These Are the 4 Greatest Hip Flexor Stretches for Ache Aid

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Calling all desk-sitters: All that sedentary time looking at a display is a major contributor to the nagging decrease backache that’s been annoying you. That is in all probability nothing you haven’t heard earlier than, however do you know it may not be your again that’s truly the difficulty? It’s your hip flexors.

Whenever you sit, your hip flexors stay in a contracted state. Extended sitting  may cause these muscle groups to shorten and shrink, limiting your means to elongate the muscle groups and absolutely straighten at your hips whenever you’re lastly upright once more. So, what are you to do? Yoga, after all. You need to use your follow to offset the consequences of all that sitting, stretch your hip flexors, and relieve related again ache.

Anatomy of Your Hip Flexors

A number of hip flexor muscle groups cross the entrance of the hip and create hip flexion once they contract by pulling the thighs and chest towards one another.  In all probability a very powerful hip flexor is the iliopsoas. It’s truly composed of two deep muscle groups: the iliacus and the psoas.

The psoas runs alongside the backbone and attaches to the perimeters of the lumbar vertebrae. The iliacus originates on the inside bowl of the pelvis. Each muscle groups cross the ground of the pelvis and insert on the inside higher femur (thigh bone). As a result of the muscle groups are buried so deep, it’s simple to know why there could be confusion about their location and function in on a regular basis life. However these muscle groups are extraordinarily essential with regards to making certain your stability, steadiness, postural alignment, and full vary of movement.

Whenever you stand, the hip flexors contract as you carry your leg whenever you stroll, run, come right into a lunge, step up stairs, and so many different actions. When you find yourself mendacity flat in your again, the hip flexors can both carry your leg, like whenever you draw your knees towards your chest, or carry your chest right into a sit-up. In yoga, Boat Pose (Navasana) is particularly efficient for strengthening the iliopsoas as a result of it calls for that the muscle isometrically contract to carry the burden of the legs and higher physique.

How Hip Flexors Lose Flexibility

Most issues with the hip flexors don’t originate in a scarcity of power however in a scarcity of flexibility. To grasp how these muscle groups lose their flexibility, think about somebody with a damaged arm whose bent elbow is encased in a plaster solid. When the solid is eliminated after a number of weeks, the muscle groups, tendons, ligaments, and even pores and skin across the elbow could have shortened, and the elbow gained’t instantly straighten. It can take the affected person a number of weeks of stretching to revive the total vary of movement.

Equally, if the hip is consistently saved in a flexed place, equivalent to with extended sitting, the hip flexors will shorten and shrink, limiting your means to completely prolong your hip.

Points Brought on by Tight Hip Flexors

If the iliopsoas and different hip flexors are tight, they pull down and ahead on the pelvis, which tilts the pelvis ahead and compresses the decrease again. Image a person standing with the entrance of his pelvis tilting ahead and his tailbone lifting. To face upright, he has to overarch his decrease again. Anatomically, that is known as hyperextension; generally, it’s known as “swayback.” Extended standing or sitting on this place will increase stress on the aspect joints of the decrease backbone, which in flip can contribute to arthritis in these joints.

With the most effective of intentions, yoga college students generally create a muscle imbalance that contributes to this troublesome anterior (ahead) pelvic tilt. Most yoga practitioners work lengthy and exhausting to enhance their hamstring flexibility however spend a lot much less time stretching their hip flexors.

Finally, the hamstrings lengthen considerably, whereas the hip flexors enhance solely barely. The end result: The comparatively tighter hip flexors tip the pelvis ahead as a result of the comparatively longer hamstrings not exert an equal counterpull on the sitting bones of the pelvis.

If the hip flexors are tight, the ensuing anterior pelvic tilt and lumbar hyperextension may cause issues along with again ache, together with problem in  standing yoga poses equivalent to Warrior 2 (Virabhadrasana II) and Triangle Pose (Trikonasana), during which the first leg motion is opening to the perimeters as a substitute of flexing ahead or extending again.

