Chronic Tight Hip Flexors

Did you know that having tight hip flexors can lead to injuries such as shin splints, plantar fasciopathy (fasciitis) and achilles tendinopathy? And did you know that these are 3 of the most common injuries affecting regular runners (if you saw our post last week you would!).

Tight hip flexors are largely the result of our lifestyle. Sitting for several hours per day puts these guys in a shortened position, which leads to them gradually becoming tighter over time. Sitting also reduces the activation of our core stabilising muscles, and our hip flexors commonly try to pick up the slack. So our hip flexors are OVERWORKING and in a SHORTENED position >>> CHRONIC TIGHTNESS! ⠀ Trying to run with tight hip flexors stops you from achieving good hip extension with each stride. This means that your glutes and hamstrings are less effective at pushing off and propelling you forward. A common compensation for this is overusing the calf muscles to propel you forward. The calves then get chronically tight, altering foot/ankle mechanics and causing problems such as shin splints, plantar fasciopathy (fasciitis) and achilles tendinopathy. So if you sit at work for 8-10 hours a day, then get up and go for a run without ever working on your hip flexibility, YOU’RE ASKING FOR TROUBLE! ⠀ In the next post we will show you the bests ways to improve your hip flexor tightness by stretching them effectively and strengthening them to build resiliency!

Meanwhile our caring and friendly Chatswood or North Sydney Physio team would love to help you out, so reach out to us if you have any questions.