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Despite their importance for a wide range of recreational and sports activities, the hip flexors are the most neglected major muscle groups in strength training. It is very rare, training programs, to find the hip flexors are exercises. In contrast, there is usually a strong emphasis on exercises for the leg extensors.
There are some obvious reasons for this neglect comparative. The major muscles involved in hip flexion are the psoas and the iliacus, collectively known asiliopsoas. Because they are relatively deep-seated than surface muscles they may have been by bodybuilders that have traditionally overlooked the most important innovators in strength training. Second, there is no obvious way they perform adequately with weights. Finally, these muscles do not have the obvious functional importance of their extensor counterparts. Yet, as antagonists, which cause both hip and knee flexors an important role in controlling the amount of descent and ascentin leg extension exercises such as squatting.
There is no corresponding problem of underdevelopment with the muscles responsible for bending the knee, the hamstring group. Because they cross two joints they are active in both leg extension and leg flexion. They act to flex the knee and the hip extended. Therefore they tend to be strengthened by complex leg extension exercises. Also hamstrings can be developed and strengthened through the use of the leg curlApparatus.
Strong hip flexors provide the advantage of a wide range of sports and sporting activities. In the sprint, high knee lift is associated with increased stride length and therefore great attention has been linked to the exercise of the hip flexors. However, they are generally not against a resistance exercise, and therefore there is unlikely to raise any significant strength.
Hip flexor strength is directly relevant to a range of activities in football. Kicking a ball is aflexed complex coordinated action, the simultaneous extension of hip and knee, the development of a stronger kick requires exercises for these muscle groups. Strong hip flexors can also be very beneficial in combating the situation in American football and both rugby union and rugby league, where a player tries to take further steps forward with an opposing player clinging to his legs.
In addition, those players in American football, rugby, the massively developedQuadriceps and gluteus muscles are often not able to generate rapid knee lift and hence tend to mix around the field. Having stronger flexors significantly improve their mobility.
It is commonly held that marked differences in strength between hip extensors and hip flexors may be a factor in the Achilles tendon injuries in soccer. It is interesting to see if could hip extensor / flexor imbalance speculate also associated with the relatively high incidence of the bar, in conjunctionInjuries.
Other sports where increased iliopsoas strength seems to offer benefits include cycling, rowing, rock climbing, especially when scaling rock faces.
The problem in developing hip flexor strength has been the lack of appropriate exercises. Two that have traditionally been used for this muscle group, tend to sit-ups and hanging leg raises, but in both cases the resistance mainly through their own body weight to the exercise equipment available. As a result of thisExercises only a very limited contribution to the strengthening of the actual flexors.
Until now the only weighted resistance equipment employed for this purpose the multi-hip machine has been processed. When using this multi-function devices for hip flexion, the exercise moves with the leg against a padded roller which swings in an arc. One difficulty with this device is that the position of the hip joint is not fixed and therefore it is difficult to maintain correct form whenWith heavy weights or lifting the thigh above the horizontal.
With the publication of MyoQuip HipneeFlex there is now a machine specifically designed to develop and strengthen the leg flexors too. He also performs hip and knee flexors simultaneously from full extension to full extension. Because the biomechanical efficiency of these joints increases when moving from extension to flexion, the mechanism configured to provide decreasing resistance throughout the exercise movement and thusappropriate loading to both sets of flexors.
The absence of the previously most effective techniques for developing the hip flexors means that we do not really know what benefits flow from their full development. Given the fact that in elite sport comparatively low performance improvements can translate into contest supremacy, it is an area that offers great potential.
