Most triathletes make the mistake of thinking that there’s certain stretches that are better than others when it comes to releasing hip flexor tightness. But there isn’t.
Thinking about stretch positions in some sort of hierarchy will only lead to trouble because you’ll end up ditching ones that don’t feel as effective at that moment in time. And you won’t just ditch them for that day.
We humans tell ourselves stories all the time. We do it about everything – especially on a subconscious level. If we feel that one particular stretch doesn’t work very well for us, the story that we tell ourselves is that the position of that stretch is NEVER going to be useful for us, so we’ll avoid it completely – for good.
The trouble is, bodies change very quickly, so what feels useful now, might not in a few days’ time, and vice versa, so by missing out entire stretch positions, you could actually be missing the very key to unlock your hip flexor tightness quickly.
That’s why it’s really important to get into ALL the areas of your hip that the position you’re in will allow.
That’s why the first of my 2 tips for you is to move in your stretches.
Putting yourself into a stretch position and then making very small, micro movements within that stretch position will help your body to lengthen your muscles in ways you didn’t even know they were stuck. And I don’t mean limiting your movement to forwards and backwards either. Depending on your position you can move up and down, side to side, in circles, in a figure of 8, and any combination of those.
It’s very easy to spend 15 or 20 minutes working with just ONE stretch position, making little tweaks as you go to massively change how your body experiences that stretch each time.
I’ll guide you through exactly how to gradually add these tweaks into your stretch positions to make sure you’re getting the most improvement in your hip flexors with my FREE “Hip Flexors 5 Ways” Video. Simply fill in your email address below and I’ll send the video direct to your inbox!
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But it’s not just the micro movements you make within those stretches that make the difference though. You could actually be moving in your stretches and not making any progress at all.
That’s why the second of my tips is to move slowly.
You’ll hear me say in almost every movement video I make “move at the speed of rocking a baby to sleep” and there’s a good reason for that.
A slow, gentle rocking movement is comforting to humans. That’s why we use it to help babies sleep, but if you’re hell bent on them going to sleep, getting yourself more and more frustrated that they’re not sleeping, your rocking motion will become for forceful and most likely faster, which won’t encourage sleep at all. The same can be said for relaxing tight muscles.
If you’re trying too hard, either by pushing yourself to move too far within your stretch, or you’re moving too fast towards the limits of your range of motion, your body will try to protect you from damaging yourself by tightening your muscles. Which is obviously what you’re trying to get rid of, and therefore not very helpful.
Moving slowly within your stretch, even like you can’t be bothered to do it, will significantly improve your chances of success with your hip flexor (and any other) tightness.
It’s like Bananarama sang in the 80’s “It ain’t what you do it’s the way that you do it. That’s what get’s results”.
Start getting better results with your hip flexor tightness with my FREE “Hip Flexors 5 Ways” Video. Just fill in your email below and let’s get started!
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