HardyWeinberg

I seem to have messed up hip flexor(s) on my lefthand side. No change in daily riding or sitting, only real change was 8 hours of airplane time over TG weekend. I tried some usual lower back upper leg stretching, and after a week of that, today, the muscles hurt while riding, which they hadn't before.

Any advice? Other than 'go see a professional'?

Carbonfiberboy 

Chances are it's not muscular but rather a soft tissue injury. I had something similar happen, just on one side, that took 6 months to heal. Baby it, don't do anything that "hurts". Discomfort OK, pain not OK. I wrapped mine with a long length of 4" ace bandage, sort of figure 8 around the thigh and waist to provide a bit of upward pull. It felt good.

HardyWeinberg

You could be right there is additional soreness beyond just tight muscle stuff. I will continue to pay more attention to it.

joejack951

I have resolved several bouts of sore hip flexors over the years by doing simple legs lifts while lying on my side. 3 sets of 20-25, adding weights if I manage to stick with the program for more than a week. In my case, it seems the underlying cause has always been a muscle imbalance causing the hip flexors to be pulled tight. No amount of stretching or massage ever helped, but the leg lifts showed nearly immediate results (less pain sitting or running after 2-3 sessions). The first time I had issues I spent a few months sitting uncomfortably (at work or in a car especially, no pain while cycling) and doing a lot of useless stretching. I was incredibly happy and relieved when I read somewhere about doing leg lifts as they were finally an answer to my pain.

berner

Exercise sounds right to me. The first time I had this problem was trying to carry a backpack with about 30 pounds in it and had to abort that outing due to extreme discomfort. The next time was several years later, trying to carry a backpack while wearing heavy insulated winter boots and snow shoes. Ever since I semi-regularly do a variety of exercises, among them, as mentioned, sideways leg lifts with ankle weights and others for related muscle groups. The sideways leg lifts are also very good for my knees which can be troublesome if I skip the exercises too often.

WarrenR

The Mayo clinic web site has a basic stretching routine that includes hip flexor work. Has always worked for me.

work4bike

I don't think it should be a choice between strength training and stretching. You need both, you shouldn't do only one. This guy covers Hip flexors quite frequently and he has many other videos on the subject.

BTW, often we hear when a runner or a cyclists gets injured, it's referred to as an overuse injury; however, I tend to think we get injured because of an underuse injury. We use the same muscle groups everytime we participate in our activity, but certain other parts just get weaker, causing destructive muscle imbalances.

Carbonfiberboy 

I totally agree with work4bike, but this is a zombie thread from '17.

work4bike

Those zombies get me every time