Anatomy of Hip Flexor Stretch


I am new here and this is my first post. I have been reading most of the articles on this web site and enjoy all the info here.

I’ve got Anterior Pelvic Tilt(APT) tight hip flexors. I am foam rolling hamstrings, Adductors, Abductors, tennis ball Piriformis, and mobility drills. After these I am doing the kneeling lunge hip flexor stretch(I am sure you all know which one).

I have attached a highly detailed picture to help you understand.
When doing this stretch I tilt my pelvis forward as your are instructed to do.(and squeeze glute of rear leg.) When I lean into the stretch to increase it I can’t help but notice my pelvis/hip comes forward on my front leg(Like in Picture B.)My legs are no longer aligned next to each other as if i was just standing on my knees with legs side by side like in Picture A and my pelvis is no longer in alignment. I feel that this is where I am getting the majority of my range of motion.

Is the pelvis supposed to stay in alignment for this stretch?(Like in Picture A) Or is it ok to look like Picture B?

Thanks.

Your photo of what your “normal pelvis alignment” and “hip flexor alignment” looks like is not what I would consider accurate. If I am looking at it properly, I’m assuming that you are trying to draw how the femur is sitting into the hip and then how the femur is angled during the stretch. The problem is that the the hips are generally looked at for alignment (specifically with an APT) with a horizontal, rotated point of view.

Look at this attached photo for what I am referring to: http://healthhabits.files.wordpress.com/2008/05/anterior-pelvic-tilt2.png

With the stretch, you should be contracting the gluteals while leaning forward into the stretch. You should be attempting to keep proper alignment of the pelvis, but until you achieve proper gluteal strength and hip flexor mobility, it may not be perfect.

yep. squeeze your glutes.

in my own case… my tight hip flexors were inhibiting my glutes from firing. needed to balance stretching the front of the hip with activating the back of the hip.

i have trouble activating my glutes with the standing quad stretch… but yeah, working on it. try and keep proper alignment of the pelvis (move from the leg and not from the spine). but it is hard, though.