Without a doubt, the most common complaint I hear from athletes is that they have “tight hip flexors”. Most of the time they’ve spent months stretching and foam rolling with no effect. Most of the time, performing combinations of core strength, hip flexor strength, and loaded mobility drills create far more significant and permanent changes than what they’ve been wasting their time on. Use these eight drills to conquer your hip flexor mobility.
Also, see this post for a test you need to do to assess if your hip flexors are actually tight (shortened muscles) or simply holding too much tension (feeling tight but not actually being shortened).
For more mobility tests to determine where you should focus your flexibility work, access our FREE mobility checklist!
Want a done-for-you program to tackle your hip flexor problems? Check out our HIP-FLEXOR OVERHAUL!!!
Best Drills to Fix Your Hip Flexor Mobility!
Reverse Leg Raise
A great exercise to work on controlling core position while stretching both the hamstrings and the hip flexors. FIGHT to keep the top leg fully extended and control the lowering leg as well.
Psoas March
The psoas march is without a doubt my favorite hip flexor drill. By combining core and hip flexor strength plus moving the legs into hip flexion and extension, a lot of tension in the hip flexors is released. Allowing for rapid improvements in mobility! Read more about this exercise in this article.
Rear Foot Elevated Split Squats
When done slowly, the eccentric load on the hip flexors makes rear foot elevated split squats a great way to create true structural changes to elongate the hip flexors.
Hip Thrusts with Posterior Pelvic Tilt
By performing a posterior tilt and then focusing on moving through full range of motion, we can stretch the hip flexors while engaging the posterior chain.
Single-Leg Hip Lift with Ball Squeeze
Hip Flexor PAILs/RAILs
PAILs and RAILs are great training principles for increasing USEABLE mobility by training athletes to be strong at end ranges of motion as they increase flexibility. The hip flexor PAILs/RAILs are great!
Hip Flexor Isometric Holds
A weak muscle will often compensate by feeling tight. And even though this drill has the hip flexors in a very shortened position, I consistently see if hip improves feelings of tightness in the anterior hip.
Hip Flexor Stretch & Press
Take your standard hip flexor stretch, add in a strong anterior abdominal contraction, and then press a weight overhead to further challenge pelvic positioning and we’ve got a much better drill!
Reverse Nordic Curls
A newer drills I’m working on, but by slowly controlling this motion we put a heavy eccentric load on the rectus femoris that we’re seeing great improvements in flexibility of the hip flexors. Trust me when I tell you this is much harder than it looks!
Want a done-for-you program to tackle your hip flexor problems? Check out my recently released program, HIP FLEXOR OVERHAUL!!!
