I’ve been in physical therapy for the past few weeks for a back problem (periformis syndrome). One thing that I found out was that I had very tight hip flexors. I have been stretching them 6 times a day for 2 weeks. They are A LOT more flexible now. I went to the pool yesterday and was doing 25 meter kick sets. I usually do them at about 40 seconds. Yesterday I was doing them in 30 seconds with NO additional effort. In fact, I was swimming pretty easily. That is a 25% improvement and all I did was stretch. I wish someone would have told me that tight hip flexors can do so much damage to your swimming years ago!
I had a thread a few weaks ago about the hips. I am also finding how much the impact the run and cycling stroke. Keeping them loose and free gains you a lot of efficiency. I was running last night and just concentrating on keeping my hips free seems to make everything else all the way down loose.
How do you determine if you have tight hip flexors and what kind of stretches do you do for them.
one way is to sit on your heels (shins and top of foot on the floor) and see how far back you can go without arching the lower back.
if you can lie no your back and lower back isn’t too arched - fantastic
if you can’t go past about 30* with a straight back - you should work on it
the swiss ball is about the safest way to stretch them. since your back is well supported. put feet on the floor, shoulder blades on the ball (bridge) and walk back curling the back - backwards and straightening the legs. go easy and take you time until you can get the hips onto the ball and hands and feet on the floor.
hip flexors connect the femur (thigh) to the pelvis and low back (on the inside) so when stretching don’t let the pelvis tilt forward, puts stress on the vertebrae and doesn’t stretch the flexors.
i’m sure others will have more and better stretches. also check here http://www.yogajournal.com/poses/search_poses.cfm?AnatomicalFocus=H17
Cool. Thanks for the reply. I will give the swiss ball stretch a try. I have the feeling that my hip flexors are tight. I’m sure I won’t pass that test. I need to get into some yoga too.
in my case, tight hip flexors= hurt knee, aching back, and bound hips.
right now i’m addressing my tight hip flexors and the rest of the problems will work out. they are big muscles, capable of causing alot of other difficulties if tight.
amen. in addition to the hip flexors, the psoas (pronounced “soaz”) muscle is another major contributor to low back problems – which robs you of flexibility and power. Psoas is located in the vicinity of your lower abdominals b/w the hip joint and groin. I saw an excellent MT last week – freed up my hip flexors, psoas and hamstrings … and gave me a stretching regimen to target all 3.
you’ve very right, the psoas is the major hip flexor. people tend to think that the quads are their hip flexors but of the four quad muscles only one crosses the hip joint and connects to the pelvis. so the quads are stronger at knee extension. the psoas, and really illiopsoas (sp?) connects the spine and illium (pelvis) to the thigh. that is the strong hip flexor. they often get shortend from long days off sitting in chairs and long rides on bikes. thight illiopsoas will restrict you’re movement in the kick and also cause you to ‘sit in’ when running so you don’t get your hips forward over your feet, slowing you down and burning out the quads and hamstring muscles.
How do you stretch those muscles?
see above, lie over a swill ball, get it under you low back and hips so they are supported and stable. bend back until hands (back of hands) are on the floor. straghten legs.
start easy and with the smallest ball you can get or even two or three pillows. get it under your low back and try not to just bend at the back.
another good one is to lie on a table (sturdy one) with your hips at the edge (right on the sit bones), start with kees and hips bent at 90* (like you are sitting in a chair, but you are on your back), lower one leg at a time and try to reach the floor - but DON’T ARCH YOUR BACK - go as far as you can with out arching and then let it relax and let the weight of the leg stretch the muscle. then bring leg back up slowly and do the other leg. when you get really good with this you can do it with some ankle weights to stretch and stregnthen the psoas. this is one of the few ways to get it stronger from a fully extended position, which is helpful in pulling the leg forward when running fast (taking long strides), although the quad is in good position to help in this contraction, and is probably stronger
these stretches are dangerous because if you try to go too far and the muscle is tight you will just bend the spine and hurt yourself. know your limits and don’t over do it. start slow.
