Kneeling Lunge Hip Flexor Contract-Relax (PNF)
Kneeling Lunge Hip Flexor Contract-Relax (PNF)
Muscle Group Stretched: Hip Flexors
Muscle Group Strengthened: Hip Flexors
Type of Stretch: Active Static
Difficulty: All Levels
Suggested Prerequisites: none
Contract-relax style stretching (sometimes also referred to as PNF) is a great way to strengthen-while-you-stretch. This drill focuses on contracting and relaxing our hip flexors while they’re in a stretched position, both helping make them stronger at their end range, and helping you sink deeper into the stretch over time.
How To
Note: there are lots of different variations of doing contract-relax style stretching, varying contraction intensity, duration, etc. This happens to be my preferred method, but feel free to experiment!
Step 1
Start in a kneeling lunge: front knee stacked on top of the front ankle, both hip bones pointing forwards (“square” hips), and torso lifted (shoulders stacked on top of your hips).
If you find balance challenging/awkward: place your hands on something for balance, like a chair or the wall
If your back knee hurts: add some padding under the knee - roll up your yoga mat, fold up a towel or a blanket, or throw a pillow under there. This is actually a pretty common complaint I hear from students, so I wrote a whole blog post on this topic. If you can’t find a solution to keep your knee happy, don’t push through the pain! Opt for a different stretch (like a standing lunge)
Tuck your tailbone down toward the floor (tilting your hip bones up and back slightly, aka posterior pelvic tilt) to ensure you’re getting a good stretch through the front of the back leg’s hip (hip flexors).
Step 2
Keeping your torso lifted and tailbone tucked (we want to keep the hip flexors in the lengthened position), engage the muscles in the front of the back leg’s hip (your hip flexors) by pressing the back knee forwards. You don’t have to press so hard to actually move the knee (in fact we want to keep the knee planted to keep the hip flexors in their stretch), but enough to feel the muscles contracting/engaging.
Hold this contraction for 10 seconds
Step 3
After 10 seconds of squeezing, relax the back leg, and hold your passive stretch. If it feels good, you can try to sink a little lower (just make sure you’re keeping your torso lifted, and you aren’t starting to lean forwards. Hold this passive/relaxed stretch for 20 seconds.
Step 4
Repeat for another 2-3 rounds of contracting for 10 seconds, then relaxing for 20 seconds, and trying to sink deeper.
Modifications
Need to make it easier?
Start in a narrower lunge.
Want to make it harder?
Do your contract-relax in a standing lunge. In a standing lunge our quads need to stay engaged the whole time to prevent our back leg from bending, making this drill more difficult.
Related Content
Flexopedia: Kneeling Lunge
Flexopedia: Kneeling Lunge Quad Contract-Relax (PNF)
Blog Post: Help! My Knee Hurts in a Lunge
Blog Post: Stubbornly Tight Hip Flexors? Quick Test for Femoral Nerve Tension
Blog Post: Hip Flexor Focused Warm Up
