Stretching Hip Flexors to Reduce Low Back Pain

As a massage therapist I have had many clients come to see me complaining of low back pain through out their day.

This pain is quite often chronic having slowly developed over time from too many hours sitting at a desk and spending to much time in cars getting too and from work.

Stretching the hip flexors will often help alleviate much of this discomfort. In general when referring to your hip flexors we mean your iliopsoas muscle (which is really two muscles sharing a common insertion point- “ilio” refers to your iliacus muscle which originates on the entire inside surface of the ilium and “psoas” refers to your psoas muscle which originates on the front surface of your lower thoracix and lumber vertebral bodies, these muscles come together to form a common muscle belly just above the hip crease and then insert into femer just below the hip crease).

The hip flexors are very powerful muscles which tend to become functionally tight/short when one is in a seated position for many hours a day. This can put a lot of stress through the low back.

It is far more effective to stretch a passive muscle verses a muscle that is contacting to support body weight. With this in mind the best way I have found to stretch the hip flexors is to:

• sit with just the tip of your tail bone on the edge of a high bed or solid desk/table
• grasp the leg of the side you are not stretching behind the thigh just below the knee with both hands (i.e. if you wish to stretch the right hip flexor, grasp the left leg)
• pull your leg towards your torso, keeping you shoulders back and you back tall in order to support the low back
• engage your lower abdominal muscles and fall backward on the bed while holding your leg towards your torso, allowing your unsupported leg dangle (relax) off of the end of the bed
• you should feel a gentle stretch just above the hip crease of the leg hanging off the side of the bed
• stay in this position for 90 seconds to three minutes and then switch sides.

If you have any questions about this stretch please contact me.