T Nation

Painfully Tight Hip Flexor

#1

Hello all,

So over the last few weeks my left hip has been painfully tight, for example if I sit on my knees and fully extend my hips (as if I was praying) whilst tensing my glutes, I can feel how restricted and tight only one hip is. I feel no pain when front or back squatting and I have found that hip flexor stretches, especially Kelly's from mobility wod, only make it worse as the hip feels great and loose coming out of the stretch but after about 5 minutes feels even worse as it seems to just jam up even tighter than before.

I am at a loss at how to treat the hip as it has not seemed to effect my training and I can only really feel how tight it is when fully extending my hips, ie a glute bridge or the prayer stance mentioned above. Any ideas?

#2

I think you are on the right track with the glute bridge. If you are stretching it and it just goes back to tight again then I would be thinking about weak glutes. Glute max and glute med for sure. A lot of people with tight hip flexors will have weak glutes. Stretch your hip flexors good prior to glute work, but I would try that.

#3

It's possible that you have fascial adhesions in your hip flexors/external hip rotators that are causing the pain post stretching. Trigger points directly in the muscle fibers could also contribute to such as well.

You should consider seeing a therapist who performs active release and myofascial abrasion. Strengthening the glutes will also help as well (through reciprocal inhibition).

It's also likely that your pelvis is slightly rotated as well, especially if one side is tighter than the other. Determining muscular imbalances would likely go along way to helping correct the issue.

#4

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#5

Thanks for the replies.

Bushido, I've recently taken up Olypmic weightlifting and have shifted my squatting style to match, including the use of olympic weightlifting shoes. Is there anything I can do for myself at home? For example taking a lacrosee ball and rolling my psoas? Until I find a good therapist should I stop squatting? I feel no pain during training, only after having stretched my hip directly.

Thanks in advance.