I’ve got a ridicously tight rectus femoris (in quad on both sides). It is so tight that when swimming it pulls hard on my pelvis and rotates it forward (causing pain in the back of the pelvis below SI joint) jamming it up in the back. It’s been only doing this on the right side.
I’ve been foam rollering the rectus femoris (crazy trigger points found there) and doing the stretch where ypu have knee on floor on pillow and foot up on couch and keep pelvis neutral and stretch the quads that way.
Any other ideas for getting this to loosen up? Other stretches which target this?
Lay on your stomach, grab an ankle with the same hand with knee bent and pull towards you. Can also be done bilaterally. Can also be done with a rope/tubing looped or tied around your foot.
Lay on table high enough so a dangling foot doesn’t hit ground. Scooch one side to the edge and dangle that leg over the edge from the hip down. Bend knee of other leg and wrap arms around it and pull towards chest. This is a beautiful stretch as it also gets the iliopsoas, your “other” hip flexor.
Sit Indian-style on the floor (knees bent under you). Bonus: increases ankle flexibility, which is good for swimming.
Assisted: laying on your stomach again, bend leg at the knee and have assistant put pressure right above you knee on the quad and push the leg away from your body gently. Gets a REALLY nice stretch to the rectus femoris.
For trigger point work, foam roller works a little, but is not as good as good old thumbs. Do you have these books?
The Trigger Point Therapy Workbook by Clair Davies
Trigger Point Therapy for Myofascial Pain by Finando & Finando
Neither of them advocates foam rollers. IMO, rollers are good for fascia, but trigger points are usually so localized that rolling an entire muscle is not going to really target them.
One more thing: if your SI joint is out of whack, it’s probably your iliopsoas that is messed up more than your rectus femoris. Since they both act as hip flexors, they tend to work together when things get tight.
That stretch while lying on a table is THE BEST for iliopsoas–you need to just relax into it, and stay there for about a minute on each side. You should feel your back loosening up as you do it.
Sorry for the repeated responses, but if I would just stop with the knee-jerk posts, I would get it all in one!