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How to Prevent Stiff Hip Flexors

hip-flexorWe often see a problem with people in that their hip flexors are tight. That’s inherent to sitting most of our day. On top of that, our sleeping position will shorten the hip flexors. People who sleep on their sides and have their knees too high to their chest. That’s a position where the hip flexors will shorten.

It’s All in the Hips

One hip flexor is essential as it attaches to the lumbar spine and the tighter it is, the more it’s going to pull on the lumbar spine. That’s where you’re going to see some bulging of the discs after a while — because it puts tension on the spine over and over again.

The problem is the muscles will adapt to whatever position you put them in, so if someone is sitting for a long time that muscle will have a hard time lengthening afterwards. For example, when you’re squatting down, and you come up, you have to do it slowly to allow the muscles to adapt. If you don’t it will stay short and will pull on your disc. That’s how you can end up having a low back problem.

Power up Your Walk

Walking is another issue linked to tight hip flexors. Tight hip flexors make it difficult to walk properly. During gait, most of the work comes from the gluteus muscles, in the butt cheeks. Tight hip flexors force the body to lean forward, the patients ends up being leaning forward, making it really hard to activate the gluteus muscles. Freeing up the hip flexors and focusing on the gluteus muscles will help a lot of patients experiencing low back pain. The best way to walk is power walking, swinging your arms sufficiently and pushing off the front of the toes, activating the muscles in the pelvis.

Additional Tips

When sitting at a desk, your hips should always be higher than your knees. This will prevent chronic tightness in the psoas muscles. You also don’t want to be sinking in a couch, with your knees being more elevated than your hips. Sitting low is creating stress on the muscles and the tissues of the lower back and hips.
Drinking a lot of water is important to muscle flexibility. Muscles tighten if you don’t hydrate them adequately with water. Coffee doesn’t count as water as it’s a diuretic. So each time you have a cup of coffee, you should have three glasses of water next to you!

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