A Stetch You Need In Your Life

If you sit all day then one of the best stretches you can add to your day is the hip flexor stretch. There isn't just a muscle called the "hip flexor". There are actually a couple of musles we want to concentrate on when doing this stretch.

1. Psoas

2. Rectus Femoris (a quadricep muscle)

The psoas is quite a busy muscle. It is responsible for hip flexion, externally rotating your hip and extending you spine (like when you arch your back) The Rectus Femoris is responsible for hip flexion and knee extension.

When you sit all day or even play sports that have you in a hip flexed position for long periods of time, your hip flexors can become shortened and overactive. When this happens, you tend to be in a constant hip flexed position while standing or walking. These people have a pronounced low back arch while standing.

Watch the video for a great explanation of proper hip stretching form. Never ever ever though do the stretch like this:

You see her upper body is straight--which is great--but her leg is at a 45 degree angle. When in this position, the psoas is hard a work doing its hip extension duties. We want to STRETCH the psoas. You can't stretch it while at the same time you are making it work. That's a stretch and a flex all at the same time...and that doesn't work. You see a lot of people doing the stretch this way but in the muscle science world, we have a special name for this technique. It's called Wrong.