Nip hip flexor pain in the bud, for good.

You’ve stretched your hip flexors. Strengthened them. Massaged them. And did all other hip flexor pain treatments under the sun. But still no luck.

Why can’t you shake this nagging pain in your hip flexor? What gives!?

Well for starters, you’re likely putting too much attention on the hip flexors. The body does not work like a machine on a conveyor belt, where each muscle does some task independently.

Instead, it’s a dynamic living breathing organism. All your muscles and joints work together to help you move around the world.

You also have this highly sophisticated thing called a brain in your skull, which is connected to a complex nervous system. 

So yeah, it’s complicated. But here’s the thing - you don’t have to know the WHY in order to get your hip flexors out of pain. In fact, chasing this goal gets you further from where you want to be.

In this article, I’ll explain this in more detail and share some simple interventions you can start today to feel and move better.

Where is hip flexor pain felt?

Before we get into the nitty gritty, let’s make sure you’re reading this article for the same reason I’m writing it.

When I talk about hip flexor pain, I am referring to the area right in the hip crease. Although technically the muscle runs from your abdomen to your hip, most people report experiencing discomfort right in this hip crease area.

Many people report a pinching pain that comes on when the hips go into flexion, which occurs in many daily activities. Examples include the bottom position in a squat, where the hips are maximally flexed, or when the front leg goes forward while running or walking.

Tight Hip Flexors and Back Pain

Many people blame their chronic hip or back pain on tight hip flexors. This theory stems from the idea that tight muscles in front of the pelvis pull the pelvis forward, creating an anterior pelvic tilt.

This pelvic position creates a sort-of criss-cross imbalance where the hip flexors and low back are shortened (overactive) while the glutes and abs are lengthened (and weak).

The purported antidote to this problem would be to stretch the hip flexors and low back, while strengthening the glutes and abs. If you’ve dabbled with corrective exercise at all before reading this article then you’ve likely tried this.

How did it go for you? If it worked then you probably wouldn’t be here. The problem with this approach is the mechanistic way it forces you to look at your body. Like it’s some type of machine that needs to be pulled and tightened in different areas to be “optimized” and in “balance.”

The truth is that nobody has perfect posture or symmetry in the body. Some people have more of an arch in their low back while others slouch more.

People with anterior pelvic tilt have hip and back pain, yes. But people without anterior pelvic tilt ALSO have hip and back pain. Posture is not as important to how joints feel as we’ve been led to believe.

Studies have shown that there is no relationship between the position of someone’s pelvis and whether they experience back pain. Like this study, where researchers did not find any connection between low back pain and pelvic position.

If stretching and strengthening the hip flexors won’t do the trick, then what will? What are you supposed to do to get your hip flexor out of pain?

You need to zoom out and focus on movement rather than pain.

 Let’s examine what this would look like.

Exercises for Hip Flexor Pain

Instead of being hyper-focused on the hip flexors and surrounding area, I recommend you take a more global approach to improving how your body moves.

To demonstrate this strategy, I will focus on two functions of the hip flexors and share exercises to help improve these movements.

The first and most obvious movement the hip flexors assist with is hip flexion. Hip flexion occurs when you close the angle between your torso and legs.

There are many different movements that require hip flexion but the most foundational is the squat. Squatting is challenging for many adults for a variety of reasons.

The key is working with your body and not trying to squat like some 20 year old fitness influencer on TikTok. Experiment with what is comfortable for you.

Go wide or narrow. Point the toes out or in. Don’t worry about depth right now. What I do want you to think about is whether or not you feel your hip flexors working.

Once you get to about 90 degrees, this is usually when the hip flexors should start engaging. Do you feel anything in your hip flexors, or do you feel some other area like the low back?

To engrain this feeling, try squatting on all fours, as I demonstrate below. This is a much easier position for most people to access, which makes it easier to build the mind-muscle connection with the hip flexors.

The second main function of the hip flexors is lengthening in hip extension. Every muscle in the body has a shortening and lengthening function.

To build resilience in any muscle in the body you want to ensure it has capacity in both of these functions. A great exercise in which you can practice your hip extension is the lunge.

The same principles apply with this movement. Find a way to perform this movement with comfort and don't go into too much range at first. You’re not looking for a split here.

The goal is to see if you can feel your hip flexors lengthening in this position. The hip flexors need to have adequate length to be able to lunge with good function.

If you don’t feel your hip flexors lengthening in your lunge, try the kneeling hip flexor stretch. Remember, the intention of this stretch is not to alleviate your pain but to improve your lunge.

I bring up this caveat because I know this stretch is often recommended as a way to reduce hip flexor pain. I don’t believe this to be a healthy approach to improving how your body feels.

Get your hip flexors squatting and lunging better and they will feel better. Worst case scenario, they feel the same but you get better at these movements!

Don’t get caught up in hip flexor pain causes

I often get emails from students in my Happy Hips program asking me whether I think their hip pain is due to some cause or another.

As they learn more about their bodies, they begin connecting the dots and the cause for their discomfort might seem more evident. These types of epiphanies are valuable but it’s easy to get lost in them.

I’ll never forget what a mentor once told me when I first started this path. I told him I figured something out in my body that changed everything. I shared how it felt like I finally understood how to get my hips feeling better.

He looked at me and said “I’ve been doing this for 20 years and I still learn new things about my body all the time.”

As the saying goes, “the more you learn, the less you know.” In the beginning, it seems that every new piece of wisdom obtained is life-changing. But as you stay on the path longer, you realize that the amount you can learn from your body is endless.

Every new thing you learn, your body will benefit from. As this knowledge grows and compounds, you will gradually move and feel better. There is no overnight fix. It’s a gradual process - but one that I personally find incredibly rewarding.

There is no one singular cause for your hip flexor pain. Despite how much content out there tries to convince you otherwise. Quick fixes get clicks but they don’t resolve chronic pain problems.