It’s time to talk about our hip flexors, what they do, and how to properly stretch them. Your hip flexors are a group of muscles that 😲 aid in hip flexion, which, in other terms, means pulling the thigh closer to the torso.

The hip flexor complex is compromised of the rectus femoris, psoas. iliacus, iliocapsularis, and sartorius muscles. Today we are mainly going to focus on the psoas muscles and the rectus femoris.

The psoas complex connects your thoracic and lumbar spine to the front of your femur, and is an extremely important muscle when it comes to proper posture and spine stabilization.

The rectus femoris is one of the four muscles of the quadriceps, being the only quadricep muscle that crosses both the hip and the knee, connecting the front of the hip (aka, your anterior superior iliac spine, or ASIS) to your tibial tuberosity via the patellar tendon.

So, what happens if our hip flexor complex is shortened or tighter than it should be? The muscles of the hip flexor complex may be causing an anteriorly rotated pelvis and poor posture, which can cause you to experience low back pain, anterior hip pain, glute pain, and even neck discomfort and tightness.

How do we properly stretch this complex? You can check out these informative videos from your RDA coaches to see how! (*turn on your closed captioning for the first video cause practice spaces are loud!) 😂

If you’d like a hip strength workout, click here! Thanks for joining us today, keep an eye on our blog for more derby fitness content!