Strengthening the Hip Flexors

When it comes to hip pain, or hip “tightness” in general, hip flexors are a common complaint. You’ll see people in the gym endlessly stretching their hip flexors or foam rolling/smashing the area for that sweet sweet short-term relief - but it’s just that… short-term.

When a muscle feels “tight”, it doesn't mean that it’s inherently “short”. A muscle doesn’t magically gain more length when you stretch it, it still remains the same length; you just gain access to more range. The way this works is through our body’s protective response called the stretch reflex. This reflex is governed by the nervous system as an attempt to protect us from injury by subconsciously contracting the particular muscle before it reaches a range of motion that we have not yet learned to control.

Here's the key, once we’ve proven that we can control those ranges of motion and we can clearly manage them without compensating from other areas, our nervous system will grant us access to deeper ranges of motion.

The only way to do this is through the development of strength.

THIS is why strength is a vital component to long-term progress in a range of motion, the reduction of compensations and hip pain. If your client is frequently complaining of “tight hip flexors”, then it’s time to change the focus on those hip muscles and start implementing some strength work rather than throwing them on a foam roller or couch stretch.

Effective Exercises for Hip Strength

In order to build strength in the hip flexors and overall hip musculature, we’ll need to approach them in an active capacity. While that much is clear, I also want it to be clear that we need to also train them in both their long and short ranges to have the best result. Below I’ll give you two exercises for short-range and two exercises for long-range hip flexor strengthening!