Struggling with Tight Hips?
You’re not alone. Hip tightness is a common issue—especially for people who sit for long periods. Over time, tight hip flexors can limit mobility, put extra strain on joints, and even contribute to lower back pain.
The good news? There’s a simple, effective approach to loosen things up and restore healthy movement. Check out Dr. John’s write up below to learn how to release tight hip flexors, activate your glutes, and keep your hips moving the way they’re meant to.
Step 1: Release Your Hip Flexor!
If your hips feel stiff, achy, or limited in movement, there’s a good chance your hip flexors are part of the problem. The hip flexor is actually a group of muscles—primarily the iliopsoas, rectus femoris, and sartorius—located at the front and slightly to the side of your upper thigh and hip region.
These muscles are responsible for hip flexion, which is the action of lifting your leg upward. Think walking, running, climbing stairs, or lying on your back and raising your leg—your hip flexors are working hard during all of these movements.
So, where does the tightness come from?
Most commonly, it’s caused by prolonged sitting. When you sit for long periods (hello, desk jobs and long commutes), your hip flexors stay in a shortened position. Over time, this leads to adaptive shortening, where the muscle fibers literally start to lose their length and elasticity. The result? Restricted range of motion, stiffness, and sometimes even pain in the hips or lower back.
Addressing hip flexor tightness starts with one key goal: restoring normal muscle length and function. This is best achieved through a combination of targeted stretching, soft tissue work, and gentle mobility exercises to re-educate the muscle and reduce tension.
👉 Check out the video below for some simple, effective techniques to release and stretch your hip flexors. Even just a few minutes a day can make a big difference in how your hips feel and move.
Two Easy Hip Flexor Stretches
Step 2: Activate Your Glutes
We’ve talked about tight hip flexors—but that’s only half the story. When those muscles in the front of your hip get tight and overactive, they can actually shut down your glutes, the powerful muscles on the back side of your hip. In simple terms: when the front is doing too much, the back can’t do its job.
To truly fix hip tightness, we need a two-part approach:
1️⃣ Release the hip flexors – shifting them from overactive to properly functioning.
2️⃣ Activate the glutes – turning them from underactive to active and strong.
This combination helps restore healthy muscle balance around the hips, improves mobility, takes pressure off your joints, and lets you move more freely—without the stiffness or pain.
👉 Check out the video below for three simple exercises that help wake up your glutes and get your hips working the way they should.
Three Easy Glute Exercises
Step 3: Lets Release the Hip Joints
So, you’ve released your hip flexors and activated your glutes—great! But if you’re still feeling tightness or pain, the issue might be coming from a little deeper: the joints themselves.
When hip tightness sticks around too long, it can start affecting the hip and pelvic joints. If those joints aren’t moving properly—or if they’re constantly under pressure from tight surrounding muscles—they can become restricted. This restriction doesn’t just limit mobility; it can also irritate nearby nerves, increase stress on other joints, and create a ripple effect of discomfort.
That’s where Chiropractic care comes in. Through precise adjustments, we can restore normal joint motion, reduce pressure, and help you move the way your body was designed to.
👉 Check out the video below to see how I treat hip tightness in the office.
And if you—or someone you care about—is struggling with hip tightness or pain, don’t wait. Reach out today and let’s get you moving pain-free again.
