are you tight and weak on your hip flexors with difficulty walking and standing and
sometimes you are shifting and leaning in one side and resource the lateral pelvic shift on
your pelvis that causes low back pain weak core and poor posture hi my name is Annie and welcome
to the channel any glottis physical therapist in this video we'll be targeting your hip flexors
and how to strengthen and lengthen to improve your core strength good posture and relieve
back pain finally shift that pelvic alignment utilizing Pilates yoga and physical therapy
so get your mat ready and an ankle weights to join me for those who want to progress today
okay my friends if you don't have ankle weights you can utilize elastic band to
wrap around your ankles or around your thighs for absolute beginners it's easier when it's
away from your ankle so it's less pressure on your hip flexors and your lumbar spine
and if it's still too difficult you can still join me even without any resistance bands or
ankle weights for those absolute beginners this feed is requested by one of my patreon supporter
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subscribers so let's go ahead discuss about tight and weak iliosoas muscles or your DP flexors and
these muscles are so important to strengthen and lengthen with our lifestyle of a lot of sitting
posture these muscles as I will discuss a little bit anatomy and physiology so the iliosole was
divided into two muscles the iliacus and the psoas major so the iliac start of the iliacos of your
pelvis and the solar stars on your lumbar spine and both of them comes together they come together
all the way to the front of your hip so it looks like a slide so if you're been sitting a lot it
becomes tight and when it's tight it pulls your Lumber spine and if you are one-sided weakness and
tightness it shifts your pelvis as well so you're going to start your pelvis going down and then
the other side will be higher and because this is going to be tight and weak your have a tendency to
shift in your body weight on the stronger side so it's a never-ending cycle of compensating
leaning on the good side so your weaker side and painful side won't be activated so if you don't
activate these muscles it becomes weaker tighter it's almost at the point it's not usable so you
don't want to have a part of your body that's not non-functional that causes a lot of pain and when
there's pain there's a lot of dissociation to your brain so when there's less signal it makes
your body confused so your body mechanics when you walk you won't even realize that you'll be
limping and you have a tendency of leaning on one side not realizing you've been hunching one side
that causes more a problem all the way up to your upper back through your neck shoulders and head
then your head will be started shifting your chin will be tilting in one side even your eye gaze
will start looking certain way you might think you're centered but you are not centered all the
way down because of your tight and weak iliosoas so with this ankle weights it will help get more
those muscles to wake them up of course we're going to balance and try to do both sides the
purpose of that is to mirror effect so it's like mirroring cupping the good side and if you want to
challenge more do an extra set on the weaker side if you want to learn more about the illusawas I
have a playlist that you can click on and follow along to challenge these muscles and as I said
the iliosaurus is a DP flexor the prime mover of the hip there is also the psoas miner it's also
important on your hip flexor but not as a major major function compared to the iliops OAS so as I
discussed earlier a little bit Anatomy physiology will help you understand more about your body so
you can really Target and really fix the root of the problem so let's start lying on your back
with your knees bent first before we progress and let's warm up our hips so it's best to Target and
strengthen your glutes as well to counteract the tightness of your illusovers so with your hands on
your side let's start warm up with a gentle Bridge as you breathe in lift squeeze your glutes in
tighten your glutes and then squeeze your abdominal muscles as well your core try
not to overarch your spine because with the tight peel your soul was
your back is a little bit tilted already without your pelvic tilt so you wanna
keep it down a little bit really Target your boots first and then slowly roll down one
vertebrae at the time as you breathe out again breathing up exhale down let's do
five times only to warm up first breathe in breathe out two more inhale exhale last one
and down now let's strengthen first before we stretch so if your weaker side is your right
you extend your right knee let's start on the weaker side first keeping the other knee bent
to keep your spine in neutral position you can check it by piecing one hand at the small of the
back make sure you can glide it through one hand in your abdomen toes pointing away as you lift
as much as you can inhale and then exhale dorsiflex to stretch your calf and hamstrings
keeping your knee long and then slowly go down try not to plop your foot down to the mat so
you're not going to hurt your spine tippy toes as you lift we'll do 10 times exhale down seven more
six slow and steady five four
three two last one and one as I said it's a mirror flagless Target now the good side
just to show your right side how weak this right side is so if the good side could handle it well
then it's slowly learning utilizing movement patterns
it's like a mirror in my face oh this is so much lighter and easier
so that's a good way to teach the bad side to perform better on your next set of 10.
