Extremely weak hip-flexors a problem to stretch?

[Seb]

My naprapath (is that the correct english word?) had a quick look at my hip-flexors today, and he thought it looked ok, not extremely tight, even if the left one were a bit tighter, but he got real surprised when he noticed how incredibly weak the muscles were.

He held against with his arms and I was supposed to push all I got, but he could hold the leg down with no problems. He said he was rather supposed to lift from the floor, THATS how strong the hip-flexors are supposed to be if normal.

So...might this be the problem I get severe aching in hip-flexors whenever I try to stretch them for a while, even if I stretch softly only a few days each week?
They are too weak to handle the stretches?

Some kicking, of leg-lifting, straight ahead in front of me, or maybe knee raises, should do me good for building some strenght I guess?

Thanks :)

[Ashtar]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naprapathy

That's a possibility. I don't really know how strong the hip flexors are 'supposed to' be. No muscle is supposed to be a strength, but different levels are required for different tasks. Presumably just to get around we only need enough to lift our knees explosivley high for running, or to swing the leg forward a little bit for walking.

Knee raises are good if you are training in the upper range of motion since you can flex the hip higher when the knee is flexed. The rectus femoris tends to take over due to having a bent knee though, so it doesn't build strength in that range to help you when you're doing straight-leg raises to that RoM very well.

If you can do straight-leg raises it is better to focus on these, since they're harder. You can sandwich them between knee raises used as a warm-up/drop-set.

You can do things like hanging raises from a pullup bar with both feet at a time, which allows you to put a dumbbell between your ankles or a medicine ball between your knees. If you want to do it 1 leg at a time then you'd probably need an ankle weight or a kettlebell to put your foot through. These types of exercise build strength in the hip flexors while they're shortened, which is tough due to overactive insufficiency. They help more with static-active flexibility strength than with the stretched-muscle strength you'd need for isometric stretching.

Situps also work the hip flexors, and they can also be done with weights. You can also do 'reverse situps' I think they're called which are basically leg raises done from a supine position instead of standing up. These two exercises are better than the previous ones for building strength in the hip flexors while they're stretched, which would help you pass the test your naprapath was doing on you. It builds strength closer to the RoM you would be using in a front split.

[Seb]

Oh, thats quite a long answer, thanks :)

So well, to sum it up then, I guess my hip-flexors are really really weak (like the rest of my body but probably even worse), and I should train them with like leg-raises and knee-raises and leg-raises when hanging in my pullup bar, and reverse situps (I've heard of them before but never tried) are supposed to be really good.

If anyone else knows more about how strong the hip-flexors are supposed to be on a normal person, and if it really might be lack of strength that has made it almost impossible for me to stretch them without constant aching all days long, I'm interrested to hear it :)

[Ashtar]

There isn't a 'supposed to be'. It's about how strong they need to be to perform a given task. Most people don't need to do front splits or kick other people in the face, so they don't need hip flexors that strong. As for how strong you need to be to do that, this varies based on a lot of factors, like the length of your bones, where muscles are attached, I don't know how to figure it out except keep gaining until you can do it.