No matter if you’re walking, running, sitting or climbing, your Hip Flexors are almost always active. When your Hip Flexors get sore, it’s going to be a pain to move around. Here’s how you can identify if there is a serious issue or not, and how you can alleviate soreness.
Is it an Injury or Just Temporary?
The first thing you need to do is determine the cause of the soreness. If it is a regularly occurring problem, it’s most likely that you have some sort of condition like Tendonitis that keeps flaring up. Please have a look at this article on identifying Hip Flexor pain and see if your soreness matches up with any of those. If it doesn’t, please keep reading here.
Sore Hip Flexors from Running
One of the main concepts addressed in our article on hip flexor pain and running, is that any issues you have normally will be exacerbated. You may not think you have tight or damaged Hip Flexors, but when you start running it may become obvious. Refer to that article if your soreness only comes during strenuous activities.
Sore Hip Flexors from Squats
Before we can move on to the general case of sore Hip Flexors, you can see we’re trying to rule out some specific common things. The final one is common among those who lift weights.
Identify the specific muscle of the Hip Flexor that’s getting sore or giving you grief while you squat. The issue is almost a mobility or flexibility issue. To correct this, make sure you warm up thoroughly before squatting and perform dynamic stretches. Secondly, follow the stretching advice given down below.
Other Causes of Soreness
When you’ve ruled out an injury and any activity-specific cause of the soreness, the only thing realistically left is tightness. When muscles are tight, even movements in a seemingly ordinary range of motion will cause the muscle to reach its length limits. Whenever you reach this limit there is a significant amount of stress applied to your muscles, that while may not be enough to tear it (like a strain), can be enough to cause discomfort and soreness.
Treating Hip Flexor Soreness
Luckily, you can fix most simple cases of soreness with a basic stretching routine. Here is a guide to hip flexor stretches that you can follow. The frequency that you should stretch will depend on the severity of the tightness and your lifestyle. You are far more at risk of shortening your Hip Flexors if you are sitting the majority of the day as opposed to being on your feet.
If you absolutely have to do intense activity before you’re confident in the performance of your muscles, you can apply KT tape to your Hip Flexors as a last resort. This should not be a permanent solution, but may help in a pinch.
One final thing to remember is that even if the soreness goes away after a short time period of stretching, don’t stop. To fully improve the condition of your muscles you should regularly stretch, although you can reduce the frequency if needed. If you do all this and still have sore Hip Flexors, it’s time to see a doctor.
