Since they’re opposing muscle groups, when one is really tight, the other becomes lengthened. Too much tightness in your hips can also make it harder for your glutes to activate. Tight hip flexors make it harder for your pelvis to rotate properly during exercise and everyday movements, which can cause your lower back to overcompensate, “and this can be a setup for lower-back injury,” Teo Mendez, MD, an orthopedic surgeon at NY Orthopedics who focuses on operative and nonoperative management of sports-related injuries, musculoskeletal injuries, and arthritis, tells SELF. “People focus on the hips and say their hips are tight, but we don’t always think about the fact that the lower back connects to our legs at the hip,” Charlee Atkins, CSCS, registered yoga instructor and creator of Le Sweat workout app, tells SELF. Tight hips aren’t just uncomfortable-they can lead to all sorts of aches and pains in other areas of your body. That’s why, as you’ll see below, some of the best stretches for hips target those surrounding muscles as well. While your butt muscles have different functions than your hip flexors, they also tend to work in tandem with them. You can also consider your gluteus maximus (the largest muscle in your butt) part of this overall area too it plays a role when you do pretty much any move that requires hip extension, like a glute bridge or deadlift. When you move your legs out to the side-say, if you’re doing a lateral lunge-your hip abductors are firing when you bring them in, like when you hop your feet back to center in a jumping jack, your hip adductors are working. You also have hip adductor muscles (which include your pectineus, adductor longus, and adductor brevis) on the inside of your thigh, and hip abductor muscles (your side butt muscles, like the gluteus medius and gluteus minimus, as well as your tensor fasciae latae) on the outside. ![]() They help you flex your hips (think: bringing your leg up toward your body) when you perform the high knees exercise, kick a soccer ball, or even when you just walk or run. Your hip flexors run along the front of your upper thigh, and include your iliacus, iliopsoas, psoas major, and rectus femoris (a part of your quadriceps). Your hip muscles include muscles in the top of your legs as well as your butt. The good news, though, is that working on your hip flexor mobility and flexibility can keep those issues at bay-and get you feeling better in your body. Plus, this tightness can cause a snag in your strength training workouts, especially if you’re planning on doing lower-body exercises like squats that require you to sink deeply through your hips. As a result, everyday activities like walking, jogging, or simply slipping into the front seat of your car can feel way less pleasant. Tight hip flexors can limit your mobility, or your ability to comfortably move those muscles through their full range of motion. This can make them super tight, especially if you’re not incorporating stretches, gentle movement, or hip-strengthening exercises into your routine. It keeps your hip flexors-the muscles in the front of your hips and upper thighs-in a shortened position for much longer than they should be. Spending a lot of time sitting can do a number on your body. But penciling in just a couple minutes of stretching? That’s much easier to fit in. ![]() And let’s be honest: Though adding walk breaks here and there can feel amazing, it’s not always doable with a packed schedule. While sitting less is always a great goal, adding hip stretches to your routine can go a really long way too. If you spend most of your day parked in a chair, you’re probably intimately familiar with having tight hips.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |