
starting to lengthen. So, go down just a little bit more and
then keep repeating this over and over again until you feel
like you can't go any further or you can take your knee all
the way down towards the floor and with this one too, you can
always throw in as many repetitions and sets as you
like. To make it more challenging, you can start to
use dumbbells and make it a very good strengthening
exercise. I to take this one to the next level by targeting the
hips and the muscles around the hips just a little bit
differently so I'm going to do what is called a side lunge
pretty similar let's get back into our original stance just
like this but this time around I'm going to step towards my
side keeping this other leg straight and then you're going
to lunge into it just like this until you feel a very good
activation of the muscles on the inner part of the leg and
also around the hips 1 to 2 second hold you're just
going to come up like this and then just repeat it on the
other side. Again, with each repetition, try to progress
into it just a little bit more but I try to do this one for
about 10 to 15 repetitions on both sides. So, after we have
the muscles warmed up, we're going to move on to the most
important part, strengthening exercises. If you want quick
but also long-lasting pain relief, you have to make those
muscles stronger. Here's a really easy one that you can do
in bed or on a floor What I'm going to do is go into a basic
dead bug position. So, my legs are going to go up, knees
towards the ceiling and also bent at 90 degrees. The first
movement is very easy. Let's tighten our core muscles.
Again, taking our belly button towards our spine and I'd like
to squeeze my glutes right here. Just lower one leg down
just like this. Straighten your knee but the key with this
exercise is don't let your leg or your foot touch the bet of
the floor. Let it hover about an inch or two above. In this
position, you're going to feel a lot fire, the leg muscles and
the core. I like to hold this one for about 5 seconds. This
is how we're going to take it to the next level. We're going
to bring our knee back into 90 degrees like this. Take your
hands, overlap them, put them right on the top of the knee.
Now, drive your knee towards your shoulder but resist
against it with your hands. When you do this, you're going
to feel a ton fire on the top of the legs including the psoas
and the hip flexors. What you want to do is press into it as
much as you can hold this for five seconds and then what
you're going to do is just repeat that exercise just nice
and slowly I like to do this one for about five to 10
repetitions, but if you want to make it more challenging throw
in more repetitions and sets but remember whatever you do on
one side always switch to the other side to keep everything
in balance if you really want to take this one to the
next level you can do what is known as a marching bridge
which is also going to target the hip flexors but allow more
muscles including the glutes and the legs. So, what I'm
going to do in this position is have my knees bent, feet flat.
Let's tighten our core, squeeze our glutes, take your hands,
you can put them off to your side or on your hips. The
movement is very easy. You're just pressing up with your
pelvis and hips upward towards the ceiling until your body is
in a nice straight line from your knees to your hips to your
shoulders. If you're unable to get into this position, maybe
you can only go up an inch or two because of weakness or
tightness, do the best can over time you should notice that you
have a lot more strength and flexibility to finally get into
this position but what I like to do is hold this one for
about five seconds if you want to make it more challenging
march one leg up like this so we're really trying to take
this knee towards our chest as much as we can and you'll
really start to feel those muscles on the top part of the
leg start to fire five second hold you're going to relax and
then you're going to repeat it on the other side just nice and
slow for about five to 10 repetitions and if it feels
like you have a little bit more energy, you can always throw in
another set or two. So, here's a really easy hip flexor
strengthening exercise. The great part about this one
though is you can do it pretty much anytime, anywhere. Start
seated with very good upright posture. That means just trying
to keep your back as straight as possible during this
exercise. We're going to have our knees bent at 90 degrees,
feet flat on the floor. Take your hands, grab off to the
side of the chair right here or if you have armrest on those
for support. The first movement is very easy. We're just going
to take one knee lifted upward towards our chest, kind of like
a marching motion. The more that you lift that leg upward,
the more that you're going to feel those hip flexors engage.
You only want to go towards a comfortable point. If you start
to feel any pain or discomfort back off just a little bit
before that point. Then, you're going to hold this one
comfortably for 5 seconds. You're going to relax and then
you're going to repeat this one five to 10 times. With each
repetition challenge yourself to build into it just a little
bit more and afterwards, if it feels like you have a little
bit more energy, you can always throw in another set or two.
Just make sure whatever you do on one side to switch to the
other side and repeat to keep everything imbalance. From
there, we're going to take this one to the next level by making
it an isometric exercise. That means that we're just going to
put a little bit of resistance in there. So, let's get back
into that original stretch like this. Lift it up until you hit
a point where the muscles are fire but this time around
overlap your hands just like this and put them on the top of
your knee you're going to gently gently press down on
your knee until you feel a very deep activation of those hip
flexors you want to hold this one comfortably again for five
seconds you're going to relax and then you're going to repeat
this one 5 to10 times, but again you can always throw in
another set or two and then just repeat on the other side
the last movement this one is really going to get those hip
flexors firing is to add knee extension in there. So, it
makes it a dynamic movement. So, with this one, we're going
to lift our leg up just like this but this time around,
extend the knee that is straining it as much as you
can. You're really going to feel those muscles start to
fire. Try to hold this one for 5 seconds. You're going to
relax and then repeat this one five to 10 times on both sides.
In the final step, we're going to focus on stretching.
Stretches are perfect to do after strengthening exercises
to keep the muscles loose and also help avoid soreness. One
of my absolute favorite stretches is the psoas cobra
because it's really going to target those hip flexors and a
whole bunch of other muscles. To get into position, we're
going to lie on our stomach right next to a wall or a door.
You're going to have your knees bent roughly at 90 degrees and
you're going to put the top of your feet right up against that
door. We kind of want our knees as close as possible also. So,
as a no with this exercise before we begin, when you do
it, you want to keep your hips and pelvis flat on the floor.
We don't want them raised up like this. Instead, all the
movement is going to come through our back. So, let's
start off with what is known as the baby cobra. So, you're
going to take your hands and put them right off to your
side. So, your arms are right off your side and then, you're
just going to gently push up like this. The key is what we
want to feel is a very good stretch forming in the core
muscles working down towards our pelvis into the front of
the legs, the hip flexors. So, really focus on feeling that.
You're going to hold this one comfortably for 30 seconds but
if it feels good, you can hold it for longer. Several minutes
if you're able to and also do nice, slow, controlled
breathing. From there, you can relax by lowering your chest
but I try to do this one for about three to five repetitions
and with each repetition, challenge yourself to build
into it just a little bit more. Try to raise the back up just a
little bit to intensify that stretch. If you want to make
this one an active stretch and take it to the next level, When
you're doing the cobra, what you want to do is take the top
of your feet and really press them into the door at the same
time. The more that you press into the door, the more that
you're going to really feel those hip flexors start to
engage. I only like to hold this one for about five seconds
though. Relax and then repeat this 110 to 15 times and build
into it just a little bit more with each repetition and if it
feels like you have a lot more energy, you can always throw in
another set or two. So, really try to focus on building a the
full cobra which is going all the way up just like this but
if you're unable to do the best you can if you want to take
this one to even the next level instead of having your body
straight tilt your back towards one side moving through your
waist what this will do is open up the back on the other side
so if you tilt a little bit towards your right you're
really going to feel it open up on the left so give that a try
going all the way towards the right going all the way towards
the left if you find that one position just offers you more
relief. At that point, throw more repetitions in. If the
exercises help, please support the channel by giving this
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any comments or questions, please leave them below. I'll
get back to you as soon as I can. Thanks for watching.