Essential Stretches for TIGHT HIPS

Every time you sit down, you're actively shortening the muscles in your hips, which eventually make them feel stiff. Exercise that involves hinging at the hips can make this even worse.

The hip flexor's main purpose is to help the hip joints move appropriately in their full range. The hip flexor supports you draw your leg to your torso, and also help you move your legs from side to side and backwards. The hip flexor is the muscle group that joins your legs to your torso and lower body, and lets your legs to move in mixture with your torso. The hip flexor also helps to steady your hips and lower body, keeping the joints of your pelvis and lumbar spine durable.

If your hip flexors are overdeveloped, tight, stiff or short, you'll suffer from lower back pain and hip pain. You could experience a limited range of motion in the hips and lower back. That's because tight hip flexors pull your pelvis into an unnatural forward tilt, which in turn pulls your lumbar spine out of alignment, causing lower back pain.

The hip flexor is a major stabilizer of the lower body, so if your hip flexor is too weak you'll suffer from poor balance and postural problems. You may have problems with your hip joints and frequent misalignment in your lumbar spine. You'll have trouble standing and walking for long periods of time, and you may have problems with your gait.

It's important to keep your hip flexors strong as well as flexible. Yoga, sit ups and leg lifts, especially using small weights, are good ways to strengthen your hip flexors. If you can perform leg lifts while dangling from a pull up bar, then this is an excellent way to strengthen your hip flexors. Just remember to keep your spine straight to prevent back injury; if you feel your spine bending as you lift your legs, then you've lifted far enough.

You should also stretch your hip flexors regularly to keep them long, loose and supple. Open Lizard, Happy Baby, Extended Wide squat, Head to knee, butterfly stretches, Pigeon Pose, Double Pigeon and wide legged split from yoga are all good ways to stretch your hip flexors.