By now you’ve probably heard that sitting all day long can lead to tight hip flexors.  You’ve probably also heard that having tight hip flexors can inhibit your glutes making it so that they don’t fire properly.

So you’ve got a double whammy.  You stick out your butt (so to speak), but your glutes don’t actually fire effectively so you’re sticking out a whole lot of nothing.  You know you need to lengthen the hip flexors to reposition the pelvis and allow the glutes to fire correctly.

In an effort to combat this nasty postural fault more and more people are trying to stretch their hip flexors, but most of them are doing it all wrong.  So let’s begin with what a hip flexor stretch should look like.  When done properly, the body is upright and the femur should be extended relative to the torso.  The lumbar spine is kept in a neutral position. 

Unfortunately, the mistake that most people make is that when they sink into the stretch they convince themselves that they have more range of motion than they actually do.  Instead of remaining upright and allowing the femur to extend relative to the torso, they simply lean foward.

In the picture below it appears at first glance that this woman has good hip flexor range of motion but when you look at the hip angle, her femur really isn’t in extension relative to the torso.

The other issue I see most often is that the femur actually appears to be in extension but instead of the extension occuring at the hip, it actually happens at the lumbar spine.  And since most people with tight hip flexors will already have a tendancy for the lumbar spine to extend (due to anterior pelvic tilt) this can happen without them even noticing it.

In the photo below you’ll note that this woman is completely upright and her femur is actually in extension relative to her torso, but the exaggerated arch in her lower back suggests that a large amount of the motion is coming from here instead of at the hip.  Frankly, this isn’t the worst case I’ve seen, but you get the idea.

To properly perform a hip flexor stretch it is ideal to keep the body upright.  Then, before you sink into the stretch, tighten the abs slightly to prevent lumbar spine motion.  I guarantee, this will increase the stretch at the hip.