Hip Flexor Strength for Low Back Support
Greetings Overwhelmed Yogis,
While the benefits of good balance are well known, the hip flexors don’t often get the attention they deserve. They tend to be both tight and weak. Strengthening and lengthening the hip flexors has helped me a lot with low back pain.
Today’s Movement Monday exercise is a strengthener for the lifted leg and a bit of a lengthener for the standing one. See the video here. It’s a great standalone movement break, or it can be added easily into any yoga practice or workout.
To begin, stand on one foot. Ground into the big toe mound, inner heel, little toe mound and outer heel on the standing foot, and engage the glute on the standing leg.
Three options for your lifted leg:
- With the knee bent, create resistance with your hands pushing into your thigh while pushing your thigh up into your hands.
- Lift the leg with a bent knee as high as you’re able to feel the hip flexor activate, and hold it there in a marching position using hip flexor strength only. This frees up the hands if you need to hold onto a wall or chair for balance support.
- For an extra spicy challenge: Extend the lifted leg to straight and try not to let it lower. This is much harder than it looks!
Hold either of the bent-knee positions for 10-30 seconds. If you straighten your leg and can keep it up for even a few seconds, you’re ahead of the curve. If you straighten your leg and your thigh cramps, stick with the bent-knee variations for now.
To strengthen your hip flexors, try 1-3 sets of this exercise 2-3x per week. Total time investment: 1-3 minutes.
If you’d now like to do some hip flexor lengthening/release, here are a few options:
Lie on a Block, Unwind Your Low Back
The back leg in a lunge opens the hip flexor, too… here’s a fun variation.
Questions? Please let me know.
Each Monday I post a movement break to support your body, each Thursday an exercise or tip for your nervous system. I always welcome and appreciate your content requests.