It is an undeniable fact that whenever we are at work sitting on an office chair we tend to forget that we have a back that needs some rest. We work continuously bending our backs in the shape of a banana. All of this shortens our hip flexors.
Hip flexors are our inner hip muscles that flex when we move our legs forward. Whereas, hip extensors are muscles that open up the hip joint when we shift our legs backward. Whenever you squat or do something that requires shortening those hip flexors, you actually strengthen your back and take care of your lower back muscles.
To have a healthy body posture, It would be best if you increase the range of motion by strengthening your hip extensors. So, here are a few helpful hip extension exercises that you can adapt to your workout quickly, and they will surely give you good results in no time.
Quad Extension Exercise
All you have to do is keep the back as flat as possible, next stick your leg back out, lift it, hold it for about two seconds and then come back down. Your lower back will be tight when you do this. You will feel stress and a burn on your lower back, that pain is your body strengthening itself. Repeat the exercise.
These are therapeutic exercises. These are not the ones that you want to incorporate into your workout to gain mass. These are the ones that you want to do in a therapeutic sense whenever you have some downtime. They will strengthen your hip extensors and stretch out your hip flexors, which is just an added bonus.
Bridge
You can do it with some weight, or you can do them just with body weight. The first thing you will do is lay flat on your back and have your knees at about a forty-five-degree angle and keep your feet flat on the floor. You are not doing anything crazy, but you are going to be digging your heels in. All you have to do is bring your hips up to where your hip flexors are stretching and then squeeze the glutes at the top.
Remember, you are trying to build that neural connection between your brain and your glutes, so hold for about two to three seconds up top and then hit it again. This is a simple movement you can do when you are not at the office and need a break to work on your lower back or your hip extensors.
Standing Hip Extension
You can do a standing hip extension with either a cable machine or just straight-up body weight. You have to plant one foot down, and slightly bend the other one, and all you need to do is kick that foot back, keeping the other leg straight. If you start feeling a pinch in your lumbar spine when you are doing this, it can be a good indicator.
Repeat the same process for the other side and keep your chest super high but do not lean forward, and you will feel the burn in your glutes a lot more.
With the help of these exercises, you can improve your hip extensors and correct your body posture. Keep in mind, to have a good-looking body first you need to right all the wrongs and a slouched body posture is among the biggest of wrongs. Perform hip extensions correctly and you will be back on track in no time.
