Often riders will say they have tight hip flexors and feel the need to stretch them. Whilst I absolutely agree due to sitting down at desks all day, driving etc we should lengthen those hip flexors back out to maintain their natural length; this won’t necessarily improve the feeling of tightness or how they perform when you ride.
To improve the hip flexors functionality they need to be stronger, which means we need to work them.
When we ride our Hip Flexors form part of our pelvic stability.
The main hip flexors are
- Psoas. It originates in the lumbar spine and passes through the pelvis, inserting into the thigh bone. This is the one I think many riders are familiar with as it has many other functions in riding along with stabilising your back.
- Illiacus. This lies deep within the pelvis, again connecting through to the thigh bone. It works in conjunction with the Psoas to flex the hip joint.
- Rectus Femoris. This is one of the quad muscles on the front of your thigh. It crosses both the hip and knee joint so it does both hip flexion and knee extension. Often when riders have non joint knee pain it is this muscle causing the problem.
- Sartorius. This is the longest muscle in the body running diagonally across the front of the thigh. It helps in flexing and rotating the hip.
- Tensor Fasciae Latae. This small muscle is on the outside of the hip. It helps to stabilise the hip as well as aiding in flexion.
So how do we train them?
Band March-Great way to work them fairly isolated but whilst still having to work your glutes, hamstrings and core to maintain the bridge position.
Seated Leg Lift-Again , fairly isolated aside from the back and abdominals working to keep you upright, but if you can’t stay upright you know you’re cheating!
Standing Pull Through-Similar to march, or it can be made into a split squat march combo, and for extra points really adding some oomph can bring a power element to your hip training.
Feeling inspired? Let me know which one’s you’re thinking of adding to your regular routine.
