In the day following or 2 days following, a long/hard ride, I can find that I have tender/sore hip flexors that can hurt a bit and limit my range of motion due to the muscle soreness (e.g. lifting the leg/knee to put on shoes and socks). I am curious if there are some easy or simple things to test or troubleshoot to see if I can remedy this. I am not expecting to have no muscle soreness at all as I would expect some to be normal. However, if I can reduce this it would be great.
Thanks for any tips or starting points.
I do this 2-5 times a week:
along with some strengthening moves. For example last night after dinner I did 7 way hips, glute bridges, and a few other things. The older I get the more I need to do daily hip work.
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I can feel your pain and so far what has helped me is being consistent with any combo of core, mobility and strength training . I do mobility and foam rolling everyday for the most part at the end of the day. While everyone is watching tv, I’m rolling around on the ground.
What has helped in the long run is finding a good core stabilization workout (like the video above) and doing that a few times a week. I like weightlifting so I’ve been strengthening my glutes, which will take some of the load off the hip flexors when bent over. The few moves I do are lower weight 10-12 rep dumbbell Romanian dead lifts, barbell deadlifts or single leg dead lifts are even better if you can do them properly.
Some stretches I’ve found to help for me are; the 90/90, couch stretch, hamstring stretches and supine scorpions.
I also try to prime my body before each ride or any workout. I take 3-5 minutes doing kind of a yoga routine to activate my muscles in their full range of motion.
It seems like a lot but it’s mostly routine for me now. The biggest thing IMO would be staying consistent with core work and try some mobility/ stretches and see how they make you feel. Hope my little spiel helps.
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I had similar issues on my trainer rides for a while. I realized my saddle had slowly dropped 5cm compared to my road bike.
Hasn’t happened since I fixed it.
BUT - if it doesn’t go away, core stability can help, glute strengthening (As mentioned above) or hip flexor isometrics/strengthening can help while it 's sore (lie on your back, bring you knee up to hip height and bend your knee. Push into your thigh with your hand and resist using leg muscles. 6" hold, couple sets of 10ish). Can also tie an elastic workout band around your feet, tightten your core, and then bring the painful side up to your head.
Hope this helps
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