Hip flexors! What are they, what do they do and why are they important?

For many years I attended group Pilates classes and was blissfully unaware of what my hip flexors were, what they do and why they are important. However, I can guarantee that not a class went by without the great HIP FLEXOR being referenced by many different instructors. If you don't know or are not sure, keep reading and I will explain.

Hip flexion is the movement the thigh makes when you raise it towards the body, just like my sporty friend is doing in the picture above. (She is also flexing at the knee joint). You use hip flexion every day as you walk around, every time you lift your thigh towards you to take a step. If you have spent a significant portion of your day sat down, you might feel tightness in the front of your pelvis or top of your thigh. This could be your hip flexors where they have been stuck in flexion as you have been seated. The main muscles responsible for this movement are Iliopsoas, (iliacas and psoas major together) and the rectus femoris, with some help from the sartorius.

In Pilates there are many exercises where you lay on you back as you glide you legs in and away from your core. This is working the hip flexors and your core muscles as you engage your core to provide the stable basis in your torso. In Pilates you will often complete a hip flexor stretch at the end of your routine to release the muscle that have worked and help prevent muscle aches in the following days.

So why are my hip flexors important? Well the hip flexors are in the middle of the body and provide stability for your pelvis, lower back and hips. All areas of the body I often find are causing discomfort to my clients. Strong hip flexors will work with your strong Pilates core to stabilize and strengthen you from the inside out.

Comments

Osteoporosis

Osteoporosis is a condition that lots of us recognise, but do we really know what it is? It is a condition where your bones lose strength, this would not be noticed until you had a slip or a fall, you may not even know you have it. However because the bones have lost some of their strength a simple accident could end up causing a bone fracture (break). This condition impacts both females and males. How do the bones lose strength? Your bone are just as alive and changing as your skin. It is normal for us to shed some old skin as we grow new skin. In our bones, old bone is absorbed by cells called osteoclasts and then new bone is built by cells called osteoblasts. This process is know as bone remodeling and keeps our skeleton healthy. As we travel through phases of our life the hormones that balance this cycle change. As we get older some aspects of our bodies don't keep working as efficiently as they used to. Take the osteoclasts for example, who have worked at top spe

My feet are amazing! But how should I stand and why does this matter?

Each of your feet are amazing, I know that I did not appreciate my feet until I had a accident and one of my feet stopped working as well as it used to. My extreme sport of choice was piggy in the middle with my children on the beach, when I kick a stone. This has continued to impact my foot health for over 18 months (well I'm still recovering). Each of your feet are made up of 26 bones, 30 joints and more than 100 muscles, tendons and ligaments. Your feet are the most amazing mobile weight bearing structures around. When anatomists write about the foot, they often refer to the "bony architecture" of the foot. Now start to think about the structure of your foot as "bony architecture" and you can start understanding how you foot is similar to a vaulted church ceiling. Lots of individual bones precisely placed to fit together in an amazing arched structure. What is incredible about the foot is that there are three arches at work. You have the arch that yo

Pilates key principles: Control

In Pilates we aim to maintain a high level of control over the movements that we make. As you will have completed some Pilates with me, you will be aware that a small angle change in leg positioning or increased stability through the pelvis can suddenly increase the intensity of an exercise. When thinking about control it is very closely related to precision and you could say that these key principles come hand in hand. You will find that control is improved once you have made multiple attempts at an exercise. Muscles will increase in strength and your muscles will remember the movement of an exercise. Therefore when taking part in a class, stay at a level where you can maintain control. If you work at too high a level you will find it harder to master the control of position and movement and then perfect the exercise. When we have control over a movement we are also able to make the movement using only the muscles connected with that motion. An example of where things can go

Katie Leaver Pilates

Search This Blog