16 Hip Flexor Stretches Your Body Really Needs So You Can Loosen Up and Move Better

Everyone seems to have tight hips these days, making hip flexor stretches more important than ever. It makes sense—spending a lot of time sitting keeps your hip flexors in a shortened position more than they should be. Constricting the muscles in this way can make them super tight, especially if you’re not incorporating hip stretches and strengthening into your routine.

So chances are pretty good you know what it feels like to have a tight muscle. But having tight hip flexors can be more than just a slight discomfort—it might also set you up for injury. The good news, though, is that working on your hip flexor mobility can keep those issues at bay. Here’s what you need to know.

What are your hip flexors?

Your hip flexors are a group of muscles along the front of your upper thigh, which include your iliacus, psoas major, and the rectus femoris (a part of your quadriceps). They help you flex your hips—say, when you perform the high knees exercise, or even when you just walk or run.

What’s the problem with tight hip flexors?

Tight hips aren’t just uncomfortable—they can lead to all sorts of other aches and pains, especially in your lower back.

“People focus on the hips and say their hips are tight, but we don’t always think about the fact that the lower back connects to our legs at the hip,” Charlee Atkins, C.S.C.S., creator of Le Stretch class, tells SELF. Tight hip flexors make it harder for your pelvis to rotate properly, which can cause your lower back to overcompensate, “and this can be a setup for lower-back injury,” Teo Mendez, M.D., an orthopedic surgeon at NY Orthopedics who focuses on operative and non-operative management of sports-related injuries, musculoskeletal injuries, and arthritis, tells SELF.

Tight hip flexors can also make it harder for your glutes to activate. Since they’re opposing muscle groups, when one is really tight the other becomes lengthened. When a muscle is more lengthened than it should be, it takes away some of its ability to contract. When your glutes are in this compromised position, it can cause other muscles to do more work than they should, making your workouts less efficient and sometimes, increasing your risk of injury. That’s a big deal, California-based trainer Holly Perkins, C.S.C.S., tells SELF.

“Strong, powerful glutes create the anchor for your entire pelvis, and that has profound implications for your alignment and movement,” she says. When your glutes are lengthened, it can throw off your form up and down your entire body. As a result, you can become more quad-dominant, making your hamstrings weaker and possibly affecting your knees, too, Perkins says.

Without glute activation and good hip mobility, those limitations can also show up in how you absorb impact, Carol Mack, D.P.T., C.S.C.S, an Ohio-based doctor of physical therapy at CLE Sports PT & Performance, tells SELF.

“For movements like squatting, the hip needs enough mobility to be able to bend for hip flexion, rotate inward, and rotate outward,” she says. “With plyometric movements like squat jumps, another element is added where the hip needs to move through that same range of motion, but at a fast speed.”

The quicker your hips, knees, and ankles can bend, the better the ability to absorb the impact or force from the ground, she adds. Joint mobility and muscle strength need to work together for that to happen effectively. That means when you stretch, you’re not only aiming to lengthen the muscles with the aim of getting flexible. You’re also working toward actively strengthening them, Mack says.

What are the benefits of hip stretches?

The good news is that there are plenty of good hip flexor stretches out there—some working directly on your hip flexors, while others working on your surrounding muscles, like your glutes—that you can do to relieve discomfort, decrease tightness, and increase mobility in your hips. Since your hips are involved in so many of the movements you make (both inside and outside of the gym) stretching them is a great way to keep them feeling good and ready to work for you.

Add some of the 16 hip stretches below to the end of your workout, or spend 10 minutes each day just doing a few of them, to improve mobility in your hips.

Demoing the moves below are Charlee Atkins (GIFs  1, 3-4, 6-7, 9-10, 12, 14-15), C.S.C.S., creator of Le Stretch class; Devon Stewart (GIF 2, 8, and 13), a yoga instructor and sexual and reproductive health doula based in Harlem; Jessica Rihal (GIFs 5 and 11), a plus-sized yoga instructor (200-HR) and a strong advocate of fitness/wellness for all bodies; and Hejira Nitoto (GIF 16), a mom of six and a certified personal trainer and fitness apparel line owner based in Los Angeles.