two more last one keep your knee lock
and now switch again to the right to learn from that left so inhale up exhale down slow steady
try not to plop you might have a density tendency to plop because of fatigue now
so if it can't go further that's fine can always gently progress the next day do this
every single day to keep activating those muscles especially if you've been sitting a lot at work
or if you've been driving far and you need to wake up those muscles and strengthen last one
and the next one is leg Circle so leg circles there's a beginner program first with the 1D bed
the extended toes pointing to the ceiling if you can't lock your knee with your toes pointing the
ceiling if you're a little bit lower that's fine if you're slightly bend your knee then
that's fine as well for absolute beginners and you can do circle with the ankle weights breathe
in breathe out you can start five repetitions first try not to rock your pelvis keep it stable
leave your breathing after doing clockwise you can do reverse breathe in breathe out
squeeze your core in
you might feel tired now just five reps and now switch again to the good side slightly bend
your knee for absolute beginners to Circle five reps try not to rock your hips slow and steady
now let's do reverse circle and then if you're getting more flexible you can slowly extend your
knee further until you can really lock your knee and really Target those muscles so if I could
if you can do it on the good side with your knee straight that would be better and now let's switch
again to the right side as we did a mirror effect so my right side is the bigger side now if I block
it further will you stretch it takes time to build this flexibility at the back of yours hamstrings
so slow and steady as I said for beginners if your knees need to be bent that's fine
five times clockwise and then five times counterclockwise breathe in breathe out
the next one we're gonna Target your hip flexors with your knee Bend place your hands on your side
and then squeeze your core in we'll do abdominal bracing you're going to really tighten your abs
and your core as you slowly lift your leg up in a tabletop position like you're marching inhale
and then exhale switch so it's important to strengthen your core muscles as well
that will help support your hip flexors so abdominal muscle strengthening the lower abs
as we've strengthen our core muscles the PowerHouse of our body
all the way to the lumbar pelvic region which is the PowerHouse of our body the core is not
just the abdominal muscles It's a combination of everything from your breathing the diaphragm
abdominal core the transverse of dominance the lumbar spine muscles the multifidi and the
pelvic area all the way to the hip so it's important to build the strength
toes pointing away as you march left and right keeping everything tight and engaged
last set so it's a mirroring effect good side bad side last one
and then if you can challenge again to the next level with your knees both of knees
bent now if your core muscles are strong enough to handle this and there's no increase in back
pain you can join me now with this and then the ankle weights are is an extra challenge
again they are an extra pressure that will help really isolate and strengthen those
muscles with your hands on your side you're going to slowly tap our toes down to the mat
without plopping it with a control gentle motion so we're going to tap Right Foot the
good side necks as you exhale inhale as you go up exhale as you go down breathe in breathe out
feel your core engage you might get entire now if you can only do five reps that's fine
so the ankle weights are really challenging so there's different weights you can start with
half a pound and then one pound right now I'm using two pound ankle weights foreign
you might feel a little bit on your quadriceps and that's normal
okay now we are targeting further by tapping both feet now
with your knees bent table top tap gently exhale inhale go up exhale tap eight more
seven six engage your core five four three
two and one well done so we targeted our hip flexors by strengthening it first warming up
with the bridging straight leg raise single leg circles table top the marching abdominal
single tap and then double tap so we did six exercises so far five of them really targeting
your hip flexors with core engagement now let's do some yoga to stretch the hip flexors so it
becomes lengthened and when you lengthen them they have better mobility and flexibility for
your hips so let's start in lunge position with your knee so if your problem is your right side
let's start first on the good side so it starts feeling a good stretch first on the good side
so it's not a lot of pain you can keep your spine straight so your bad side will be in the
top part position first in the lunge position so my right knee spent this is my bad side for
example and my left side is the good side let's start here first to stretch your hip flexors so
that's why as I said earlier is the mirror effect so as I lean forward slowly feel the stretch
and hold that for five seconds hold with your breathing
and then slowly progress to 10 seconds if you can
and we are slowly progressing further with a gentle twist so as I lean forward
I'm twisting my body away towards the hip flexors and then away as well
so you're going to feel deeper stretch all the way to your quadriceps as you turn away
and after targeting your good side now let's switch to the weaker and Tighter side so if
this is your bad side and if you have both sides weakness and tightness then you figure
out that they're both the same then do them well do Target them the same way
okay let's target now the bad side so Lean Forward slowly with your breathing as you
inhale hold it for five four three two one and let's progress with the 10 seconds hold
ten nine you can go further down really stretch it well as you inhale exhale
lastly with the twist first towards the side
with one deep breath and now are we and really Target those
muscles and a little bit thoracic spine Mobility
with your breathing I'm turning my head away I'm really looking behind my shoulder
to further stretch my neck muscles as well because I said earlier all the way to your
neck you might be leaning on one side tilting your neck protecting your tight hip flexors
and then back down so after that lunge stretch now we're gonna do some beautiful yoga stretches
so we're going to do some pigeon stretch so with pigeon stretch with your knee bent in front of you
you're targeting your hip flexors on your right so my left glutes is being targeted with my left
leg forward with my knee bent my foot near my hip groin area close as much as I can to
Target my hip flexors I'm going to push up and then as I lean forward is my glutes on my left
with one breath inhale as I press up and then slowly look up to really stretch your hip flexors
and your chest and your neck muscles and breathe out and then you can do a twist reaching over
here back of your calf if you can with your with your head turn
inhale and exhale and if you can challenge to have a deeper stretch on your tight hip flexors
bend your knee to Target your quads if you can't reach it with your hand and pull it
with your foot you can use a leather belt or any rope pull it and stretch in this position
and if that's too challenging then don't do it yet slowly progress
inhale and exhale slowly progress up to 30 seconds hold if you can
and then switch to the other side to Target your right glutes as well so you feel balanced
even the good side inhale exhale press up feels so good in your lumbar spine even the good side
you might feel some spasm and tightness on one side of your back because it compensates from
too much leaning on the good side as I said earlier right you will lean towards a good
side and because of that it becomes really tight on your glutes and your back and then Twist on
one side so you don't really want to Target only the bad side all the time you want to
balance yourself you'll be surprised on what your body will feel when you target each muscle group
twist and then as I said progress by bending your knee if you can
and join me for a deep picture stretch and then look up to really stretch your neck
flexors as well in your chest inhale and exhale and that's it I'm hoping you enjoyed this lovely
Pilates yoga Physical Therapy flow utilizing these ankle weights just really strengthen and
progress with your tight and weak hip flexors if you love this video want to learn more about
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you always remember be safe be well and health through you see you my next video training bye