Your hip flexors are an important muscle group. If they are tight, your spine can become more unstable and painful misaligned and pressure is added to your lower back as your muscles try to realign your spine.

Prolonged sitting is one of the biggest reasons for short hip flexors and they can tighten up if your core muscles are not working well. Tightness of the hip flexors will make your back arch more and put pressure on the spinal joints. It will also inhibit the core muscles of the stomach that support your spine, making it unstable and vulnerable to injury.

Tight hip flexors can result in a lot of pain and discomfort and it can make even the simplest everyday tasks seem like a challenge.

Stretches and exercises that have been designed to relax, lengthen and strengthen your hip flexors will form one important part in helping you help protect your joints and improve your mobility to help prevent injuries from occurring.

Here are a few exercises and stretches to help loosen up your hip flexors and improve your mobility.

Stretching: Hip Flexor Stretch

1. Lye on your back on your bed
2. Shuffle to the edge so your left leg starts to hang over the side
3. Bend the right leg and lift it so you can take hold of your right knee
4. Bring it up towards you chest as far as you can and let the left leg fall down as far as you can
5. Relax in to this position and old for 30 seconds, repeat 3 times on each side.

Exercise: Pulse Lunges

1. Resume a lunge position and make tiny pulsing movements to activate your hip flexors
2. Repeat for 30 seconds on each leg for three sets
3. Reverse lunges with knee charge
4. Stand with your feet shoulder width apart
5. Take a step backwards with your right foot and lower into a deep lunge position
6. Shift your weight onto your left foot and drive your right knee upwards, until your knee is parallel to the ground
7. Repeat this movement for 3 sets of 10 repetitions on each leg