Why You Need to Work on Your Hip Flexors

Why You Need to Work on Your Hip Flexors

Written By Rob Turp, Founder of Fitness Drum. 

The human body is a complex machine, made up of many different muscles and systems that work together to allow us to move and function. One muscle group that is often overlooked, but is crucial for maintaining proper movement and function, is the hip flexor muscles.

The hip flexors are a group of muscles located in the front of the hip that are responsible for “flexing” the hip joint and bringing the knee up towards the chest. 

These muscles are activated in all sorts of movements, such as walking, running, and jumping, and they play a vital role in maintaining proper posture and stability in the pelvis. 

Unfortunately, these muscles are often overlooked and under-trained, which can lead to a variety of issues, including lower back pain, hip pain, and poor performance in physical activities. 

Being sedentary and sitting for long periods also means the hip flexors can not only get weak, but also quite tight as well.

As a result, taking the time to actively strengthen (and stretch) the hip flexors will not only improve athletic performance but also make everyday activities easier and help fight against all sorts of musculoskeletal problems associated with poor posture.

In this article, I want to delve into these specific benefits in more detail as well as providing actionable tips on how to improve your hip flexor strength – and what we’ve found to be most effective at Fitness Drum. 

After discovering HGG’s Isotib earlier this year, I want to explain how you too, can use this to bulletproof your hips, as well as your tibialis anterior. 

Benefits of Stronger Hip Flexors

First things first – what sort of benefits can you expect from training your hip flexors?

Improved posture: Weak hip flexors can cause the pelvis to tilt forward, leading to poor posture and an increased risk of lower back pain. By strengthening the hip flexors, you can help to maintain a neutral pelvis and improve your posture.

Better performance in physical activities: Strong hip flexors are essential for many movements, such as running and jumping, and they can help to improve your performance in sports and other physical activities.

Prevention of injuries: Weak hip flexors can increase your risk of developing various injuries, such as groin strains. By strengthening these muscles, you can help to prevent these types of injuries and keep yourself healthy and active.

Improved flexibility: Strong hip flexors can help to improve your overall flexibility and range of motion, which can make it easier to perform a variety of movements and exercises.

Start with this Hip Flexor Strengthening Exercise

Hopefully by now, I’ve done enough to convince you that including hip flexor exercises into your fitness routine is worthwhile – so let’s talk tactics and how you can strengthen this muscle group effectively.

There are all sorts of movements and exercises, but we’ve found Psoas marches to be a great way to strengthen the hip flexors. Psoas marches can be performed in different ways and you may see them being done on the floor with bands (which is how we used to do it).

But when we started using the HGG Isotib Bar to progressively increase the weight, we found we could take our hip flexor training to the next level.

To do a standing psoas march, stand in a upright position with a straight back and chest up. With an Isotib attached to one foot, bend at the hip and knee to bring your knee towards your chest. Return this leg to the floor, repeating for 10 repetitions. Repeat this by adding more load to the Isotib and progressively increase the weight over 4-5 sets. Do this for each leg.

If you opt for a standing psoas march, we’d recommend using a step so that your working leg can accommodate for the additional size of the Isotib (so you can leverage the full range of motion of the movement). 

And that’s it… it’s nothing too crazy, but the impact of progressively overloading the muscles and accurately measuring the increase in weight, means you can really enhance your ability to strengthen the hip flexor muscles.

Thank You to HGG Performance

We’ve actually tried a few different tools to try to progressively overload exercises like psoas marches, but never found anything as effective as the Isotib. 

Although the product is most synonymous with tib raises, I would recommend anyone who gets one to incorporate these other sorts of movements into their weekly fitness routine to unlock newfound mobility.

Written By Rob Turp, Founder of Fitness Drum.