Let’s talk hip flexors.
Have you ever experienced:
- Any cramping or gripping sensation in your hip flexor and quad muscles?
- Tightness or tugging sensation around the groin?
- A sore lower back?
- A sore or numb bum?
- Do you ever feel tightness or gripping around the hips?
- Do you sit a lot for work?
Chances are your hip flexors could be tight.
Tight hip flexors can be a sign that certain other muscles are not pulling their weight in everyday movements such as climbing the stairs, standing up or going for a run or walk.
These muscle groups include:
- Your glutes
- Your core (abs, obliques, diaphragm)
- Your pelvic floor
- The deep 6 muscles of our hips
- Your lower limb muscles (like your hamstrings and quads)
Does that list surprise you? Like me, did you think that if you just spent your life working on stretching just your hip flexors it would be enough to make them flexible?
I did too. Until I discovered pilates and learned that moving dynamically (like in pilates), was the best way to not only stretch but also strengthen by body; sometimes what you think is a tight muscle is actually a muscle that needs strengthened.
Your muscles work like an orchestra; each one with a different role that blends in and complements with others to create the perfect symphony (this happens mainly through your body’s connected fascia system – yes that’s right your WHOLE BODY is connected which is why stretching muscles in isolation – or statically – is not always the most effective way to release and strengthen them).
Pilates is a dynamic form of movement that teaches you to recruit the right muscles in the right way, at the right time. It will also teach you how to move with grace, precision, and control. And the best thing is, you can get an INCREDIBLE core workout – that includes stretching and strengthening those hip flexors– in a very short amount of time.
Additionally, through Pilates we learn how to breathe. Breath is important because it affects the way we move and the way we use our muscles.
Feeling stressed? Releasing tight muscles like your hip flexors through focused breath work could be the stress reliever you’ve been missing.
Somatically, releasing the psoas can also stimulate organs, circulation, the nervous and reproductive systems and relieve sciatic pain and the fear reflex; there is much evidence to suggest that the psoas is a site where the body holds a lot of trauma, particularly for woman.
Pilates teaches you how to breathe properly to release tension so is also the perfect antidote to stress.
But where to start?
Will you sign up for this workout today? Let me know in the comments and don’t forget to subscribe to my YouTube channel where you’ll be notified when a new workout is posted.
Love Julie x
