How to Fix Your Hip Flexor Imbalance

Did you have a hip flexor imbalance on our 18-second at-home broomstick squat test to show your muscular imbalances that are causing pain like in your lower back, your knees, and your hips? So when you did your squat test, everything was pretty straight, but you still bent forward at the waist. That's awesome. In this video, I'm going to show you 3 moves to relieve your pain right now and make the lower back, the hip, the knees all feel like they're tracking better. If you have no idea what I'm talking about and you have never heard of an 18-second broomstick squat test, look below this video in the description. And I'll show you how you can get your own personalized test. For everybody else who did your homework, let's start relieving your pain now. For our first stretch, we have to stretch out this tight dominant quad muscle and hip flexor. Now, my favorite stretch to do is a couch stretch or a hip flexor wall lunge. Basically, find your ugliest decorative pillow, the one you don't care about. Sorry, Brianna. Set it down in front of your couch or your orange decorative chair if you have one of those. Then hook the leg that you're going to use. So I'm going to use my left leg onto the couch. Make sure everything's padded. If there's any tension in any of these areas or you feel pain, you're going to lock up. You're not going to stretch. Now from here, I want you to rock back and forth and open this hip and stretch the quad. As you move back, you'll feel a stretch in the quad. As you move forward, you'll feel a stretch in the hip. Keep in mind, keep your glutes squeezed and turned on and your abs turned on. So that way, as you're doing this, you're fully stretching, but you're not hyperextending your lower back. That can flare up your lower back. So back and forth, I would do about 10 repetitions and then open your arms and go into your stretch and hold that stretch for 30 seconds. Once you've done one side, do the other because they're both going to be tight. Then move on to stretch 2. Move number 2 is the Spider-Man stretch or the greatest stretch ever. What we're going to do is we're going to get into that lunge with 90-degree angles, then walk forward so you have a stretch in this back hip. Move your front leg out so there's a diagonal line between your front heel and your back knee. From here, I want you to push this knee out away from center, 3 times. Once you've done that, drop your elbow down, keeping your chest up towards the heel of the front foot. Now, if that's too big of a stretch for you, block it with a yoga block, some books, or if you have a foam roller handy, throw that there, and then hold this stretch for 90 seconds. Once you've done that side, switch it And move into the other side. Same thing, 3 rotations to open, drop the elbow down, 90 seconds, and then move on to our last movement for this. For our last and final movement to relieve your pain and tension in your hips, we're going to do a pigeon stretch, but it's an elevated pigeon stretch, and we're going to use our couch, or if you have an orange decorative chair, start there. We're going to use our old dusty pillow again. Throw it back on the ground, and then you're going to line up to get into your pigeon. Now you're going to start with this leg being perpendicular to your body, and you're going to lay the outside of your calf onto the couch. From here, lower yourself nice and slow and then aim your back knee for the pillow. Now, if your knee is super high up, it means that this is too aggressive of a stretch for you. So either lift up the backside or find something that's shorter in height. That way it's less intense for you. Now from here, squeeze this glute and maintain a straight erect spine. 90 seconds and then switch. We're not going to do any kind of bending or folding in this stretch like you see some people do like this, cuz that's gonna round your spine. If you have lower back pain or any issues in your hips, you start rounding your spine, you're going to train your spine to basically be rounded and cause more pain in the long run. We want to stabilize that spine. Now, once you've completed this, obviously go back, grab your broomstick and retest. You should feel a lot better, probably be deeper into your squat. Everything should be more balanced. Glutes should start to fire more and you should overall just feel more confident in yourself as you move. Now, This is just a temporary fix, right? You're going to relieve pain and tension, but if you want to stabilize it long-term, you have to strengthen those muscles. You have to hold everything in place. So to do that, take this next step in our Reset You Protocol. Look below in the description. We've got the next step already set up for you.