Bill shows how tight hip flexors cause low back pain and anterior pelvic tilt. He demonstrates a self-test: lying down, extend one leg and check if your lower back arches or your knee won't straighten. Then a three-step fix: myofascial release with a ball on your hip, a kneeling lunge stretch held 20-30 seconds, and clamshell exercises against a wall.
Today, I'm going to show you how you can fix your posture, eliminate back pain, and level out your hips, all with one simple thing. Hi, I'm Bill, owner of beyondfitnessonline.com, where we think outside the box to help you eliminate your pain and lose weight so that you can live the active, healthy lifestyle that you deserve. So today, what I'm going to talk to you about Is a specific muscle, or a group of muscles, called the iliopsoas. Now, the ilium and the psoas come together, and they create what we just usually refer to as the psoas. And that's a muscle that has a lot to do with how we get into the fetal position and how we flex our hips. So what I want to show you here is that it attaches Up at the anterior part of the spine. That means the front of the spine. And then it comes out over the front of the hip and then it attaches at the top of your femur, which is your upper leg bone. Now, the reason it's important to understand that is that when that muscle gets tighter, it puts you into a flexed hip position. So if that muscle is always tight because you're sitting a lot, then What you're gonna wanna do is start to do things to loosen that up. Conversely, there's other muscles that work opposite that, that help to extend the hips. And if your hips are always flexed, those muscles might get a little bit weak. So I'm gonna show you a couple simple things here that will help you work on improving that. So the first thing we wanna know is, do you actually have a problem with your psoas? So a couple of preliminary indicators would be if your hips are off-kilter. So if one hip's higher than the other, there's a possibility that your psoas may be contributing to that. Other things would be if you have an anterior sway or a big sway in your lower back, that could be a sign that you have tight psoas. And the third thing to look for is if you have chronic back pain. If you get pain in your lower back Frequently, there's a chance that the psoas is contributing to that. So here's the test. You're gonna lay on your back with your knees bent and your feet flat on the floor. Now make sure you're comfortable. If your head is tilted way back and that's uncomfortable, you can put a towel under it. What you're gonna do is you're gonna extend one leg. Now, 2 things you're looking for. If your lower back arches up, Then that's a sign that your psoas is tight. The other thing to look for is if your knee does not extend all the way and your back stays flat, that could also be an indication that your psoas is tight. Also, both things could happen. What we're ideally looking for is that when you put that leg out flat, the knee goes flat and the back stays level. That's— that would mean that it's a pass and this is probably not an issue for you. So the first thing we want to do is address The tissues itself, with the muscle. Now, the psoas is most available for you to roll on right here in the middle of the hip, and that's because that's where it's most close to the surface of your body. The rest of the muscle is in really deep underneath a lot of other tissue, and it's very difficult to get to. So, this would be the spot to start with. You can do it on the floor, and you'll use a ball, and you're going to put that ball— you're going to find the crest of the hip in the Front, and you're going to go in about 1 inch or so, and you're going to put the ball there and lay down on it. Now, laying on the ground might be a little bit intense. You might want to use a softer ball. You can use a lacrosse ball, you can use a tennis ball, you could even use something a little bit softer if you wanted to. The other thing is that when we take the hip and we put it more into that flex position, it allows that muscle to relax a little bit, and that may be a better option for you. So you can see here, That you would lay over a bench or your bed and you could do the same drill over in that bent position. From there, you're gonna wanna go into actually stretching the muscle. So what you'll do for a psoas stretch is you'll go down onto one knee. It's important that the leg that is down, that the foot behind you is actually flexed so you're on the tops of your toes, not on the bottoms of your toes, not on the tops. Then you're going to tuck your pelvis. This is the key to this stretch. Now, if you still want more of a stretch, what you can do is you can put your arms up over your head, twist your body to the open side or the down leg side, and then you can lean backwards a little bit and hold that. That would be a great way to stretch your psoas. At any point during this process, if you feel like you're getting enough of a stretch, don't feel like you need to progress into the other pieces of this stretch. Do what works best for you. I would recommend holding that for about 20 to 30 seconds to allow that muscle to really elongate. The third piece of this is to strengthen the muscles that extend the hip and also stabilize the hip. So we're gonna use the gluteus complex. So that includes the gluteus maximus, the gluteus minimus, and the gluteus medius. Now, What we'll do for that is an exercise called the clamshell. What I'm gonna have you do is lay up against the wall on your side. You're gonna have both hips and both shoulders flat against the wall, knees bent at 90 degrees, and your feet flat against the wall. Your top foot is gonna go against the wall at about the same height as your top hip. Now, the key to this is to press your heel into the wall the entire time you're doing this, and then you're gonna lift the top knee up and down several times. And that will start to strengthen all those muscles. I would recommend doing this about 15 to 20 repetitions and do 2 to 3 sets with about a minute rest in between each. I hope that you found this helpful. Comment below, let me know how it feels. If you haven't already, please subscribe right here. And until next time, live healthy.
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