Does Tight Hip Flexors Increase Athletic Performance?

Do tight hips or tight hip flexors increase your athletic performance?

Does having tight hip flexors increase your athletic or sports performance or can it contribute to low back pain? My answer would be the latter and the reason why your gluteus maximus and medius play a huge contributor to this issue. The question you are probably asking is how one glute can be related to tight hip flexors and therefore cause low back pain.

The World Health Organization states that 60 to 70 percent of people develop low back pain in well-developed countries. This statistic states that we spend the majority of our time sitting at our desks for long hours. By having this issue, our glutes are basically shut down and not being used at all, therefore tight hip flexors can contribute to low back pain problems. 

The important issue that we have to realize is that our body is a kinetic chain and when we have a weak link this can cause a negative chain reaction. How do we remedy this issue, fortunately, I have a solution to address such a common problem. 

Below I explain sports performance training to increase your athletic performance, plyometric training including single-leg deadlifts, kettlebell lunges, and more.

The first thing I would incorporate is foam rolling of the piriformis (which is the deep muscle of the glutes) for 3 sets of 30 seconds (i.e. 3*30 sec). Then I would incorporate Wharton’s Active Isolated Flexibility exercises developed by renowned exercise physiologists Jim and Phil Wharton at least twice a day for three weeks. By incorporating these techniques, we will not only break up the adhesions in these particular areas but we will also increase an optimal range of motion in our lower back, glutes, hamstrings, hip flexors, calves, etc.

Now that we increased the range of motion, we must incorporate stability of the low back but we need to know which exercises are optimal. The plank is a good place to start but we can also include exercises developed by renowned physical therapist Jay Dicharry. His book Anatomy for Runners 2012 states that the glutes are the powerhouse muscles for running and sprinting. 

Exercises such as donkey kicks, pigeon hip extensions, knee to the bridge, clamshells, single leg bridge with hip abduction, hip hikes, etc. will not only build stabilization and strength endurance for the gluteus maximums (which contributes to hip extension) but also the gluteus medius (which contributes for hip stabilization and abduction).

After these drills have been incorporated, we can perform general strength and sport-specific drills into our routine.