The Secret Stretch To Help You Stand Taller

“There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man; true nobility is being superior to your former self.”– Ernest Hemingway — “There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man; true nobility is being superior to your former self.”
– Ernest Hemingway

As a modern person, you sit a lot. When you sit, there's a group of muscles in the front of your hips that gets shortened in the sitting position. These are your hip flexors. The longer you sit, the more these muscles shorten.

It's not a commonly discussed issue in fitness, but short hip flexors could be holding you down.

Imagine sitting down, then not being able to unfold your hips out of the sitting position. When you stood up, you would be forced to lean your whole body forward, which would lead to a host of problems. When your hip flexors are short, it's a mild version of that situation.

If you've ever seen the stereotypical nerdy person who walks like they have a heavy backpack on, it's not from years of carrying textbooks, its probably because their hip flexors are forcing them forward (I was that guy in high school). Or if you stand up and you feel like your hips stick back and your belly sticks forward, your hips are probably tilted forward while your back arches to put your torso upright (this is called "anterior pelvic tilt").

Over time, having these short hip flexors not only gets in the way of a nice tall posture, but could lead to back pain.

Fortunately, the fix is simple: sit less and stretch more. To stretch your hip flexors, you need to move the front of your hips opposite to the position you'd be in when you're sitting.

A simple stretch is the lunge:

Stand up with both toes pointed forward.
Step one foot forward.
The back leg is the one that will get stretched. Drive the hip of your back leg forward so that it starts to extend. You will feel the stretch in the front of your hips.
Do it on the other leg.

You can find more hip flexor stretches here.

—Erik Pavia, CEO