Loosen the hips and take some heat out of that sore lower back

See that muscle above running from the front of the hip to the knee, or for the anatomy nerds out there, from the anterior inferior iliac spine to the tibial tuberosity? That's the rectus femoris. It's one of the muscles making up the big bulky quadriceps on the thigh, it helps the knee to extend or "kick", it lifts your knee towards your chest (hip flexion) and is just one of the many muscles around the hips which connect, stabilise and otherwise contribute to healthy movement about the lower back, pelvis and legs.

If, like me, you find yourself sitting for big chunks of the day to write reports, make phone calls, sit in meetings, drive to appointments etc etc etc, then, like me, your hip flexors are going to be firing up and pulling your pelvis into what we call an anterior pelvic tilt.

The hip flexors are in an ongoing tug-of-war with the hamstrings and glutes and when the sitting position causes the hip flexors to tighten up and the glutes to lengthen and shut off, the hip flexors unfortunately win the battle every day of the week.

When this battle is lost, the knock on effect is the pelvis being pulled forward and the lumbar vertebrae (which sit immediately above the pelvis) getting pulled forward along with it causing a shearing (sliding) force on the discs. The lower back muscles then fire up to try and combat this and you’re left with an overused and painful lower back region.

This stretch will be painful but targeting that rectus femoris twice per day for 2-3 min at a time will end up being your best friend.

Let me know how you feel once you try it out.

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