Hip Flexor Injury Prevention in Cycling

It’s a beautiful sunny day in Indianapolis and you decide to go for a bike ride. You hop on your bike without warming up and make it a couple miles before you start to notice a pain in the front of your hip as it comes up and down and with the pedal. You don’t think much of it and try to push through the ride but the pain seems to be getting worse. You stop and head back wondering what could be happening. 

This is a very common scenario in the triathlon and cycling community. The hip flexors i.e psoas, iliacus, rectus femoris, and sartorius muscles are a powerful muscle group in our body and, in the case of the psoas, connect our low back to our hips. It also happens to be a commonly tightened and agitated muscle group while cycling. While riding we are constantly generating forces from the front of our hip in a flexed position. This is further provoked by the long periods of sitting most find themselves in during the work day. In addition, because the hip flexor connects to our low back, prolonged shortening at the hip flexor can cause low back pain during and after a bike ride. A tight and shortened hip flexor can limit low back and sacro-iliac joint motion causing stress and pain around the back and hips. 

One way we can reduce tension in the hips is to make sure you have the proper fit for your bicycle. A professionally guided bike fit of the bicycle for a rider with hip pain can allow increased comfort and reduce unnecessary movements in the hip that may cause irritation. Conversely, an improper fit can limit the amount of hip flexion available to influence proper position on the bike. This leads to more drag while cycling and increased risk factors associated with hip pain. A proper bike fit must include a professional with knowledge of the musculoskeletal system and its relationship to biomechanics while cycling. 

In addition to a proper bike fit, the logical next step would be to stretch your hip flexors right? While stretching your hip flexor can be beneficial to reduce tension and lengthen the psoas muscle, learning to work your hip flexor independently from your back by using your core can be extremely beneficial to reduce tension in the hips as you bike. Optimal hip flexor function is strongly related to proper activation of abdominal muscles. In fact in an ideal world, we should notice that our abdominal muscles activate slightly before rapid activation of our hip flexors. So to reduce tension in the hips as we bike, the most beneficial exercises and warm ups we can do are associated with this connection between the core and the hip flexors. The following exercises can help reduce tension and keep you cycling without hip or low back issues: 


Seated Hip Raises

  • Start in a seated position

  • Abdominally brace or breath with pressure in your abdomen. If your familiar with yoga this is similar to diaphragm breathing

  • Lift your hip as you maintain this brace

  • Make sure you don’t shift your pelvis as you do this. The goal is move the hip independently from the back


DNS 6 Month Prone Rocking

  • Start on all fours

  • Again, abdominally brace or breath with pressure in your abdomen

  • Rock your whole body forward without bending or extending the low back



Standing Hip Raises

  • Start by standing on both feet, grabbing a band and bringing it to your chest

  • As with the other two, abdominally brace or breath with pressure in your abdomen

  • Next you’re going to balance on one leg and begin raise the opposite leg

  • Keep the leg closer to the band down

  • A progression of this exercises is to rapidly contract your hip in to flexion and then slowly (5 second count) bring the hip down

If you or someone you know has hip pain while cycling it’s time to take care of it! Schedule an appointment with one of our excellent providers at Indy Muscle and Joint Clinic and get back to living a pain-free lifestyle!

Alec Domjan, DC




Works Cited

Tufo A, Desai GJ, Cox WJ. Psoas syndrome: a frequently missed diagnosis. J Am Osteopath Assoc. 2012;112(8):522–528

Konrad A, Močnik R, Titze S, Nakamura M, Tilp M. The Influence of Stretching the Hip Flexor Muscles on Performance Parameters. A Systematic Review with Meta-Analysis. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2021;18(4):1936. Published 2021 Feb 17. doi:10.3390/ijerph18041936

Hodges PW, , Richardson CA, . Contraction of the abdominal muscles associated with movement of the lower limb. Phys Ther. 1997;77:132–142;

Wadsworth DJS, Weinrauch P. THE ROLE of a BIKE FIT in CYCLISTS with HIP PAIN. A CLINICAL COMMENTARY. Int J Sports Phys Ther. 2019;14(3):468-486. doi:10.26603/ijspt20190468

Alec Domjan, DC