Are you feeling tension or discomfort in your hips, knees, and thighs? Your quadriceps (quads) and hip flexors might be telling you they need some relief.
The quad muscles, located on the front of our thighs, often become overworked champions, compensating for modern lifestyle factors and exercise habits.
If you’re reading this, there’s a good chance your body has adapted to modern living in ways that require your quads to chronically tighten and overwork.
To top things off, one of your quads is also a hip flexor, which means these two muscle groups have a very close working relationship.
If your quads are tight, your hip flexors probably are, too, and vice versa.
Simple things like how you stand, the shoes you wear, and how much you sit can lead to tight quadriceps and hip flexors.
What’s the big deal about tight quads and hip flexors?
When these muscles get too tight, they:
- Prevent your glute muscles from working
- Create compensation patterns in how you walk
- Make it harder or even painful to bend your knees
Today's video introduces a simple exercise that simultaneously stretches both your quads and hip flexors—one of my favorite ways to multitask!
Check out the exercise in today’s video if you want to:
- Improve your walking gait
- Improve your balance
- Have more muscle tone in your caboose
- Relieve achy, tight hips
- Improve knee flexibility and reduce pain
Have you tried this exercise? Share your experience in the comments below—I'd love to hear how it worked for you!
With a hip flexor & quadriceps stretch,
Sydney
P.S. If you're dealing with chronic quad tightness or knee pain, you might also need to release your kneecaps.
Learn more about this unexpected but effective technique in this video on releasing your kneecaps.
