Hip Flexor Anatomy

Understanding hip flexor anatomy will help you to see that the hip flexors are a crucial part of human functioning in everyday life. From basic activities like walking, standing up and sitting down.  Up to physically demanding activities like sports and weight training. The hip flexor is involved more than you might know.

What does the Hip Flexor do?

The hip flexor has both major and minor functions. They fulfill different roles because it is composed of several muscles, the largest ones are discussed below. The primary goal of the hip flexor is to facilitate flexion of the hip joint. In normal terms, this means that the hip flexor is used anytime the knee is lifted up. It acts also when a step is taken or a stair is climbed.   The hip flexor also has those smaller muscles whose purposes are mainly stabilization roles. So when you lift up your knee on an angle, these muscles provide the power needed in the lateral(horizontal) direction.

Where is the Hip Flexor?

Everyone knows all about the hamstring, the quad, the groin! The hip flexor gets far less exposure, even though it is just as important as any other muscle in your body and is just as often at risk of an injury, most commonly a hip flexor strain. It is a muscle group located towards the front of your leg/abdomen; The hip flexor muscles consist of smaller, but sizeable muscles as shown in the picture. When looking at what the hip flexors do, we must examine the role that the Psoas and Iliacus play in movement; these are the two main muscles in the Iliopsoas, which is by far the largest and most important muscle group in the hip flexor.

So here an overview of the main muscles in the hip flexor anatomy:

First: The Psoas:

The Psoas muscle is actually divided into 2 distinct sub-muscles: Psoas major and Psoas minor. The Psoas major is the larger muscle that connects the pelvis to the lumbar region, as shown in the picture. It is one of the major muscles at risk for a hip flexor injury. While on the other hand the Psoas minor  is a muscle located slightly in front of the Psoas major. Both part of the hip flexor muscle group. However, it is important to note that only about half of humans have this muscle! The minor muscle supports the same role that the Psoas major plays, which is to facilitate flexion of the hip joint.  If you have recurrent pain in the psoas area, you might want to read about hip flexor tendonitis.

The Iliacus:

The Iliacus is that small triangle shaped muscle shown in the picture, its role is to assist with movement, but mainly it functions by connecting the hip bone to the Psoas major.