Your hip flexor muscles attach from your femur (the big leg bone) to your you low back, hips and pelvis and are responsible for bringing your knees up towards your chest. These muscles include the iliopsoas (iliacus and psoas) and the rectus femoris (which forms part of your quads).

Overuse of these muscles results strain and anterior hip pain (in front of your hip). The condition can be chronic or acute in nature and results in tearing of the muscle tissue. Tears are graded in severity by the level of tissue damage:

• • Grade I tear: minor, minimal muscle fibres damaged
  • Grade II tear: moderate loss of function, significant muscle fibre damage
  • Grade III tear: severe/complete rupture, difficulty walking

Strain occurs as an overuse injury most likely to affect active individuals who rapidly and explosively lift their knee to their torso and/or repetitively stretch the hip flexors. Lifestyles that involve long periods of sitting can also result in shortening/tightening of the hip flexors and lead to strain with activity.

Often strain occurs because you are doing too much, too soon. Lack of conditioning to specific training regimes, equipment and surfaces, such as hill running, new shoes or changing from track to grass, can place strain on the body as it tries to adapt.

Over pronation (flat feet), rigid arches, decreased foot/ankle mobility and balance as well as leg muscle weakness can all predispose the tissue to compensatory strain.

Initially, the repetitive micro-trauma may not be felt as pain but if one does not rest, heal and adapt, degeneration occurs and the tissue can become 'sick'.

Over-time, a chronic syndrome develops that affects the entire lower kinematic chain from your low back to your foot and ankle. This becomes very challenging to treat and requires a management protocol that focuses not only on the area of pain but on the entire lower kinematic chain as a bio-mechanical unit.

The common anecdote of a car's wheel alignment applies well in this case. The 'imbalanced' wheel takes extra strain with use and eventually will wear out faster than the others. You can replace the wheel, but unless you fix the cause of the problem, the new wheel is still going to wear out. Over time, other parts of the car begin to compensate and take strain and eventually you are left with a complicated syndrome that requires a holistic recovery approach, focusing on the full kinematic chain from the hip to the foot.

Your hip flexor muscles attach from your femur (the big leg bone) to your you low back, hips and pelvis and are responsible for bringing your knees up towards your chest. These muscles include the iliopsoas (iliacus and psoas) and the rectus femoris (which forms part of your quads).

Overuse of these muscles results strain and anterior hip pain (in front of your hip). The condition can be chronic or acute in nature and results in tearing of the muscle tissue. Tears are graded in severity by the level of tissue damage:

• • Grade I tear: minor, minimal muscle fibres damaged
  • Grade II tear: moderate loss of function, significant muscle fibre damage
  • Grade III tear: severe/complete rupture, difficulty walking

Strain occurs as an overuse injury most likely to affect active individuals who rapidly and explosively lift their knee to their torso and/or repetitively stretch the hip flexors. Lifestyles that involve long periods of sitting can also result in shortening/tightening of the hip flexors and lead to strain with activity.

Often strain occurs because you are doing too much, too soon. Lack of conditioning to specific training regimes, equipment and surfaces, such as hill running, new shoes or changing from track to grass, can place strain on the body as it tries to adapt.

Over pronation (flat feet), rigid arches, decreased foot/ankle mobility and balance as well as leg muscle weakness can all predispose the tissue to compensatory strain.

Initially, the repetitive micro-trauma may not be felt as pain but if one does not rest, heal and adapt, degeneration occurs and the tissue can become 'sick'.

Over-time, a chronic syndrome develops that affects the entire lower kinematic chain from your low back to your foot and ankle. This becomes very challenging to treat and requires a management protocol that focuses not only on the area of pain but on the entire lower kinematic chain as a bio-mechanical unit.

The common anecdote of a car's wheel alignment applies well in this case. The 'imbalanced' wheel takes extra strain with use and eventually will wear out faster than the others. You can replace the wheel, but unless you fix the cause of the problem, the new wheel is still going to wear out. Over time, other parts of the car begin to compensate and take strain and eventually you are left with a complicated syndrome that requires a holistic recovery approach, focusing on the full kinematic chain from the hip to the foot.