Tight hip flexors can even create challenges in poses requiring full extension (straightening) of the hip joint. These poses embrace backbends equivalent to Bridge Pose (Setu Bandha Sarvangasana) and Upward-Dealing with Bow Pose (Urdhva Dhanurasana) and standing poses like Warrior 1 (Virabhadrasana I) and Warrior 3 (Virabhadrasana III)). In all of those poses, tight hip flexors may cause painful compression within the decrease again.

4 Greatest Hip Flexor Stretches to Relieve Ache

Frequently practising hip flexor stretches is essential to counterbalance the extended hip flexion of sitting for hours.

1. Warrior 1 (Virabhadrasana I)

Warrior Pose 1 generally is a hip flexor stretch. As you’re standing with one leg ahead and one leg again, place your fingers on the entrance pelvis bones. It’s best to be capable to really feel a small, spherical protuberance on all sides, known as the anterior superior iliac backbone, or ASIS.

The ASISes are good indicators of the lean of the pelvis. On the again leg, the iliopsoas will attempt to pull the pelvis and lumbar backbone down and ahead into an anterior tilt. To counter this, use your fingers to carry the ASISes. Maintain this as you bend your entrance knee, preserving your again knee straight and your again heel grounded. Really feel the iliopsoas lengthen and visualize the backbone lifting out of the pelvis.

You too can work with the pelvic alignment in Warrior 1 by bringing your consciousness to your decrease again and the again of your pelvis. Maintain or strap or belt round your waist. As you progress into Warrior 1, don’t let your ASISes drop down and ahead. As an alternative, transfer your again into the belt, transfer your tailbone down away from the belt, and carry your backbone out of the belt. The belt turns into a degree of orientation that will help you align your pelvis and get a deep iliopsoas stretch.

2. Full or Half Reclining Hero Pose (Supta Virasana)

One other hip flexor muscle is the rectus femoris. When it’s tight, it will probably restrict hip flexion and trigger issues in yoga poses. It’s one of many quadriceps muscle on the entrance of the thigh and it originates close to the ASIS, runs down the middle of the thigh, and inserts on the shinbone (tibia) slightly below the knee. When the rectus femoris contracts and shortens, it not solely extends or straightens the knee, it additionally flexes the hip.

To stretch the rectus femoris, you want a pose that flexes the knee and extends the hip, like Reclining Hero Pose. As you sit down between your heels and lie again on this pose, the rectus femoris lengthens.

To stretch the rectus femoris with out compressing the decrease again, place a bolster or folded blankets comfortably beneath your again. You too can do Half Reclining Hero Pose, during which you sit up with one leg bent and the opposite leg prolonged straight in entrance of you. You may sit on a bolster, block, or folded blanket to permit more room.

3. King Arthur’s Pose

This pose attracts on the identical alignment as Warrior 1 however whereas kneeling so there’s much less demand on the muscle groups to stabilize you as you’re stretching.

As you come right into a Low Lunge going through away from a wall, place your again foot in opposition to the wall. Place your palms in your entrance knee and straighten your backbone straight up whereas permitting your tailbone to launch down. It’s best to really feel a robust stretch alongside the entrance of your left thigh.

You may take a folded blanket beneath your knee for cushioning or follow the identical pose standing by putting your hand on a chair, counter, or wall and bending one leg behind you and greedy it along with your hand or a strap.

4. Mountain Pose (Tadasana)

If you happen to have a tendency to face with a swayback, or an exaggerated curve in your decrease again often known as lordosis, creating consciousness of your hip flexors  is particularly essential.

In Mountain Pose (Tadasana), follow lifting the ASISes, subtly shifting your tailbone down, and lifting your lumbar backbone. Putting a belt or strap round your waist, as you probably did in Warrior 1, could assist enhance your consciousness of your pelvic alignment on this pose.

Typically individuals attempt to appropriate a ahead tilt of the pelvis by partaking their belly muscle groups. However gripping your abdominals gained’t management the anterior pelvic tilt if in case you have tight hip flexors—not even in easy standing postures. It additionally tends to constrict your breath.

Training hip flexor stretches, particularly after a protracted day of sitting, might help you discover area in your pelvis—and assist defend you from compression and ache in your decrease again.

This text has been up to date. Initially printed June 29, 2021.