If you have tense hip muscles, you can also suffer from back pain as a result. To prevent this, stretching exercises for the hip flexor muscle can help.
If the hip flexor muscles are tense, the lumbar spine is stressed. If you then tend to have a hollow back, you will quickly suffer from back pain. These simple exercises will help stretch and work the hip flexor to avoid this:
Exercise 1: Stretch your hips over your knees
This exercise is recommended by the German Football Association (DFB), among others: Bend your front knee until you feel a stretch in the hip and front thigh of the back leg.
To reinforce the exercise, you can also bend your arms and place your fingers or hands on your temples and tilt your trunk to the opposite side until you feel a stretch on the opposite side of your trunk. Hold each exercise for a few seconds or minutes for as long as is comfortable, then switch sides.
Exercise 2: Standing stretch
For the second exercise you do not need a sporty surface or a lot of space, you can also simply do it in the office behind your desk chair:
- Stand up straight with your feet hip-width apart and pointing straight ahead.
- Now step your right leg back into a wide lunge. The front knee stays behind the toes and the back leg is slightly bent. Your knees point in the same direction, and your thighs and lower legs form about a 90-degree angle.
- Lift the back heel.
- Stretch your arms up and open your chest. The center of gravity is now in the middle between the back and the front leg.
- You should now feel the stretch, but not pain.
- Hold the stretch for a few seconds or minutes for as long as you are comfortable, then switch sides.
3rd exercise: train your hip flexors while lying down
For these three simple exercises, you should take a soft surface like a gymnastic mat and then lie on your back. You then first embrace your right knee with your hands and pull as tightly as possible to your chest. Hold the pain for as long as it is comfortable for you. Then you can change the page.
You can also train your hip flexors while lying down by turning on your stomach and lifting your upper body back and up. With this exercise, which is also called “cobra”, you also train the lower back muscles.
Disclaimer:
The information in no way replaces professional advice or treatment by trained and recognized doctors. The content of fitmodell cannot and must not be used to independently make diagnoses or start treatments.