Hip flexor strength is an area gaining a lot of attention and for good reason. Many are starting to realize that weakness over tight areas is what’s holding us back. Today we’ll look at some hip flexor exercises you can start adding to your warm up ASAP for results.
It’s often assumed that when we experience certain injuries or have pain in our hip region it’s because we have tight hip flexors.
So we do hip flexor stretches. And we stretch. And we stretch. And we stretch some more. Maybe we experience relief, at least temporarily, but it’s also possible that we perceive no change or things get worse.
But why?
It’s possible that instead of tight hip flexors, we actually have weak hip flexors.
The good news is that we can fix that by focusing on specific exercises that strengthen these all-important muscles that power our everyday movement.
Keep reading to learn more about the signs and symptoms of weak hip flexors, the benefits to having strong hip flexors, and the best exercises to help strengthen them.
What are the Hip Flexors?
The hip flexors are an important group of muscles with a hefty job. Their main responsibility is to flex the hip, bringing the knee upwards toward the body.
The muscles that make up the hip flexors include the iliacus, the psoas, the pectineus, the rectus femoris and the sartorius, which are located in the front of your hip. The primary muscles are the psoas and the iliacus.
The hip flexors are essential to our ability to move.
Every time you sit, stand, walk, or run, all parts of our hips are working, this includes the hip flexors, as well as the hip abductors and adductors. Our hip flexors are also important to our ability to maintain our posture, alignment, and stability.
What are Symptoms of Weak Hip Flexors?
There are a number of indicators that your hip flexors might be weak. The tricky thing is that sometimes we assume our hip flexors are just tight, when in reality they need to be strengthened.
Some of the signs and symptoms of weak hip flexors include back, hip, and knee pain. You may also find you deal with repeat injuries to these areas, as well.
Another thing to consider is if you have a desk job or lead a sedentary lifestyle (although if you’re reading Run to the Finish, I’m going to guess your lifestyle is pretty active), you may be more likely to have weak hip muscles, specifically your hip flexors. That’s something to pay attention to when it comes to your hip health.
If you’re hip flexors are tight, rather than weak, checkout these top hip flexor stretches >>
What Do Weak Hip Flexors Feel Like?
For runners who have weak hip flexors, a variety of issues can arise. You may not so much feel anything in your hip flexors as notice a variety of other things happening.
Reduced Efficiency
A big one would be an inefficient running technique. This can zap your energy on long runs or cost you time in a race.
You can also have reduced muscle engagement or activation, specifically in the rear hip area where you have the gluteus muscles. This was found to be true in soccer players with shortened hip flexors and can lead to a greater risk of injury.
Injuries in Hips or Low Back
In addition, us runners can also often have muscle imbalances. We know we need strong glutes to run so they’re a big focus of our training. But if we neglect the other muscles of the hip area, we could develop muscle imbalances and that can lead to compensation in our movement patterns.
The other issue, which I mentioned earlier, is injuries. Some of the injuries runners can experience with weak hip flexors include IT Band syndrome and runner’s knee.
Other injuries like lower back pain while running, herniated disks or pinched nerves can also occur.
Benefits to Having Strong Hip Flexors
While most people focus on strengthening our other major leg muscle groups like our hamstrings, quadriceps, and calves, we shouldn’t forget about our hip flexors.There are a number of benefits to having strong hip flexors, in addition to preventing pain and injury.
Strong hip flexors are important for an efficient stride. If you have an efficient stride, you burn less energy, can run faster, and again, will be less prone to injury.
With strong hip flexors, you can drive your knees with more power and have better posture. Your ability to maintain good posture is important when you’re in the last few miles of a long run or a race.
Another positive is that strong hip flexors help with balance and stability, which is critical in running since you’re always on one leg or another, never both at the same time.
Finally, studies show that having strong hip flexors and good hip flexion range of motion gets more and more important over time as we age. If we maintain or improve our hip flexor strength as we age, it looks like we’ll have better mobility, specifically hip mobility, in the long term
7 Hip Flexor Exercises for Runners
So now that we know what the hip flexors are and do, how weak hip flexors can impact our lives and particularly running, and the benefits of having strong hip flexors, I think it’s time to learn some exercises to strengthen them.
Once again, I found that a short video demonstration of the moves might be super useful with the descriptions!
