Tight Hips?

How tight hip flexors and iliotibial bands can inhibit smooth and efficient running form

The one-minute tip that beats injury and improves your running form

TIGHTNESS IN THE hip flexors and iliotibial bands (ITB) is a by-product of our largely sedentary lives. The hip flexors are a group of muscles that lift your knee, including the tensor fascia lata, iliopsoas, iliacus and rectus femoris; the ITB is a band of fascia on the outside of the leg that extends from the pelvis to just below the knee.

We spend many hours at work and travel sitting with our hips flexed. The hip flexors and ITB adapt to this position and become tight. Without regular lengthening to their full range they can lose the ability to do so. Once the tightness reaches this point it becomes easier for your pelvis to tilt forward when you extend the hip than it is for the hip flexors and ITB to fully extend. This then affects the spine, which is forced more into extension, and the gluteus maximus is unable to fully contract through its range. This leads to loss of power and puts stress on the spinal joints.

Tight hip flexors will also cause the internal rotation of the leg. The position of the knee over the foot is a balance between the hip flexors turning the thigh in and the gluteus medius (lateral hip muscle) turning it out. Tight hip flexors and a weak gluteus medius lead to internal rotation and, therefore, excessive pronation of the foot at the end of the chain. Mark Buckingham is a consultant physiotherapist to UK Athletics and runs the Witty, Pask and Buckingham practice in Northampton. wpbphysio.co.uk