Hips

88olds
88olds Posts: 4,538 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
Would like to hear from anyone who has had success loosening tight hip flexors. I’m not really sure that I’m getting anywhere.

I’m on a mission to get my quads parallel to the floor for squats.

Replies

  • schmanciepants
    schmanciepants Posts: 62 Member
    Not successful, but have had a lot of PT for my hip (and 2 surgeries). You can stretch it by getting into a lunge type position and turning your back foot out approx 45 degrees. My first doc said to do it at least 3 times a day....or more
  • Cherimoose
    Cherimoose Posts: 5,208 Member
    88olds wrote: »
    I’m on a mission to get my quads parallel to the floor for squats.

    Tight hip flexors usually reduce movement in the opposite direction, so i think your diagnosis may be off. To reduce hip tightness and improve at squatting deeper, i suggest doing "third world squats" several times daily, which are explained here: https://www.stack.com/a/third-world-squat
  • Dani9585
    Dani9585 Posts: 215 Member
    schmanciepants wrote: »
    Not successful, but have had a lot of PT for my hip (and 2 surgeries). You can stretch it by getting into a lunge type position and turning your back foot out approx 45 degrees. My first doc said to do it at least 3 times a day....or more

    Like a lunge mixed with a warrior one pose? I’ll have to google so that I can try. My hips are so tight, despite stretching with a runners lunge (my hips are aligned properly).

    OP, if you’re into yoga, the pose “wild thing” is lovely for hips (it may be known by other names too)

  • wiigelec
    wiigelec Posts: 503 Member
    This works great for keeping my hips loose:

    https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=3B-3Khbht5s
  • Katmary71
    Katmary71 Posts: 7,142 Member
    Dani9585 wrote: »
    schmanciepants wrote: »
    Not successful, but have had a lot of PT for my hip (and 2 surgeries). You can stretch it by getting into a lunge type position and turning your back foot out approx 45 degrees. My first doc said to do it at least 3 times a day....or more

    Like a lunge mixed with a warrior one pose? I’ll have to google so that I can try. My hips are so tight, despite stretching with a runners lunge (my hips are aligned properly).

    OP, if you’re into yoga, the pose “wild thing” is lovely for hips (it may be known by other names too)

    Is this where you go in a lunge position and put your knee down then lean toward the forward knee? If so I started that a month ago and just started yoga videos and in a week am already seeing improvement in walking with bigger steps as my hip flexors are starting to loosen up. I've had my back fused at two levels and can barely lay on the weight bench, I just put my tiptoes on the floor and they barely touch. I knew mine tended to be tight after surgery as PTs commented on it, I just didn't realize how bad they are until recently.
  • Chieflrg
    Chieflrg Posts: 9,097 Member
    I'm not confident you have "tight hip flexors". That is very specific and probably not the case.

    I will say I can get 99.9% of people to squat at or below parallel in five minutes.

    Without actually seeing you squat, advice or adjustments are extremely limited.

    I will say work at a ROM you are comfortable with with the intention of working towards that goal as you get more reps in might be reasonable.

    Sometimes simple things such squatting down to a box or bumper plates, pause and/or tempo squats might be useful.

    Feel free to post a vid on my thread of squat, deadlift, bench form if you like and I can get you to your goal of at depth squats.

  • quiksylver296
    quiksylver296 Posts: 28,439 Member
    What type of shoe do you wear while squatting?

    My hips are ridiculous, to the point I do physical therapy and dry needling. But I can get squats to depth by wearing squat shoes.
  • springlering62
    springlering62 Posts: 8,662 Member
    edited January 2020
    Yoga- all kinds of poses help with tight hips, too many to name here.

    Pilates side series has helped me and my daughter with hip pain.
  • hipari
    hipari Posts: 1,367 Member
    I have very tight hip flexors, as experienced by me and confirmed by several physical therapists. I also have issues with getting to a deep enough squat, but that problem is about my ankles and calves, not about my hip flexors.

    My favorite stretch for hip flexors is easy to do almost everywhere, even while standing by the water cooler for office chit-chat. Basically you just take a small step back with one foot, and start tilting your hips forwards (imagine you are trying to point your private parts towards the ceiling). With tight hip flexors, the movement required is so small it’s barely visible, and you probably don’t need to do any lunge-ish movement to achieve a stretch. Here’s a video to describe it better.

    https://youtu.be/sedMnxVxKo4
  • AustinRuadhain
    AustinRuadhain Posts: 2,595 Member
    edited January 2020
    I do well with the stretch sessions from Essentrics. Hip flexors have not been a particular issue of mine, but you might take a look:
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ipcis1qlQhc

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