#1 Step Up or Standing Knee Drive
One of the most basic moves you can do to strengthen your hip flexors is the standing knee drive. What’s great about it is it’s advanceable, meaning you can make it more challenging as you gain strength.
To do it, stand on a surface that’s slightly raised, like a box or even stacked weight plates if you’re at the gym. You’ll notice I using an unstable surface, that’s also a way to advance the move.
Lift your right knee up towards your chest keeping your torso upright (don’t round over towards your knee) and then return to start. Do 2-3 sets of 8-10 reps and repeat on the left side.
To advance this exercise, consider adding a heel lift of the standing leg while driving the opposite knee. This will engage your calf and sort of mimic running. Another option is to add a weight to the driving foot or ankle for additional resistance.
#2 Mountain Climbers with sliders
This is a great full body exercise engaging the core, shoulders, arms, hip flexors and other lower body muscles.
To do this, you’ll need a pair of sliders, or if you’re on a slippery floor you could use paper plates or towels.
Get in a plank position with your shoulders over your wrists and a nice straight line with your body. While your hips may rise a little bit in the movement, they should stay low enough to keep your core active.
From the plank position, slide the left foot forward driving your left knee to your chest. Return to start. You could do all one side at a time or alternate. Perform for 20-30 seconds (or longer) and repeat for 2-3 sets.
To add in a little cardio, speed up the movement.
#3 Psoas Pause
This exercise focuses on strengthening the psoas. The psoas muscle is important for stride length. This is similar to the standing knee drive, but involves a pause to increase muscle engagement and also let’s you work on balance.
To do this, stand up straight with good posture. Bend one knee and lift it toward your upper body. Focus on balancing on your standing leg while holding the bent knee position for 20-30 seconds.
Lower the leg and repeat on the other side. Do 8-10 reps for 2-3 sets per side. Things to focus on with this exercise are good posture and balance. It helps to find a non-moving object to focus on to keep your balance.
#4 Resistance Band Marches
My preferred way to do this is from a glute bridge position. You’ll need a small resistance band to wrap around both feet at the same time, though you can start without it.
This move also has a core component, particularly when laying down, so that’s something to keep in mind.
To perform the resistance band march, slip a resistance band around both feet and lay down with your body in an extended position. Lift your legs so your knees are bent at 90-degrees and are over your hips.
Extend one leg at a time and switch. The resistance band should help engage your hip flexor of the driving knee. As with the others, do 8-10 reps per set for 2-3 sets.
#5 Resistance Band Knee Drives
For this exercise, you’ll need to be able to lean against a wall, a barbell in a rack or on a bench, or this can be done from a standard plank position on the floor. You’ll need a small resistance band to loop around your feet.
Regardless of whether you’re doing this on an incline or in a standard high plank position, you’ll want to make sure your body is in a nice straight line with your pelvis in line with your upper body. No butts in the air!
With the resistance band looped around your feet, you’re going to drive one knee forward and hold for 2-3 seconds and release back down. Repeat for 8-10 reps and complete 2-3 sets.
#6 Knee Tucks
This is another great exercise because it let’s you get a little creative based on what you have.
Have TRX straps? For this exercise, simply slip your feet into the handles and stretch out into a plank position. Drive both knees to your chest at the same time. Keep your hips low to keep your core engaged and then return to the starting plank position.
You can also do this exercise on a stability ball rolling the ball in and out. The closer the ball is to your knees the easier the exercise, while if you keep the ball closer to your feet your core will work much harder.
#7 Forward Lunge
Lunges are great exercises for runners in general. While they’re more associated with strengthening the quads and glutes, they also help with hip flexor strength and even stretching the hip flexor. 3-for-1 deal, I guess!
From a nice starting position, standing tall with good posture, step forward with the right foot and lower down into a lunge position bending both the front and back knees. You should feel your quadriceps of the forward leg engaging and feel a stretch in the hip flexor of the opposite leg.
Push back to standing position, making sure to push with the heel of the forward leg. Make sure your torso stays strong and is not flopping all over the place or leaning in any particular direction.
Repeat all reps on one side together or alternate right leg then left leg. Do 8-10 reps for 2-3 sets.
Hopefully you’ve learned a bit more about the importance of strong hip flexors, especially for us runners. The goal now is to incorporate a couple of these exercises into your strength training routine to keep your hip flexors in tip top shape.
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7 Key Hip Flexor Stretches for Tight Hips
