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