I was featured in the online magazine, Bustle! That just means that I responded to a mass query for insight and they thought it was worthy of their viewership. I'm flattered. The punchline to this article is basically, "Hey! Stretching your tight hip flexors might be a waste of time."
It's a pretty good article, you can read the whole thing here.
Here's the section that cites yours truly:
By doing hip flexor exercises, you can increase the strength in your muscles, which in turn means they’re less likely to get fatigued and contract. “Strengthening may be the most beneficial in the long run,” Graber says. Of course, this doesn’t mean you shouldn’t stretch your hips, but it isn’t your only remedy. “Frankly, most of us have tight and weak hip flexors,” says certified personal trainer Cody Koontz. “If you only stretch your hip flexors without strengthening them, though, you don't give them the capacity to do their job.”
Other Benefits Of Strong Hip Flexors
Besides relieving that tight feeling, strengthening your hip flexors also improves posture — and all things related to it. “By strengthening your hip flexors, you'll get better postural awareness and endurance,” Koontz says. “And once you have a better awareness of your posture and the ability to correct it, the benefits are endless.”
Strengthening your hip flexors is also key for reducing lower back pain, which has the same underlying issue of tight hip flexors. “The muscles of the low back may be compensating for your weak hip flexors, so strengthening your hip flexors would take some strain off of the low back,” says Koontz.
The full article includes some videos of good exercises to develop hip flexor strength (and some less good, in my opinion, but they're all worth trying out just in case!).
The moral of the story here is that sometimes the solution to your movement problem doesn't seem to line up with your experience of that problem. "Tight" leads to "stretch," right? Not always, but that's why it's always a good idea to see a physical therapist or other health professional who can help you get to the root of your pain. It'll save you so much time! Do you have hip flexor tightness related to weakness? Let me know and we can work on building a program to keep you progressing pain-free!