also try these
http://www.yogajournal.com/poses/495_1.cfm
http://www.yogajournal.com/poses/472_1.cfm
http://www.yogajournal.com/poses/1708_1.cfm
http://www.yogajournal.com/practice/169_1.cfm?ctsrc=sectnav
My PT has me laying on the bed with one leg hugged up against my chest and the other one hanging off the bed. This is stretching the hip flexors. But isn’t it also stretching the psoas?
yes, the psoas is the hip flexor! that is exactly what you are stretching. see my first post above.
everybody thinks the quads are the hip flexors but they are not. of the 4 muscles of the ‘quads’ only one is a hip flexor. the other three do not attach to the pelvis and do not flex the hip. the psoas is the main hip flexor. the rectus femoris - the long head of the quadraceps femoris (quads) is also a hip flexor but since it crosses two joints - the hip and the knee - it is less effective. the quad is famous because it is visble and sexy but the psoas is inside doing all the work.
the intent of holding the leg hugged against the chest is to keep the lower back flat against the bed. make sure that is what you are doing, if you hug your leg but arch your low back you are defeating the purpose. that is one reason i do it on a hard surface, you know right away if you are arching your back.
also, keep in mind that there is not a great deal of range of motion in this exercise. the hip does not extend very far. lay on your stomach and try to pick up you leg without arching your back. you can only go a few inches, some more some less. the muscles and ligaments of the hip do not permit that much extension of the hip.
How about exercises for strengthening the psoas? Anyone know some good ones?
"How about exercises for strengthening the psoas? Anyone know some good ones? "
Do you have ANY idea what you have just done? 
Haim
Thanks. Well maybe there isn’t a lot of range of motion in a normal person, but I am amazed at how much range of motion I have gained by doing this exercise. When I started my legs were three or four inches above the table. Now they are falling below the table. Or did I misunderstand what you meant by range of motion.
nope, that’s right, but you probably won’t get much more.
check again that you are not arching your back.
then to help this become useful motion, put on a pair of ankle weights, lie on your stomach with legs straight, lift one thigh off the floor about that same 3 inches, bend knee a bit so the foot is about 5 inches of the ground, slowly lower it back down. repeat. work up to 10 sets or more of 20 with each leg. when you do it the arm opposite the leg you are lifting is reached out in front of you, palm on the floor.
try to do this with just a little bit of movement in the hips (side to side rocking) and just a littel pressure on the hand that is on the floor.
this is learning to swim in a small tube. keeping the frontal area as small as possible. people with tight hip flexors and shoulders swim like snakes, serpentining through the water creating a lot of drag.
i wouldn’t spent a lot of time strengthening them as there is littel direct benefit but a great exercise is to lie on your back. get your low back supported firmly by curling up your chest/shoulder/head (basicly, doing a abs crunch) and hold it there by putting your elbows.foreams on the floor beside you (finger tips will be near hips). now that your back is stable you can do any one of a million things.
single leg raise, lift one leg at a time as far as your hamstrings will let you - aim for 90*
double leg raise, do both legs at same time
the above can be done with bent knee at first the build up to doing it with a straigth leg
bicycle. keep heels off the ground and bring one knee at a time to the chest
scissors, lift feet 6 inches off ground and go out to the side as far as you can then back and repeat…
a real killer is to put on a set of ankle weights, sit on the edge of a hard chair, lift one knee up about 4-5 inches (so it is at and angle of about 30* from horizontal) then do leg extension (straighten the leg) without letting the knee drop at all - and don’t arch the back. if you do 5 sets of 20 (each leg) you will have a great workout. make sure you stretch after that one because it will tighten up the psoas fast. this will also be a real indicator of tight hamstrings. if you have to lean back a little to keep the lower back straight that’s fine, but if you have to lean back a lot, then you need to work on the hamstrings. tight hamstrings will often lead to back problems if you do a lot of trainging for tri’s
good luck